Fort Mac of the Mid-west



Wolfe Point, Montana



Seven locomotive engineers have blown their whistle for me so far this trip!!!  They are awesome; the trains are definitely the heartbeat of the mid-west!  The railroad ties are being replaced across Montana, they have had two derailments this year already.  The trains with backhoes on top of the rail cars are dropping the ties beside the tracks and I guess the crews come behind them and replace the existing ties.  The trains are moving steadily with car loads of rock, grain and what ever you can think of, even freightliner trailers.

We are in Devils Lake, North Dakota; we actually stayed in the exact same hotel 5 years ago when we road to Winnipeg to watch volleyball!  It was a very interesting ride today we went through the Fort Mac of the Midwest, it was overwhelming the number of big trucks, bunk houses and crew trucks that we saw.   They had new wells and rigs drilling along the highway and signs on the side roads directing to the different rigs.   The girl in the bar had told us that the oil workers had taken over the hotels in Williston but I never imagined the magnitude of the industry.  There were 20 acre fields filled with travel trailers and fifth wheel trailers that the crews are living in, along with entire camps that probably house at least 1000 guys.  We saw at least 10 of these camps which have all the food services as well.  We had to get gas and it was a line up to the pumps; inside the guys are all buying the yucky food that they sell under the lights.  On the highway it was one big rig after the other, surprisingly the traffic flowed really well and everyone was polite!

We stopped at Rugby which was 100 km from here and they only had one room left, it was smoking!  The GPS came in handy; I searched motels in this town and called ahead for a room.  It took the guessing out of the last few miles.

 

We missed the turn to Towner, ND

We went for dinner and discovered that the liquor laws are very different in this state.  No alcohol in the restaurants and the only bar we found was at the bowling alley, wahoo!  So sad L no martini, they had all the ingredients but he wouldn’t make it!  I would have taught him the technique but he didn’t have a shaker!

635/2627 kms