July 7, 2007 343 mi.

I had to work until 11:00 am, setting up my printer and enjoying high speed wireless internet at the motel. Once on the road, we immediately crossed the Missouri River into Mandan and entered the West. We rolled across the plains of western North Dakota, surprised at how green the landscape was.

We left I-94 and headed north on US 85 to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park – the “badlands” of North Dakota. The landscape changed dramatically from rolling green hills to canyons of gray and a little red. It was unbelievably hot but we found a fairly shady campsite under a tall cottonwood at the Juniper Campground ($10). We looked forward to a relaxing afternoon of reading and maybe some hiking, but biting flies changed our minds. We endured the heat and the flies for as long as we could, then escaped to the air conditioned car to complete the 14-mile scenic drive to Oxbow Outlook. Near our campground Susie thought she saw bison, so we stopped for a look. Soon a herd of at least 30 bison, including many newborns, moved quickly through the light green sagebrush. We were taking photos when the alpha male appeared next to, then in front of, our car - and stayed there. He was huge! He seemed as bothered by the flies as we had been, so eventually he ambled off. Susie had waited a long time for this moment and wondered if she would ever see them in the wild.

We decided to move on to Montana instead of camping. We headed west on US 2 – the “Hi-Line” – another route featured in Road Trip USA. This is truly Big Sky Country – vast vistas but still surprisingly green. We skirted the huge Fort Peck Indian Reservation, passing through sad little towns filled with identical government houses. Some of the largest buildings were treatment centers featuring signs like “Don’t Meth with Our Kids.” We stayed in one such town – Wolf Point – at the Homestead Motel ($50) and had hamburgers at the Old Town Grill, where we ordered at our table by phone.

About this time, we finished the Nevada Barr book.