Miles City, Montana

Yesterday was a driving day. We drove about 150 miles from Billings, Montana, to Miles City, Montana. Miles City has a long history that begins around 150 years ago. You can read more about it right here. We'll be driving again tomorrow, but then we'll have a day off while we visit Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park in Mandan, North Dakota. The day's drive should be interesting since we'll route ourselves over The Enchanted Highway prior to reaching our final destination.

As for yesterday's drive, before we left from Billings, I took a picture of the pond behind our campsite. The KOA in Billings was outrageously and dishonestly overpriced. I could easily get off on a rant here, but I'll spare you the details. Just know that the Billings KOA has received a one star rating from me on every campground review site I could think of.

Okay, so moving on from that and brushing off the frustration, we got on our way. Of course we saw a lot of barns along the way. This area between Billings and Miles City is chiefly agricultural and ranching.

Sorry about the power lines in this next one. We get what we get when we're driving down the road.

I regret not getting this next whole structure. I was going for the quilt block, and at least you can see that. 

This was a building belonging to Redland Red Angus. On the side of their building it said Better Bred Red.

On down the road, we stopped at a rest area. There, we read the following signs about some folks who made their mark here. The first was Jedediah Smith.

Also, Robert Meldrum. Both signs had pictures of the men, but they'd been defaced. Someone didn't like these two, apparently.

And finally, the town we were approaching, Hysham.

We saw lots of fields looking just like this one.

Also, we read about the Huntley Project overseen by the United States Bureau of Reclamation. You can read more about it at that link I've given you. In a nutshell, it was a project to turn land that looked like this, with its sage brush and native grasses...

into agricultural land. The image above shows what Montana would look like if left to its own devices. Below, you can see the green fields of an agricultural mecca that feeds much of our nation.

We pulled into the Miles City KOA following this big motorhome towing a Jeep. Their spare tire cover gave me a chuckle.

Also, I made this little video so that you can hear the cicadas in the trees. We used to hear this when we lived in Phoenix almost 50 years ago. We encountered it in Billings, and found the same thing when we arrived in Miles City. Be sure to turn up your volume. The video is short.

The next week will hold a lot more sight-seeing for us, and this seemed like a good opportunity to restock our groceries. We decided to head over to this brew pub for some lunch. (I like this idea of eating a meal out prior to grocery shopping, don't you?) I was hoping to pick up a t-shirt for our son. Whenever we travel, I'm on the lookout for beer t-shirts for him. Unfortunately, they didn't have t-shirts in his size.

On the other hand, the food was great. Mike and I both ordered this barbecued brisket sandwich. It was delicious, and not too much food for a change.

Across the parking lot from the brew pub I noticed this old train depot. I Googled "Miles City train depot," and came up with this information about the Miles City Station.

Wikipedia tells me that it "was a replacement commissioned to be designed by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1922 despite economic downturn that had reduced prosperity in Miles City. The station served Miles City for 50 years." Have I said lately how much I 💖 the internet?

Have I shown my latest slow stitching project yet? This is the first of eight large blocks for the Stitchin' Wisdom quilt by Bird Brain Designs. I'm close to having it finished.

In addition to the eight large blocks, there are four smaller embroidered and pieced blocks. This is the one project I have to work on while we're traveling.

Okay, so I'm using this stop as a place to catch up on my laundry. I haven't forgotten that I still owe you a quilt shop post. Stay tuned. It's coming. Our next five nights will be spent in North Dakota state parks, which are notoriously bad for wi-fi and cell phone reception. Now that I'm caught up on my posts (except for the quilt shop, of course), I'm really hoping I won't fall behind again. Nevertheless, consider this your warning that I might disappear again for a few days.