Day 3 – Williston, ND to Havre, MT 🇺🇸

Really wanted to take Tux with us when we left our Airbnb this am.

Airbnb Rules

So. Our Airbnb had a *lot* of rules. Like 10 pages (not making this up) of them. To wit, Page 1: “No locals allowed in the house at all, for any reason, not even for a minute.” Hmmm. Should I be worried about the locals in Williston, ND? Page 10: “You can thank the group of traveling prostitutes from Montana for these rules.” The owner totally left me hanging. I need to know the rest of this story!

Fort Union Trading Post

Headed west after breakfast. Stopped a few miles down the road at the Fort Union Trading Post (thanks for the recommendation, Camille). Fort Union was once the most important fur trading post on the Upper Missouri River. Native American Tribes exchanged furs for things like cloth, guns, blankets, beads. And sometimes smallpox.

Driving Across Montana

You wanna know something? We live in a really big country. Fucken huge. Drove halfway across Montana today. Passed through an abundance of *nothing* for most of the day. I cannot properly convey the nothingness. A small, depressing town would pop up about every 50 miles. Sometimes with a gas station, sometimes without. We filled up whenever we had the opportunity. Running out of gas in northeastern Montana seemed like a really unfun way to spend an afternoon. Every town has at least one church, several casinos, and several bars. Thinking a lot about how far these people have to travel to get decent medical care.

Scorecard: Montana is a new state for me, so Ken and I are now tied at 49 states each. Ken thinks he’s technically still ahead of me because he has spent more cumulative time in Montana. {insert eyeroll here}

Also: Dammit. It’s fucken HOT in northeastern Montana today. Like 95 degrees hot. There will be no hiking for me today.

We’re overnight in Havre, Montana, which comes from the Latin for, middle of fucken nowhere, Montana. Pro tip: If you want to quickly give yourselves away as foreigners, just mispronounce the town’s name. For reference, Havre is pronounced HAVER. Not Hav-RE like Brett Fav-RE.

Highlight of my day: this cowboy, sitting at the bar, unironically wearing cowboy boots, Wranglers, a belt buckle, and a cowboy hat. Love it.

Critter count: 1 bald eagle

Cheers!

Travel date: September 8, 2024