Escape to the Hi-Line

An article in the NYT discussing the nation’s highest highway … an annual buffalo roundup and arts festival outside the Badlands … an abandoned Air Force base for sale on the US/Canadian border. What’s life like on the hi-line? Where do the buffalo roam? Can we survive 30 days in a tent on America’s northern…

Here we go again

When Eric got the $5/month “we want you back” letter from Sirius XM radio, Sheri said road trip! Escape hot hurricane humidity. Find better weather and check out different landscapes. After a month tenting through the California Desert in April, we sold Roxie (3 years and 20,000 miles in a fifth wheel) and went shopping…

There’s a word that we use that essentially means, “DRATS,” or “OH, Darn,” that is a nod to a funny mishap or an absurd turn of events. We don’t know if we heard it somewhere or if we made it up. But wanting to keep heading North, we looked at the map and jinxed on…

Two thousand miles north of Bradenton, FL, we have finally arrived at the eastern origin of U.S. Route 2 called the Hi-Line. The Hi-Line connects the northern most cities in the continental U.S., including North Dakota and Montana. It more of a journey than a destination. On a seventies day in September, monster thunderstorms flooded…

Maybe all you know about life on the prairie is from listening Garrison Keillor’s long running NPR show, “A Prairie Home Companion.” Some may say it’s one of the strangest things broadcast over-the-air. Honestly, it is an acquired taste, like full fat milk. The Hi-Line runs through Keillor country. Bands of people huddle in towns…

Tenters get the best spots at North Dakota’s Lewis and Clark State Park. Perched on the bluff above Lake Sakakawea, towering buttes and rolling hills on a mixed grass prairie overlook smooth and shimmering slate blue water. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon relaxing among the color changing trees and exploring the private path down…

Montana is different from its North Dakota neighbor. The highway changes from four lanes to two. Pump jacks disappear and big sky opens up overhead. Moving west on US Route 2, we are truly on the Hi-Line where vast expanses of wheat colored fields are peppered with tiny towns of aging silos, Indian Reservations, bar/casino/convenience…

In 1862, Congress opened up the west by “giving away” 160 acres to anyone who could live on it for five years. Driving across the Hi-Line it is obvious that no one in Congress then (or now) has any idea of what they are doing. 160 acres is so little land out on the Hi-Line…

Moving east to west along US HWY 2, Wisconsin is a fun date with the popular crowd. The night is filled with laughter and root beer soda floats. North Dakota, on the other hand, is date you went on as a favor to your best friend. It cannot end soon enough. Montana is a love…

The fog has been thick the past few days. Mornings are wet. A clear, starry, 3am sky turned thick gray at dawn. The tent floor and walls were soaked from the heavy condensation on the fly sagging on the bent tent poles. The zippers are not so zippy anymore and the beds, bedding and bags…

As far as streaming series go, The HBO series Deadwood, which ran just 3 seasons from 2004 to 2006, would easily stream for 9 or 10 seasons today. But in 2005 when the decision was made to axe it, HBO had The Sopranos and The Wire. It was a time when Netflix mailed you a…

A few hundred years ago, there were 50 million buffalo on the American plains. Through a few decades of questionably hard work in the 1800’s, and unquestionably good aim, government sanctioned hunters were able to reduce that number to less than 90. Custer State Park became the last vestige of 30 wild buffalo by 1900,…

No visit to the Black Hills of South Dakota would be complete without a stop at the granddaddy of outdoor sculptures, Mount Rushmore. The great thing about Mount Rushmore is that it is such an “in-your-face” monument. There is no way to avoid its presence as it is approached. Technically, it is a National Memorial,…

The Badlands are exactly what they say they are. Bad Lands. The American desert will punish you for doing nothing wrong. All we wanted to do was pass through and pay our respects. Instead we got walloped. It’s rare that we stay in one place for 4 nights, but the Buffalo called and said they…

We were a grungy hot mess when we walked into the Sunset Grill, but cheery Brianna greeted us with hot coffee like we were regulars. Taking her advice on the off-menu breakfast order of 2 eggs over medium with sausage on Texas toast, we charged our phones and planned the Next Dest that would get…

It all began with an article in the NYT about a legendary road running across the northernmost U.S., a yearning for another encounter with the barren Badlands and a cold-war Air Force Base that we just had to buy to shelter from the coming apocalypse. In thirty days we drove the Hi-Line, passed on the…