Turnaround on US 2 - Day 12 - Patterson Lake, Dickinson ND

 I am way way way behind in posting these blogs. I got the photos on and I never got around to finishing all of the dialogue. 

We left Fort Peck, Montana as the smoke was just getting to be way too much. 

We drove down a very scenic road but really couldn't see a lot of things. Once we reached highway 200 the smoke cleared up a little bit.

I was using my inhaler a lot, but also both of us had very itchy eyes and it was not comfortable in the least.

Just after getting out of Glendive Montana, a passing semi flung up rocks ... Danged if we didn't get a huge chip in our windshield!!!

We do carry a windshield repair kit with us. We contacted our insurance agent because we do have an extra glass policy rider on our insurance. They suggested if we could get to a location where Safelite could reach us it's better to let them do a chip repair than for us to put the goop in ourselves. With our policy we don't pay a penny if we opt for the chip repair. If for some reason the entire windshield needs to be changed it's only $500 deductible. Since it was a round circular chip and not spreading in any direction, we decided to just hold on and see how far we could get...  We were basically out in the middle of nowhere.

We crossed into North Dakota later that afternoon.

Now it was time to drive through Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The scenery was absolutely breathtaking!!!!

I know pictures can never do it justice. We tried to see about getting a reservation but couldn't get in. Just driving through was absolutely beautiful.

I think next time we get through this area, we will plan a few days stay at this park.

We'd pass through various areas of oil pumps scattered among the countryside. The strange sunlight coming through the haze really gave things a funny eerie yellow glow. It was almost like a Mad Max movie terrain where everything looks sandy and dirty.

There's actually sunshine on these fields, and some clouds but mostly haze. You can see the bright spots and then the darker spots. I guess maybe it was better that we turned around and kept heading back towards Wisconsin...

After we had driven 235 miles we decided to pull off at a small city run campground near Dickinson North Dakota. It was called Patterson Lake and their rates are $25 a night. But for seniors you get it for only $15.  We really didn't look too closely at the location, just that we were happy to pull into someplace. Like a safe port in the storm.  We had electric and water and a pretty level campsite. We really didn't even check out the shower buildings or the bathrooms. We walked a little bit down to the edge of the lake but came right back because the smoke and the humidity was just too much.

We decided to get some dinner going. Steve was working in the kitchen and I was checking the weather reports. As you can see on the screen, things are still trending warmer and there was a humidity spike. The big storms down south were pushing their way upwards along with the humid hot weather. Ugh!

It was so hot and muggy, we decided to set up the pressure cooker outside. I love taking my instapot along. We tossed in a big pork roast and when that was almost done, we opened it up and tossed in some potatoes and carrots.

The campsite was pretty nice. They were close together to each other but they were separated by rows of lilac bushes. Every time we opened the door, the lilac bushes were full of birds singing. It was a really pleasant effect.

Sooner dinner was ready. When I went out to release the steam on the final session, our neighbors were sitting out by their picnic table. They said it smelled so good they wanted to come over for dinner!

The campsites were long and narrow and backed up against a row of bushes behind where this picnic table on fire pit are. We really didn't go back there so we really didn't look that close and what was behind the bushes.

We went to bed early, and we had the air conditioning running full blast. We didn't know until the middle of the night what was behind those bushes. I guess you're just going to have to watch this video to find out what it was...

Lol!

We traveled 235 miles today

That is 1,357 miles so far 

We fueled up at a cenex for $3.69 a gallon diesel, and we're only averaging 12.71 mph gallon. We were fighting some headwinds and side winds and that made an effect on our fuel mileage