August 12-20, 2007

Sunday, August 12 - We drove from Belle Fourche directly north into North Dakota then turned east on the Interstate to Bismarck. We parked at a nice KOA just 1 mile off the interstate.

Monday, August 13 – We drove north to Washburn, ND, to visit the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. It was OK, but not as great as the one we visited in Great Falls, MT! Then we went to the nearby rebuilt Fort Mandan. They have recreated the camp that Lewis and Clark made that first winter with the Indians. Unfortunately, the original site is now under water as are the original Indian villages that they traded with and visited and partied with. But a volunteer takes you to the Fort and gives a nice talk that gives lots of good personal information about the everyday life of the Corps of Discovery during that winter. (If anyone has not read or listened to Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage I can’t recommend it highly enough!)

Tuesday, August 14 – My mail arrived yesterday so this was a work day. Mark took the Jeep to have some warranty work done on it. We went to see the movie Hairspray with John Travolta and, more importantly, Troy Bolton…oops, Zac Eafron. We REALLY enjoyed it. I even laughed out loud!

Wednesday, August 15 – WOW, what a day! We left early to go north again to take a tour of the Falkirk Mine. The photos and Mark’s captions will give a better story, but this is an open pit lignite mine. Lignite is the least efficient of all the kinds of coal but the power plants in this area are all set up to burn lignite to make electricity and synthetic natural gas (I’ll get to that next…). This entire section of the state is rolling hills with some small steep hills and hay fields EVERYWHERE. However, under those beautiful rolling hills lies a seam of lignite coal that dates back 57 million years ago. The original ground level has been worn away by wind, rain, glaciers, etc. so that this 57 million year old layer is now about 100’ or so below the present ground level. Big D-11 Caterpillar bulldozers scrape the top soil and vegetation from the top of the land. This top soil is trucked to a spot where it is stockpiled for later use. (Each pile of topsoil must be marked with the exact location it was taken from so that it can later be returned to the same place.) These bulldozers also make a flat “bench” from which a HUGE crane uses a drag line to dig out about another 90’ of dirt. This is complicated. The drag line digs out the dirt from the area to be “mined” next and uses that same dirt (NOT the topsoil, just the “overburden” dirt that covers the coal seam) to fill in the huge oblong cavity next to it where the coal has just been mined from. The area being worked just moves along the coal seam this way with the land already worked being “reclaimed” as a new mine is dug. (I’ll get back to this later.) The coal seam is really a long bed of coal that is actually a layer that was laid down from the blowing plant life 57 million years ago and compressed and heated for millions of years. It’s more like a layer of sedimentary rock than it is a “seam” of coal in a mountain, but they call it a seam. After the coal seam is exposed, the big “ripper” on the back of that D-11 Cat is lowered into the coal and rips up the coal about 8’ deep in a checkerboard design. Then a big Caterpillar “wheel loader” takes a 40 ton bite of the ripped up coal and loads it into a 160 ton or a 200 ton hopper truck that drives to the tipple and opens the doors in the bottom and unloads the entire load in about 20 seconds. The lignite coal from this mine then goes through 2 crushers and then into a storage tower. The nearby electric generating station has a conveyor belt that runs directly to it from the storage tower so that they can continuously get the coal they need to power the plant. The coal from this mine is high in sulphur and low in sodium and the coal from the mine a little further south is just the opposite. Since the power plant doesn’t want their coal to be high in either, they get coal from both mines and mix them together to get the right composition for burning in their plant. The mine safety is overseen by a special group that is about 10 times as strict as OSHA.

Back to the filling in of the old mining sites. There are SO many regulations for what the land must be like when they are finished mining it. They must have exact topographic measurements for what the land looked like before they started mining it. After they take out about 15’ to 20’ of coal, of course the land will not be exactly the same height as it was. This is kind of OK. The overburden that has been removed is now “fluffed” since the years and years of compaction have been undone. They fill the land back in and grade it with bulldozers with GPS coordinates set in to get all of the hills back in their proper places. Just running these huge machines over the ground compacts it again but not quite as much as it was. Even after taking about the 15’-20’ of coal, the ground is only about 3’ lower overall than it was but with all of the same contours. Drainage is one of the big worries. Every inch of reclaimed land must have the same drainage pattern as it did before it was disturbed. So now they disc it to get it “uncompacted” and ready to be planted again with hay. The local farmers “rent” the land for exactly what the property taxes are on the land and plant the hay. (The mining company is not allowed to make any profit on the farming part of the reclamation project, so they can ONLY rent the land for the cost of the taxes.) The farmers have to keep meticulous records of crop production using GPS to measure yields in each field for years. After the farmers have had at least 10 years where the average of those 10 years is better than the average crops yields of the surrounding farms (3 of those years must be in the most recent 5 years), then the mine can sell the land. Usually, the same farmer who sold the land does NOT buy it back. Usually, when the farmer sells the land to the mine he retires and gets out of farming. SOMETIMES the farmer will just “rent” the land to the mining company but the mining companies do not like to do that. If they don’t own the land they are not allowed to “mix” the top soils from the different sections of land. They have to be sure that Farmer John gets back his same top soil 15 years from now. That is way to much trouble for the mining companies. The areas around the mine are gorgeous! The hay fields are so pretty and the farmers are farming them just like the untouched lands a few miles away.

We were SO lucky with our tour! Mark got to ride in one of the big 160 ton bottom unloading trucks. Another man on our tour got to ride in the same truck while it was being loaded with coal and driven to the tipple and unloaded. Then, since they were having a special luncheon that day, the crane with the huge drag line actually stopped working for the lunch hour. Usually, they have the trainees come up during the lunch hour to get their learning time while the actual crane operators have lunch. So the crane operators told our tour guide to take us up to the crane and let us look around – NOT in it, just around it.

And when we finished the tour it was only NOON time!

Then we had an appointment for a tour of the Great Plains Synfuels Plant. There is only ONE plant in the US that turns lignite coal into synthetic natural gas and a couple of plants in South Africa. We toured the one in the US. I can’t explain the entire process because it is all a secret, but essentially the plant receives lignite coal from the mines AND electricity from the generating station nearby. They use the electricity to power the equipment and the coal to put into the “gasifier” that turns it into synthetic natural gas PLUS a lot of byproducts. These byproducts are just as important as the synthetic natural gas – anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer, naptha to add to gas, xenon gas, krypton gas, carbon dioxide which is piped to Canada and used to make their oil drilling process more efficient, and a few more. The synthetic natural gas is sent about 35 miles in a pipeline to a natural gas pipeline and then is mixed in with the natural gas and sent to homes and businesses from North Dakota to Texas. After the gasification process is complete, synthetic natural gas is virtually identical to natural gas. It is a great idea. Unfortunately, the group that decided to buy the equipment and build the plant in 1984 only ran it for ONE year before they went bankrupt. The price of natural gas dropped so low that they couldn’t make enough money selling the gas to pay for the process. Since the Dept of Energy had guaranteed the loans for the construction of the plant, they stepped in and ran it for 4 years until a buyer could be found. They lost money too. When the price of natural gas started to go up and the plant was set up to efficiently produce the by-products, it became profitable. They don’t give any figures, but they give the impression that they make plenty of money with the process now. VERY interesting.

Thursday, August 16 - We had to have a special order part installed on the Jeep, so we didn’t leave the campground until early afternoon to drive to Medora, ND. Again, beautiful fields of corn and hay. Then the Badlands would just appear. Then beautiful fields of corn and hay again!

We got to Medora in time to see the Medora Musical which has been playing for 42 years. Before the show we went to, surely one-of-a-kind, a “pitch fork fondue”. They put rib eye steaks and NY Strip steaks on the tines of a real pitch fork and then put them in these huge cauldrons of oil and actually fondue them for 4 minutes. There is a buffet dinner and your choice of steak. It was good and fun! Then as the sun set, the Musical began. There are two LONG escalators that go down into the canyon to the seating area. The stage and seating area were renovated about 10-15 years ago to greatly increase the number of seats and add rest rooms and concession stands down at the seating level. The backdrop for the play is an old town that moves off to either side on a track so that you can see the hills behind the set. They use real horses and a stagecoach on stage. There is a loose story behind all of the singing and it was all fun. The weather was agreeable so that helped since it is all done outside.

Friday, August 17 - The entrance to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is right smack IN downtown Medora. We spent about 3 hours riding around the 37 miles scenic loop that makes the park so easily accessible to everyone. There are plenty of hiking trails, but it’s nice to be able to see the scenery even if you don’t want to take a hike. This is really another area of “Badlands”. They seem to spring up here and there in both South and North Dakota. They were called the “Badlands” because you couldn’t grow anything there and you couldn’t get any food or water if you happened to be lost or stuck there. The photos will give a better story than I can. The basic geology is that the layers of sand, dust, mud, plant life, sand, etc were laid down over millions of years. At some point the lignite coal actually caught fire inside the earth and burned with such intensity that it heated the surrounding rock and turned it into brick-like “scoria”. This rock that had been burned was much harder than the softer sandstone and mudstone so as the other rock was eroded away the harder rock was left. It appears as though all of this rock that was washed and weathered away flowed west and filled in the valleys to make the beautiful fields we passed along the way. In some of the photos you can see the harder layers of rock either on top or in the center of the buttes. Some of it is very picturesque. All of it is interesting.

At 4 PM we went to a one-man play called “Bully” where Teddy Roosevelt talked to us for about 45 minutes of spell-binding acting. He told a lot of stories in the words that Teddy Roosevelt must have used in written letters to friends. It was VERY good.

Saturday, August 18 - We left Medora and headed west into Montana. Again, the fields were just beautiful. Hay is almost all that we saw but, my goodness, did we see a lot of hay. I think in Montana they must not talk about how many people there are per square mile but how many square miles they have per person! We stayed overnight in the Pilot Truck Stop. Noisy, but we are just driving through so it is easier than finding a campground. And they haven’t been any Wal-Marts!!

Sunday, August 19 – We drove Route 2 through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. When we were driving we did not know we were in the Reservation and Mark and I looked at each other and said how much the fields had changed in just short time. No longer were they beautiful fields full of hay with no weeds in sight. Instead, the fields looked unkempt, full of weeds, not harvested. There were a lot more homes than we saw before, but they were trailers with junk yards in front and on both sides! Then we looked on the map and saw that we had entered the Reservation. I guess we should have known when we passed what looked like an old saloon but had a big sign that said CASINO. I’m not discussing any cause and effect here. Just stating facts.

We drove around the south side of Glacier National Park. They were fighting about 6 fires in the area when we drove through and the smoke obscured any view. We could see that they were mountains but could not see any definition to them. The drive was easy without much twisting or climbing. We arrived at West Glacier (obviously on the west side of Glacier National Park) and parked at the KOA Kampground there.

Monday, August 20 – We left early for a tour on the red bus. In the 1930’s the park got red touring buses with fabric tops that roll back to better view the mountains for taking the tourists through the Park. In 1999, after they had about 1,000,000 miles on them, there were questions about the safety of the buses (as well as the brakes and the steering). The owners turned the buses over to Glacial Park, Inc., and Ford Motor Company then donated about $6,000,000 worth of work and parts to put the 33 frames on new chassis, reinforce the bodies, install gas/propane engines and build a climate controlled garage to store them for the winter. After two seasons being rebuilt, they are now back on the road taking tourists through the park again. You CAN drive your own car, but it looked like most people tour in the red bus. There were also a good number of people riding bikes up the mountain and a few motorcycles. That would not have been a problem except that it was 40 degrees, rainy and the wind was blowing 15-50 mph!! Now remember, we have the top rolled back for better viewing!! IT WAS COLD!! There is only one main road through Glacier National Park although there are a few unimproved roads that go a short way into the park from around the park. The mountains and glacial valleys were very interesting. There are only about 6 glaciers left in the park and if you have seen glaciers in Alaska these are not much of a glacier… Some of the peaks rise up 4000’ above the 1000’ deep glacial valley lakes and are really impressive. Glacier National Park gets about 500” of snow each year. But the drifts cover the road to a depth of about 100’. They have signs about 100’ above the road for the bulldozer drivers to use as a guide when they clear the road in the spring! The Visitor Centers must board up completely since they are COMPLETELY covered with snow. If you fly over one in the winter, you can’t even find it. Once the sun came out everything looked MUCH prettier. The gray clouds didn’t do much for the scenery. The tour we took was a 9 ½ hour trip from the west side of the park to the east side and north a bit and then back to the west side. The driver put the top back over for some of the ride but when it was open it was COLD.

Tuesday we are driving to Libby, MT, to get our mail and spend one night. Wednesday morning we will be driving to Spokane, WA, so we can catch a Southwest flight back to Port Aransas for 10 days or so. Then we will fly to New York to watch Siena while Faith and Leon go to a wedding in Holland. Then we will visit Grandma Etta for a couple of days to hear about her trip to Norway and Holland. THEN we will fly back to Spokane and continue our trip.

Photos: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=x2eavjj.3a1tpb4f&x=0&y=-6xv7y3
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=x2eavjj.1irax9vj&x=0&y=yjge8l
http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=x2eavjj.1ns97t0v&x=0&y=7wki78