Day Nine
Havre, MT to Fort Peck, MT
June 17th, 2000
Happy Father's Day!

High Point of the Day....
Low Point of the Day......
Meeting family in Saco
Shouldn't we just eliminate this category?
Miles Traveled Today
Total Miles Traveled
Miles Theresa Drove
Weather
 205
2998 
 2
Cloudy, rainy, sunny
Price of Gas 
(average per gallon)
Wildlife
Night's Lodging
Where this Page was Uploaded
 $1.64
 Cows (up close!), two antelope, deer, bunny
Downstream Campground
Fort Peck, MT
International Airport Inn Lobby
Williston, ND

Daily Narrative    Another very cool day in the state of Montana!  The morning started in Havre (HAV-ver) with Theresa running on one of the two pieces of equipment in the Best Western gym that was adjacent to the Havre RV Park.  The park, while a little short on aesthetics, comes with pool, hot tub, gym and continental breakfast privileges at Best Western for your $15.  Brian used the phone in the lobby to do some uploading and e-mail sending and we were off to visit Brian's Great Great Aunt Pansy in Saco, MT.  Despite the fact that Saco is a town of only 200 folks, Brian still managed to get lost...  After zeroing in on Aunt Pansy's home, we had an awesome lunch of homemade pizza and watermelon, the first home cooked meal we have had in quite a while.  Also showing up to visit over lunch were Brian's second cousin (if we remember right) Darrell, his daughter Robin, and her husband Scott.  Despite all being related to Brian in some fashion or another, these were actually very nice folks and it was very cool to get a chance to meet them.  The second highest point of the day, right behind Aunt Pansy's pizza, was a guided tour of the First Creek Ranch by Brian's cousin Darrell.  He showed us a few of the highlights of his amazing 28,000 acre (if we remember right) ranch.  The ranch is an amazing place, with numerous seed crops, ranging cattle, sandstone outcroppings, indian relics, and a seed processing operation.  As great as the chance to look over the ranch was the incredible education we got about the land and working on it, we both felt like we owed Darrell some tuition money when we were done.  It kept us talking quite a while after we left the First Creek Ranch, until the conversation turned to whether we should drive another two hours into North Dakota (as Brian's instincts suggested) or head south fifteen miles and stay the night next to the world's second largest earthen dam (as Brian's wife suggested).  We will get some pictures of the dam in the morning...


Daily Pictures

 Early morning in Havre
A boarded up Catholic church on a hill outside Harlem, MT that was too impressive looking not to stop at
While the church has obviously been closed for years, the graves next to it are all ornately decorated
The bus in big sky country
Did we mention the road has straightened out quite a bit?
Cousin Darrell and Aunt Pansy
Aunt Pansy, performing a little Pizza magic
The First Creek Ranch Headquarters
The original farm house
Sandstone outcroppings in a field on the ranch
The outcroppings up close, these pillars have been left behind by erosion
Part of the cattle handling operation, where cows are branded, immunized, steered and tested for pregnancy
A smaller mechanism that is used to turn calves on their sides for branding (we can explain how it works in person...)
Theresa was elated to have cows in such close proximity
A flowering cactus
Thanks again for the tour Darrell!



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