Monday, 4 July was Independence Day here in the USA and a public holiday. The camping ground had been quite full of campers getting away for one of the rare long week-ends. We were surprised that the camping ground in Minneapolis did not provide any special activities as had been the case last year when we camped over the same week-end in Waynesboro before travelling into Shenadoah National Park in Virginia. We set off and continued our journey across the Great Plains initially planning to overnight in Fargo but decided to continue on to Bismarck. We drove west through Minnesota into North Dakota. The road is long and straight and In fact talking with Peter's mother later she didn't think we had moved as our SPOT tracker only showed a long line. All along the highway we passed huge areas of grains being grown. North Dakota has some 31,000 farms and ranches and 90% of the land mass of the state is farmed. It was no surprise that 47% of all spring wheat (used for bread flour), 71% of durum wheat (mainly used in pasta), 82% of canola and 95% of flaxseed produced in the USA is grown in North Dakota. It amazes us that land that is covered by at least a foot of snow all winter recovers to be so productive come spring and summer. North Dakota is also a large energy producer. Large quantities of gas (basically equivalent energy supplies to what Saudi Arabia has) were discovered and this played a huge part in helping to stop another Great Recession in 2008 as energy prices tumbled. As we drove along the road there were oil drilling rigs - often just one or two but they were everywhere. We stayed a couple of nights in Bismarck which is thriving city of about 120,000 people. Large towns are few and far between in this part of the US - in this case 200 miles from Fargo to Bismarck and only tiny settlements between. We lunched at Keelboat Park alongside the Missouri River. Paddle steamers once delivered goods and people up and down the river which was a very important method of transport. Today there is only a small replica but unfortunately it was hired out for a private function so no trips were available. We were able to see one of the "Thunderbirds" which are of great spiritual importance to the Navajo people of South West North Dakota. It is made to represent the energy of thunder and lightning and is one of a series of five sculptures in the area. We spent the afternoon in the Heritage Centre in Bismarck which is an excellent museum with a variety of galleries including the Geologic Times, Early Peoples, Yesterday and Today and Governors Gallery. We particularly enjoyed the Native Indian section and also the various farming and living displays over the last one hundred years. Life must have been very tough for the settlers who were offered 160 acres free as long as they settled on the land for five years and made it productive. Sadly many failed. We knew our grandsons would have loved the section on the dinosaurs - dinosaurs wandered these lands once and they had some great bone finds on display. In Bismarck we camped at our favourite camping ground 'Walmart' along with about ten other groups of campers. ( Peter says he now comprehends what Tim Le Roy said about the car parks) We are always amazed at how big some of the rigs are and one of our fellow campers had a twin cab ute, a fifth wheeler camper then also a boat. I wonder how the driver ever backs this rig! Peter had a conversation with the driver asking about licences to drive rigs of this size - the answer just a car licence, wow dumb eh! We have even been overtaken at 60 plus miles an hour by some of them. It was while we were at Bismarck that the news came through of the Dallas shooting of five police officers. However, the average American seems to support the very liberal US gun laws - yes most Walmart stores sell guns and there are even individual gun shops. One night a guy parked beside us in the Walmart carpark in a big bus. He arrived about midnight. We were not impressed as he then turned on his and as Peter described it old single banger generator and ran the noisy thing all night. Pete felt like going into the store and visiting the gun counter! To continue our journey west to Glacier National Park we firstly drove 100 miles north to Williston, North Dakota and then west to Havre finally arriving in Montana. We were then following US 2 which follows in a parallel line to the border with Canada. We made a short stop off the highway when we saw a sign which said "hot springs". It was really surprising too. As we wandered around we were invited to have a personal tour by the owner who was developing some old historic hot springs and he was certainly spending some money. The facility was open all year with the pools indoor with spa, gym etc. It was no wonder there were about twenty campers set up in the adjoining camping area. The winter time is very popular also as the lake behind the pools was the largest ice fishing lake in Montana - we were told while Dad fishes Mum and the kids enjoy the pools! In Havre we had some servicing of the car completed and enjoyed a two night break. Big towns are few and far between but there are lots of small settlements along the way which were established when the railroad was being constructed. Apparently something like 10,000 men worked on the construction and about three miles a day was completed. The railroad still plays a very important part in the economy of the area. The trains are nick named a one miler or a two miler depending on the number of carriages. One we passed had 97 carriages of oil tanks! Certainly saves some trucks on the roads however we do wish the drivers would learn not to blow their whistles so much. In Havre we were just 34 miles south of the Canadian border. We seem to have visited a number of museums on this trip. We are on a dinosaur trail it seems and the remains of a dinosaur now named Elvis were found in Philip County and have been returned to the museum in Malta - a very interesting stop. I have always enjoyed visiting the library and when we travel we make the most of local libraries. In Havre we spent about four hours in the library working on our end of year financials for our Australian business and catching up on business and personal emails etc. We find we are always warmly welcomed and often meet a number of the locals. We certainly appreciated the facilities in Havre and the wonderful fast WIFI. We have found that both telephone and Internet coverage is very intermittent and sometimes very frustrating in this part of the US. Apparently it all depends on which company has the tower and then which companies have paid to have an arrangement for coverage. Obviously the company we are using doesn't pay for much coverage. In the afternoon we visited underground Havre. Back in 1904 there was a large fire in the business area destroying many of the businesses. As the properties had basements (as is the case for the majority of residential and business properties in the area due to winter snow falls) the businesses just moved downstairs. We took a tour of some of these underground businesses which have been retained by the historic society. These businesses operated for about four years but as they were so well set up and used, many continued to be used and operated for about forty years into the 1940's. One of the most popular was the bordello which in it's prime had 27 beds. The set up now shown is the actual room of this business and the numbers in the walls are original and showed how closely each bed was placed - certainly no privacy! It was so good to know that we only had about 200 miles left of our journey west. At our lunch stop we saw this amazing diner - sadly closed now but still well set up inside. We could imagine someone having the vision to re-open this one day. We continued on to Browning, Montana which is a very small town - the home of mainly American Indian people. The township is quite rundown and reminded us somewhat of some of the Aboriginal townships we had seen in Central Australia. We camped at nearby East Glacier for one night before our reservation in Glacier National Park. Shopping at the nearby trading store we noted a sign saying "Indian Days - no alcohol sales". Of course this had us intrigued so we asked about it. Apparently the local Indian tribe, Blackfeet, were having their annual Pow Wow in Browning (which is on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation) and the whole area is alcohol free for the four days. We were told that this ruling came into place eight years ago as the pow wow was being spoilt by the amount of drunkenness and the subsequent police activity. The Pow Wow was open to the public so we went on Saturday night. What a treat this was. We were entertained with traditional dance, costume competitions, flag raising, rodeo including horse racing, horse rally (bare back riding three times around the track and at the end of each round the rider changes horse at speed), bull riding, market stalls etc. It was a really fun evening and we really enjoyed sharing some of the culture of the local people. So now we have finally arrived at our destination - Glacier National Park. This park includes the USA/Canada border and is named Waterford National Park on the Canadian side. We are camping in the national park for a week. Last month (June 2016) some 345,000 people visited the park so we are certainly not going to be here on our own. It is much cooler here and certainly doesn't feel like summer with temperatures in the 60's during the day. It must be very similar to the temperatures at home. More about Glacier next time.