A Prairie Dog Town

— Posted inOther — 2 min read

August 17, 2023

About 10 miles east of Big Timber, Montana at the Greycliff exit off I-94 is a KOA RV park where we spent the night and just a couple of minutes east of the RV park is Greycliff Prairie Dog Town State Park.

No fancy visitor center, just a road with a loop at the end when to can see those little critters.

They are out there.

Being burrowing animals look for their low earth mounds.

Watch Dog on duty.

A lounge around Dog.

The are called Black Tailed Prairie Dogs. This was only one we saw that had its tail showing and the end of its tail is indeed black.

This one was busy eating.

And here the camera decided to focus on the plants in the foreground and not the Prairie Dog in the background. It’s probably worth a quick off and back on the Interstate if you’ve never seen Prairie Dogs. PS – this KOA is right next to the Interstate highway with a BNSF train track just beyond the highway. Coal trains run 24 hours a day and blow their horns as they pass by the RV Park. The RV Park map states they have ear plugs available in the office if you need them! Usually RV parks are either right next to a busy highway or near train tracks, here you get both of them.

World Museum of Mining Tour – Butte, Montana

— Posted inOther — 2 min read

August 17, 2023

While we were in Butte we took the underground tour at The World Museum of Mining. They explain the name comes from the fact that the miners who worked in the hundreds and hundreds of underground mines during during Butte’s heyday came from all over the world.

Hard hats are required underground.

The head frame of the Orphan Mine.

Instead of going down deep into the mine riding the hoist, here you enter from ground level and walk down a slope to the first level if the mine. (We have ridden the hoist down many hundreds of feet during a mine tour in Michigan a number of years ago.)

Deterioration is evident in the mine.

Our guide demonstrating just how little light the miners had to work under in the early days when light was furnished by only by candles.

We had LED lights on our hard hats. As you can see, my wife was really into everything the guide said.

The mine is filled with water to within 50 feet of this level. So while standing in this cage there is more than 1,000 feet of water below us.

The map gives an idea of the relative size of the Berkley Pit. All in all there is more than 10,000 MILES of tunnels under Butte. Just as fascinating as seeing the remains of the mines are the stories of the “Copper Kings” Marcus Daly, William A. Clark, and F. Augustus Heinze and their battles fought over control of the copper mining industry in and around Butte, which are worth reading about if you are into history.

Back to Blogging – Butte, Montana

— Posted inOther — 2 min read

August 16, 2023

For nearly a year and a half I blogged every day, then suddenly stopped. I was simply burned out. We were not traveling and it was almost the same thing day after day. In early June we started traveling again but for some reason I had no desire to write about all the interesting places we were seeing, but today I got bit by the blogging bug once again. Unfortunately because of my hiatus you missed our travels in west Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and some of Montana.

This is our third time spending time in the historic mining town of Butte and each time has been different. Its history is one of mining cumulating in one of the richest copper deposits found, though now it is just a mammoth hole in the ground, 1 mile long, a half mile wide and over a quarter mile deep. From the viewing stand it is too huge to show it all.

The color of the water looks so inviting, just like a Venus Fly Trap looks to an insect.

Photos don’t due justice to its size. Can you see the building at the edge of the water just in from the left side of the image?

It’s going to take a while to get back into the blogging groove. That’s all for today.

Coating The RV Roof

— Posted inEclectic — 1 min read

It was a long day, but it was worth it.

First was spraying on the cleaner/activator, then pressure washing, next was rinsing it thoroughly. After it was completely dry the first coat was applied. The overhang at the sides took the longest as it required brushing the coating on, the top was done with a roller. Once the first coat was dry, the second coat was applied.

The difference between the roof and the top of the slide is very apparent. Bad weather is in the forecast, so it will be a week or so before the slides are done. They are in much better shape than the roof was, but doing them all now makes sense.