Road Trip 2013: Bismarck, ND to Livingston, MT

Tuesday 9/3:  547 miles and camped at Osens RV Park in Livingston, Montana.  I have actually stayed at this park twice before, once in 2009, and again in 2011.

Today turned out to be the exact opposite of yesterday. As much as I disliked I-94 yesterday, today it was a pleasure.  It seems the minute I left Bismarck and headed west, the character of the highway changed.  Because the land west of Bismarck is so rural, there was very little development.  The traffic was light and the views from the road were amazing.  The west is soooo spread out, that everything seems more relaxed, even though everybody was going 75 miles per hour.  I have to say that driving Interstate 94 today was a pleasurable experience.

Since I drove extra miles yesterday, I actually had some spare time today.  Also, I moved into the Mountain Time Zone, so that gave me another hour on the clock, so to speak.  Sooo, I got to stop and catch a few sights.  The first stop was in New Salem, North Dakota.  There is this HUGE statue of a Holstein cow on top of a hill.  I drove by it once years ago, but was too impatient to stop.  Well, this time I did.  The photos tell the story.

A second stop was a unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Roosevelt was an avid outdoorsman and hunter.  The park harbors a large herd of bison.

A lone bull Bison

A section of the interstate I took today, I-94, parallels the Yellowstone River.  The Yellowstone is one of the rivers that the Lewis and Clark Expedition explored in their 1804 to 1806 journey.  That led to another stop on my drive today, a place called Pompeys Pillar.  Pompeys Pillar is the only on site piece of physical evidence of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  William Clark etched his name in the soft rock of the formation.  It is still preserved behind a glass and brass case.  Kind of neat to stand right where he did.  Clark named the formation after Pomp, which was the nickname of Sacagawea's son.

W Clark
July 25, 1806

View of the the Yellowstone River from atop Pomeys Pillar.

Zoey and I ended the day at Osens RV Park in Livingston to 90 degree temperatures.  I love my air conditioner.  :-))

On Wednesday we head for Boise, Idaho.