Friday July 29, 2011
Since we had such great luck finding people to stay with from the BMW Anonymous book, we decided to find more people to stay with in Glendive, Montana. Glendive is near the border between Montana and North Dakota, and is the largest city in the area, but don't tell the people who live there that we drove through the town almost without noticing. We stayed with a nice couple who own a small farm of about six sections. For those of you know don't know, one section is 640 acres.
Not long after we arrived, the husband took us on a long tour of his property which was great because neither Marc nor myself had ever really been on a farm before. There are many things you learn from being on a farm even for so little time. For instance, did you know one cow will eat 3 whole acres of grass in one month? The couple told us that in order to make good money selling cows you have to own at least 200, and they are in the field eight months out of the year. Do the math and you'll realize how much acreage that requires. As we were driving through the fields, the farmer told us about the difficulties of raising cows. I was taught that feeding corn to cows was horrible, which it is, but if you want to have many cows and not have any of them starve in the winter it is almost a necessity. I am an environmental studies minor, and as a result I have studied a lot about corn production in the United States and the decline of the family farm. While it's good to study articles from the safety of my dorm, it is also important to get out to a real farm and hear a real farmer's stories of selling corn for ethanol and not-so-good pinto beans to Mexico for refrying. I think all city folk should take some time away from their herbal teas and tour a farm. Don't get me wrong: I also love herbal tea.
The next morning we woke up at 5:00am in Glendive on a mission to pass through the Dakotas as fast as possible. Even though we had never been there we suspected the Dakotas were not going to be for us. For the most part we were correct, and here's why:
Highest point in North Dakota: 3,300 feet
Highest point in Oregon: 11,239 feet
Number of Pro-Life Billboards in South Dakota: 25 (and those are only the ones we saw)
Number of Pro-Life Billboards in Oregon: I have never seen one
Largest city in South Dakota: Sioux Falls with 160,000 people
Largest city in Oregon: Portland with 584,000 people
I recognize that every state has its own flavor, but I didn't like the taste of the Dakotas. This photo represents everything we saw while driving through. We saw the sky, grass, road, hay bails...and the occasional eye-rolling billboard. We decided it was best for our readers if we did not include photos of the billboards. We did, however, manage to find the only pretty thing in South Dakota. If you happen to be in that state, Mina Lake just off of highway 12 is a cute little place we camped at when we just couldn't drive anymore. The cost of the campground was a little steep, but the campsite was pretty, and it was warm enough that we could go swimming in a lake for the first time on our trip.
Enjoy the sun,
Amelia
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