Part 2 of a special guest post by Ben

The beginning of day two of our trip was heralded in with a cacophony of bird sounds.  Some sort of waterfowl (maybe a loon?), dozens of chattering sparrows and even a woodpecker.  This concert woke me up at about 6:30 and I soon jostled Jack awake so that we could continue our journey.  We didn’t actually spend much time in Miles City, other than getting gasoline.

At this point, Jack started to get pretty confused about where we were, and where we were going.  He saw a casino in Miles City and (knowing that we were planning to stay in a casino that night) he said “is that the casino we’re staying at?”  I told him we had a lot more miles to put under our belt before we were going to tuck in for the night.

The first thing I had planned to visit was a dinosaur museum in Glendive, MT.  However, they didn’t open until 10:00, and it was only 8:00.  I offered to hang out and visit when they opened, but Jack wanted to hit the road.  We DID get to visit “Glendisaurus”, a very silly gigantic triceratops statue.

SO FIERCE

Dinosaur interested slaked, we headed on to our first National Park, the Fort Union Historic Site.  It was not the best leg of the drive, as google sent us on a route that included many miles of horrible rutted dirt road (under construction) that was full of large dump trucks.  I drove very carefully through there – and it was probably the most nervous I was on the trip of getting tire puncture.

Soon we got on decent roads again and arrived at the historic site.  We were amused by the fact that we passed back into Montana momentarily on our way in.

The fort was pretty cool looking with its large white bastion towers and heavy wooden gates.  There was no one to greet us at first, so we just wandered into the large main house, where we finally found the first park ranger.

Passing the gates

She was very nice and immediately started Jack on the junior ranger program.  To his dismay, it required reading and critical thinking.  He complained several times that this program was much harder than the one at the monument, but he was determined to get it done.

As part of the program, we got to visit another ranger in the “Indian Trade House” near the gate.  He was dressed up in period garb and described the process of trading with the native americans.  Jack learned something, and I also learned something!  Jack learned that when making a tanned hide, the brains are taken and smeared all over the back part of the hide, which he found disgusting yet wonderful.  I learned that the practice of referring to the native americans as “Red Skins” may have actually come from one of their cultural practices, instead of the natural bronze color of their skin.  Apparently, the trade post would often trade chinese vermillion pigment, which the native americans would use to make a red skin cream that they would wear in formal situations.

After that, we wrapped up the program by hunting for facts on the interpretive signs spread about the compound.  I was disappointed to learn that this place is a reproduction built in the 1980’s, but also impressed at how worn it had become even after only 35 years or so.  It truly must have been a punishing part of the country to live in back then.

View from the southwest bastion

I fart in your general direction!

Jack acquired a new junior ranger badge and also got a silly little buffalo robe that he could have traded for a different trinket.  Jack is wise beyond his years and knew the true value of his natural resources, so he held onto the souvenir buffalo robe.

After the fort, we headed to Williston, ND to grab lunch.  I was immediately turned off to this town as I saw many horribly austere “Employee Accommodations” on the way into town.  I also saw multiple “Info Wars” bumper stickers, and everyone I saw seemed to be scowling or depressed.  I sent Rachel a text saying that I really didn’t like this town, and I think she rolled her eyes at me – but I don’t have proof.  I’ve since learned that between 2010 and 2014, the town grew by over 60% due to the fracking boom.  That explains a lot, especially since the boom is now headed toward bust.  I really didn’t like the town, but I do hope the people of Williston are able to find a way to equilibrium.

Full of McDonald’s, we headed toward the never ending acreage of farmland leading into Saskatchewan.  We saw another troubled motorist (this time from colorado), however – they also declined any help.  Soon, we were at the Estevan/Noonan border crossing and I was getting very nervous, since I hadn’t crossed an international border in over a decade.

We pulled up, and immediately there was trouble.  Since I didn’t have a “note” from Jack’s co-parent, we had to go into the border facility and wait while they called Rachel.  They were very friendly to us, but apparently they gave Rachel more lip than she prefers.  They were very calm about the whole thing, which was nice – since I was so nervous anyway.  They even gave Jack a pin and an activity book.  We eventually got our stamps and were on our way to fuel up in Estevan.  My first order of business was to get some native currency, which impressed Jack.

Plastic Money?!

Having switched over to kilometers, we made one last lonely leg of the day to arrive at the White Bear First Nation.  We immediately stopped at Ogi’s Chip Stand for some mini golf.  Although the facility was really, really bad – Jack had a wonderful time.  It helped that we were the only ones there and he could be very goofy.  After our round, the owner seemed to be somewhat embarrassed that we had come so far to visit his humble chip stand.  He said “How was it?  I guess I should really get in there and sweep again…”.  I told him that we had a lot of fun, and that I had helped pick up the rocks from the greens, and that seemed to cheer him up.

Next stop, Moose Mountain Provincial Park.  It was later than I expected for getting to the park, so we didn’t do much there.  We went in and drove around the lake a bit looking for Moose, then we took a short hike along a very lush trail.

Very pretty, but the mosquitos were like small dogs

Jack soon tired out, so we headed to the Moose Mountain Inn for some pizza.  Unfortunately, the pizza was a huge disappointment for Jack.  Their idea of pepperoni was more like spicy bologna.  It’s really too bad, since the pizza was otherwise delicious.  If we ever return, we’ll have to try another topping!

We finally headed down the road to our hotel and checked in.  I was forced to recall what cigarette smoke smelled like while checking in to the lobby, but our room was clean, comfortable and odor free.

We were finally in Canada, and Jack realized that New York City was far, far more foreign (but at least they had proper pizza).