Glasgow, Montana, United StatesCampbell Lodge
| 534 3rd Ave South, Glasgow, MT, US |
| 1-406-228-9328 |
You would think that I would have slept well in my comfy king size bed in my bedroom in my suite on my last night in North Dakota, but, no, for some reason, I seemed to stay awake a long time, finally going to sleep and awakening to a dark 7 am.
Or at least it seemed dark. I had a lot of stuff to drag back down to the car via the elevator from the 4th floor. After my first trip, I went over to the Little Missouri sister hotel which served breakfast for both the hotels. I don't know about all hotels, but these ones in the Midwest supply a very packaged breakfast. I should be grateful. Today I had an egg - indistinguishable from a pancake - it was about 3 1/2" in diameter; some 4" long sticks which I thought were a potato product which turned out to be maple flavored deep-fat-fried french toast sticks. Yesterday I had had an egg sandwich in an English muffin that was so toasted, it was like sticks, and a Nordic waffle thing that contained a sort of omelet, all with maple flavoring. The OJ and coffee were good ad I took an extra little yogurt for the road. I then went back to my room, packed up the cooler and managed to carry down the cooler, the cooler bag, a biggish duffel with my groceries from yesterday in it, my black tote bag, and my purse with phone.
I got off the wrong floor and had to press the elevator button again. Two women with masks asked if they could get on with me and they were very understanding of my plight. The young woman at the desk was very nice - the one who upgraded me after the lights didn't work - and wished me good travels.
I headed back to Watson City where I rejoined Rt 85 N and then got onto Rt 2 which would take me into Montana. Somehow before I left ND, I saw a sign for the Lewis and Clark Trail Museum in Alexander and took a little detour to find it. I am glad I did. I came to an old school closed in 1967 and converted into a museum. It has three floors of old memorabilia. Just my sort of place. The Hall of Fame room is filled with cabinets for which local families paid $100 to fill with photos and other objects meaningful to them. It was a fascinating collection. They also had "rooms" to represent old a beauty shop, the post office, etc., as well as all kinds of stuff used since pioneer days to the opening of the museum. I overheard a staff person tell someone that this was the last day the museum would be open this year. I was very lucky!
There was also the Novak Building, a big barn with farm equipment and old cars, carriages, sleigh, old trucks. Then there was the Highland Lutheran Church building, a boy scout cabin and a log cabin filled with period furnishings. When I first arrived on the site, a woman called to me and said she ran the cafe and if I wanted a coffee, she would make me one before she ran an errand to a distant town.
I did and she did. As we chatted, she asked me what I did and, when I said I was retired, she asked what I did before. Then I asked her if this was her post-retirement job and it was. She had been a health and phys ed teacher at a college and coached the volleyball team. She was quite willing to talk so we did chat for a while. We agreed that the world is much too selfish these days. She had a theory about covid - first she said she didn't know what to think, then she said she had a theory that it was God's way of controlling the number of people on earth. She said that when animal populations, like coyotes, multiplied too much, they got mange and the weaker ones died off and the remaining population was stronger for it. She was thinking perhaps covid was meant to do this. Hmmm. I guess I agree that people are out of control but I am not sure that disease wiping out the physically weaker and more disadvantaged is necessarily the solution. Anyway, then I thought to add that we people are so populous and we go out of our way to see the remaining bison and other animals - like tigers and elephants, but I didn't specifically mention them - after we have killed them all off so there are so few that they have become a novelty.
She said there were plenty of bison left - they have repopulated after being decimated. I also mentioned that I haven't seen many small animals or birds - and she said they are all there - at dawn and dusk - or are migrating or will appear when they are migrating. I think I struck a nerve. It still strikes me that tourism is big on viewing the remaining animals...and soon there will be fewer and fewer to see. - certainly in the wild. But I do admit that there may be more out there than I will be able to spot. Still, though, we people are definitely a problem for other animal species survival.
After the Museum, I was very close to the Montana border and arrived there about 12:30 or 1 pm maybe. I waited until I got to the Montana Visitor Center in Culbertson before I got gas. I also got some brochures and lots of tips from the visitor center. It was also a memorabilia museum which I checked out briefly while the staff person was on her computer looking things up for me. She gave me some tips on Glacier NP and Labor Day. I should call a number to reserve a day pass to travel the scenic highway. (I tried after I got to the hotel, got a medical alert offer, but the phone dropped its connection once I said no I wasn't over 60 to avoid the scam.) I am not sure what to do about that. She did say that the highway south of the park was just as nice and maybe I could see some bighorn sheep from it. There are a few places open without the pass but most require it, but she wasn't sure about after Labor Day. Today is Friday so I have three days to wait and it might still be crowded. In any case it is only 400 or so miles to Glacier and a couple of Forts and the city of Havre to visit in between - according to her advice. Of course, there would be more, but she didn't go overboard with suggestions. Then I asked about fires, so she looked up a fire map and there seems to be a few openings through Washington/Oregon to get on to Portland from Montana - at least now. She mentioned all the fires in California. I said poor California. She said, "well, they have let themselves in for it by not managing the forests properly." She wished me well on my travels.
From there I pretty much drove through. I stopped in Culbertson at a rest stop with picnic tables to have my lunch and took some photos there. I got off the main route on to a side road a few times to take photos of fields and old buildings.
Eventually I arrived at Glasgow where I found one motel - this Campbell Lodge - which is kind of seedy and has some very seedy characters wandering around - one of whose rooms I inadvertently entered thinking it was mine. I used my key but apparently it was unlocked. I heard dogs. I was very startled and then saw the TV was on and the bed unmade. That clued me into it's possibly not being my room - which was correct. Oh, I forgot the incident when I was adding a quart of oil, and a man stopped to offer gentlemanly assistance. If it had not been broad daylight and a fairly heavily-trafficked highway, I might have been leery with his at least two missing front teeth and offer of help and assertion that he lived just down the road.
But I assured him I was OK and he drove on. I don't think I have that sixth sense: I probably suspect the good guys and trust the bad ones.
After I checked in, I put my stuff in the little refrigerator, organized a little bit and went for a little walk in town and took some photos of the train station and a few businesses. It was very dead - all the stores except the Sport and Cowboy outfitters were closed....but the casinos, bars, Betting Parlors. A lot of these towns I have been passing through have the major services: the big silos and agricultural supplies stores along the highway. The main streets with other businesses seem to be off the main drag. The main buildings tend to be low and metal prefab, some of the other ones are brick and multi-story. It is definitely a different look. I haven't driven around the residential town areas so much but the countryside doesn't really seem to have attractive buildings - functional I guess.
I had one of my cocktail drinks tonight - the blue one. Unfortunately, it is a bit hard to control the pouring from the pouch and I spilled some on a towel and the bathroom sink counter.
I quickly managed to get the towel clean by rinsing in cold water, but when I got to the counter, the blue drink had bleached the surface. I tried to clean it with soap and water, but no dice. I wonder what that drink is doing to my insides. Maybe it was the effects of yesterday's flavor that made me not sleep so well.
I guess it will be another cheese, cracker and olive dinner, but I do have that package of raw veggies to supplement it. Then I will upload my photos from today and maybe have some time to research Glacier National Park. I had to resort to wordpad because TravelArk was locking up.
PS Maybe I remembered what I wanted to add. If this was the night that I bleached the hotel bathroom counter by missing the glass with the blue Bailey's cocktail - the rest of the story is that, after trying to wet or abrade the bleached area, I decided to rub the pit of the green olive I had just finished on the stain - maybe oil lubrication - who knows what the inspiration was - but it worked! After several applications of olive pit residue, I managed to restore the bleached counter to its former look - if not exactly, then well enough not to look different.....Or be charged for the damage. As another post-script, of all the hotels that charged an extra supposedly refundable fee for damage, I don't think I am away of any refunds....at all.
2025-05-23