St Croix River Road Ramblings

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Thursday, August 13, 2009


Lots of Sunflowers in ND
Margo with a fistfull of winnings at an Indian Casino in Western MN (came out $4.25 ahead!)

Had some wind last night at Lewis and Clark state park on the Missouri-- Garrison dam. Margo saw two falling stars in a brief clear time between lightning and clouds

Having breakfast in Williston, 20 miles from the border of Montana. Plan to get to Glacier on Friday morning and see if we can get a camp site.

Ran into two young men biking from Star Prairie (near Osceola) to Seattle and then to San Diego. They stayed at the campgrounds last night. Their blog is atouringspokesman.weebly.com

Almost ran out of gas this morning. Filled it with 15.37 gallons and the tank holds 15.7 by the manual. The mileage was 27.1 mpg. After the vacuum hose repair yesterday, it idles smoothly, but still kills at low idle when it is cold. Not serious, probably a sensor. In the old days I would have just made a turn on the idle speed control on the carb. Now-a-days I imagine I would find a cam sensor that was bad and lift the motor 1 foot up and replace it for big bucks.

North Dakota has a bumper wheat crop according to the radio. It hasn't been harvested yet, but a few farmers are starting with the winter wheat. The spring wheat is still green. Sunflowers, alfalfa, grass hay, and endless wheat fields.

Near Williston are lots of new oil wells; some pumping and some waiting for better oil prices. They still have fresh paint and freshly leveled gravel pads. Halliburton is big here. My friend George G.'s son works at the oil fields here and says they are using techniques to get lots more oil out of the old wells by pumping in sand and hot water under huge pressures.