Day 14: Bismarck ND -> Billings MT

Since arriving in Bismarck last night the wind has both tripled in intensity and switch through 180 degrees, such that it very much appears I will have a screaming headwind all four hundred and something miles to Billings.  This in addition to the 80 mph speed limit on I-94 all the way across North Dakota and into Montana plus it being generally uphill all the way means that the POB's petril™ consumption will take a turn for the worse.

And so it proved.  Yesterday: 330 miles with 310 remaining in the tank.  Today 440 miles with 30 left.  Fortunately there's a petril™ station at the end of the road.

Bismarck lies on the Missouri, which is crossed by this rather fine railway bridge:

and this rather dull concrete slab with I-94 on it:

After which it's onto I-94 to its bitter end - it merges with I-90 just outside Billings.  Lots of prairie, mostly, and passing by Salem Sue:

Photo from 2023...

Though like its southern neighbour North Dakota also has Badlands.  Unlike in SD, where they're a National Park, up here I-94 cuts straight through the middle of them.  Like this:

Eventually North Dakota gives way to Montana and the road does a brief downhill thing into the valley of the Yellowstone River, which it follows all the way to Billings.  And one of the first things the traveller notices is a Lewis & Clark Trail sign; on the way back from the Pacific the party split, with Clark following the Yellowstone down to its confluence with the Missouri somewhere over there ////.

Yellowstone River from Hathaway Rest Area, Montana

Not far from Bozeman lies another piece of Lewis & Clarkery, viz. Pompey's Pillar, which looks like this if you get close enough:

Getting that close involved a fair bit of walking chiz, because the gates were firmly locked.  On the other hand, not having to hand over $7.50 pleased the part of my immortal soul that is forever Yorkshire.  "Pompey", you may recall, was the nickname bestowed by Clark on Jean Baptiste "Son of Sacagawea" Charbonneau.  The Man has helpfully installed a flight of stairs round the back, so that halfway up you can see:

Junior Pocket Microscope (model 3a) will reveal the inscription
W Clark
July 25 1806

and amazingly he spelled all the words right too.  Trekking from the entrance to the rock and back took just long enough to allow bigly yuge black clouds to form over Billings.  Touch down, check in, go foraging and only on getting back to the motel do I realise that I've forgotten to buy milk, which means tonight's tea will taste 'orrible because non-dairy creamer muck.  Unless I forego the tea in favour of Run Wild 0.5% IPA.  Which I did remember to buy.