Date: 31 July 2001 (Tuesday)

Start: Havre RV Park, Havre MT

End: Prairie Acres RV Park, Williston ND (307 miles)

The temperature was 52f when we got up, and cloudy. There had been periods of rain through the night, mostly light. The rain stopped long enough to let us hook up.

We ate breakfast, unhooked the utilities, hooked up the truck, and departed Havre, eastbound on US-2.

There were clouds most of the day, and some light rain at times. There were also periods of sunshine or partial sunshine. The low pressure area northeast of us was pulling cool air and humidity down from Canada. The wind was out of the north or east all day, not behind us as it was yesterday; consequently, mileage was much poorer today.

The trip was almost uneventful. We saw no animals and nothing of real significance. The only changes were in the terrain. At and east of Glasgow MT, the earth took on a more rolling appearance.

More easily seen was the greener grass, much better than that west of there. It’s very apparent this part of Montana has had more rain than the western part.

We were still paralleling the Great Northern (BNSF) tracks most of the time, so we saw the westbound Empire Builder east of Glasgow.

Here in Williston, the evening news notes that rain here has been a problem for the farmers, because they haven’t been able to get out into the fields to harvest.

The campground proprietor regretted the rain they got last night (flash flood warnings in the area), since it’s keeping him out of the fields. The campground is a little soggy but drying out all right. It’s on a hill west of town, so we pulled in without seeing Williston. Since we happened to be perfectly level when we stopped in the selected site, we elected to leave the truck and trailer connected and stay here. From the campground, we can see the bluffs along the Missouri River across the valley to the south of us.

We fixed an early dinner, since we skipped lunch. Pork chops, noodles, salad, and beer.

We reset all the clocks to Central Daylight Time, since this corner of North Dakota goes with Central time (some of the border counties south of here stay with Mountain time).

That’s about all that can be said for today. Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer as we continue east along US-2.