8-21-17 ( An 85% Eclipse of the Sun)

We have thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Fort Peck Lake.  Yesterday, we pondered, should we stay or should we go?  We really enjoyed the Interpretive Center, got a lot of great info there, found out they were having an eclipse viewing, which by the way, we weren't interested in when we left home.

Sue, the specialist/manager has been very informative.  Any question we asked, she answered. If she didn't know, she researched.  It was a good place to be to view the eclipse. There were chairs and a canopy set up.  The center provided glasses.  When the eclipse was near it's peak, it got darker, cooler, and the Pelicans flew over to roost. It was a great crowd of people to watch the 85% totality.  As much as we loved this area, it was time to travel on.

We stopped at a busy Walmart in Havre, Montana.  The Walmart's in Montana are few and far between, compared to the South.  We were tired and were going to spend the night in the parking lot, but it was busy and noisy. We decided to move a little further and find a quieter place.

We are tired after only 204 miles of travel, boondocking at Fresno Reservoir, which is located a few miles out of Havre, Montana.   It is a quiet, pretty area.  There is one other camper here, but we haven't seen anybody there. We have another cool spot with a great view of the lake, for another whopping fee, (free)!!  You can't beat this.

Da Pics are here:

8-20-16 - (Day 20 - Another day of almost nothing)

                                                              Good Morning

I, believe it or not, woke up, wandered around the campground, kinda cold in my flip flops and shorts, got some pictures of the sunrise and went back in.   I got a good talking to by Ferny Kat cause I didn't feed her first.  Ferny got fed, Lauren was still in the bed.  Next thing you know, we all woke up about 8 am.

After our long hot shower, we were still wondering, should we stay or should we go. We watched 5 bucks across the way go in the brush. Unbelievable.

We  took a tour on Amber to check out boondocking sites.  The one we wanted was occupied.  We again pondered, should we stay or should we go.??????  It was a stay.  We traveled 9 miles to Flat Lake.  It is another great waterfront campsite at Fort Peck Lake with a covered picnic table, great views, and it's totally free!!

We watched geese, ospreys, golden eagles, and beavers.  As we were watching another beautiful sunset a momma deer and her triplets came out.  It is so peaceful here.


Pictures, click right here:

8-19-17 - (Day 19 - A do nothing kind of day)

We  decided today would  be a rest day.  We woke up to howling wind.  Stayed inside for the morning, then ventured out this afternoon.  It was a goood do nothing kind of day.

The deer were  about as sorry as we were, they were huddled in the valleys hiding from the wind, as we huddled behind the camper hiding from the wind.

We have to pay tomorrow, (AKA gonna pay for another night or not). Should we stay, or should we go?  Will let you know tomorrow!

a few pictures are here:

8-18-17 - (Day 18 - Glasgow, Montana and More Explorations)

Our original plan was to stay at West End Campground for a couple of nights.  We decided being we have such a nice campsite, and still have things to check out, we would stay a few more nights.

We rode to Glasgow to fuel up the truck and stock up on supplies.  Glasgow is a small town.  It took about as long to drive there as it did for us to purchase our goods.

After lunch we went back to the Interpretive Center, to walk the Downstream Nature Trail.  The 2.3 mile trail weaved around several ponds, went along the beautiful Missouri River, through grassy land, and a beautiful grove of cottonwood trees. We saw 5 deer on our walk that weren't very worried about humans in their neighborhood.  We saw a couple of very excited kids catch bream from a fishing pier at the Downstream Campground.

We went by the fishless, fish hatchery.  This is the first fish hatchery that we have ever been to  that the fish tanks were dry.  They were doing some sort of construction work.   We walked around a little bit and viewed the fish mounts in the glass cases.

We stopped at the beach area where several people were enjoying this hot, low humidity, day.

We found the buffalo on Big Horn Road.  Big Horn Road turned into gravel, so we sat on the road taking pictures from afar.

We headed to Duck Creek Recreation.  The asphalt queen turned around again when the road unexpectedly changed from paved to gravel.

We bought a fried chicken dinner at Albertsons today, which covered us for lunch and dinner.  At the dinner table, aka picnic table tonight, I insisted Lauren sit beside me so we would both have a view of the lake.  And what a view, 2 deer were wading in the water as the geese were flying by, then
7 deer were grazing right across the road from us at their dinner table.

Do you remember a couple of days ago, we mentioned the Camp Host yelling to his buddy it was happy hour? Wellllll, today must have been an exceptional happy hour, away from the cg this time. The camp host's car returned, it took the aforementioned buddy and another happy hour buddy, (one under each shoulder) to haul the camp host to his motorhome.

A sunset stroll around the campground, revealed more deer, including a buck.  We must be straight dab in the middle of deer country.

Click for more pics:

8-17-17 (Day 17 - Fort Peck Day)

We planned to get up early and take a picture of the sunrise.  Didn't happen.  Mid morning, we watched several deer across the way,  as we ate breakfast.

We only went a few miles today, but were gone for five hours.  We checked out the marina, several campgrounds, rode across the spillway a few times, and stopped at a lot of overlooks.  A very scenic day.
                            

We stopped at the Interpretive Center & Museum and were pleasantly surprised.  It had all kinds of fossils, wildlife mounts, real life turtles, snakes, toad frogs, salamanders,  fish, honeybees, etc.  It had very detailed information regarding the species living on the land and in the lake.  It also had a lot of history about the construction of Fort Peck Lake.  We viewed numerous Pelecanus, (aka Pelicans), and Comorant's, (aka Water Divers), in the River from the Interpretive Center back door.

We had a picnic lunch with a gorgeous view at the Louis and Clark Overlook, then returned to the Interpretive Center to take a tour of the Power House.  We followed Katy, our guide, from the Interpretive Center to the Power House.  It was a very informative tour.  Afterwards, I realized the energy to flip the light switch on is a lot more complicated than I ever thought about.

Our 3rd stop at the Interpretive Center today was to view the Star Lab.  We crawled our way into a dark, pretty dome lit up with the constellations .  Our guide was very knowledgeable about the Greek Gods and their contributions to the constellation.  We were mind boggled by the information we received, as we crawled back out to the light.

We took a ride a few miles past the lake to the Bad Lands, rode by the Montana Veterans Memorial, and made it back to camp.

It has been a warm, windy day.  We are glad we have electric hookups in this 90 degree weather, Thanks to all that those in the 1930's that worked hard and made sacrifices to provide us with electricity to cool us off on this gorgeous lake.

                                                         
                                                                      Just woke up!!!
Pictures:

8-16-17 (Day 16 - West End Campground, Fort Peck Lake)

                                                                 Foggy start today

I asked Lauren this morning, reckon how far we will go today, he responded, maybe 20 miles or maybe more, whatever we find that we like the looks of.   After about 150 miles we found the spot that we loved the looks of.  We have a campsite on a hill overlooking Fort Peck Lake.  Awesome, gotta stay here at least a couple of days

Ferny Kat decided to throw a few fits on the ride over here today.  At one point as she was raising heck looking out the passenger window of the back seat, Lauren rolled down the window. Usually, she would quieten down, cause she don't like her hair to blow in the wind.  It wasn't a usual day.  She stuck her head out the window like a dog, would do, and got some fresh Montana , I'm looking at the Big Sky, air.  Once we got her head back in, she settled down for the rest of the ride .

We decided it was a chill out kind of day.  We sat around in the shade in the 90'ish degree weather with very low humidity, (which by the way, was another awesome).  We took a long hot shower in the shower house right across the road, fried some fish, and watched a gorgeous sunset.  All the while, Amber sat resting under the shade tree patiently waiting to take us on a tour of the lake tomorrow.

We felt right at home when we talked to a fisherman catching land locked King Salmon and the words "Happy Hour" called out from the camp host site.


More pictures are here:

8-15-17 (Day 15 - Trenton Lake, ND)

It was a great sleeping night last night listening to the rain peppering on the roof top.  We awoke to a cloudy, windy, cool morning, with a muddy road.  It was time to move on.

After 71 country miles, we are at Trenton Lake in North Dakota.  We have electric hookups and non potable water.  After smelling the non potable water, we opted to use our reserve water in the holding tank.

We had never been to a Harley shop in North Dakota. We made a trek to Black Magic Harley Davidson in Williston, ND to buy a tee shirt and a few other items. A very nice place with excellent customer service.

Ferny Kat came out as we grilled our Walmart steak this evening and gave her approval of the campsite.  We watched the boats, skiers, and tubers playing in the water.

The sun finally came out, helping to diminish the gnat population, as we watched the boats load at the boat ramp.


Click for the pics: