Nomad Life - Day 334

For the first time in many months, I forgot to set my alarm last night and I slept right on through to 0730!  When I realized what I'd done, I frantically started teleworking.  The time zone changes (and reentering the Central Time Zone last night) finally caught up with me, I guess...  I took a break at 0810 to go to breakfast in the bobby of the Little Missouri Inn & Suites (Watford City) and then workout on the stationary (recumbent) bike in the Fitness Center (20 minutes, 4.4 miles).  After that, I returned to teleworking.  Meanwhile, outside, it was very foggy.  Since I needed to be out of my room by noon, I wrapped up my telework at 1150 and went downstairs to checked out of the hotel.  Unfortunately, there was an issue with receipt which, ultimately, was never resolved.  I guess I should be glad that the problem only involved $10 for the cost of the second night - I'll need to be more careful in the future, though...  I was in my car, driving north, at 1200 and was pleased to see that the day had turned sunny and warm (low 70s).  While I hadn't seen the sign the day before, I was not surprised that the Lewis & Clark NHT passed right through Downtown Watford City - they have been nearly everywhere I've gone since I left Minnesota.  I sopped for gas at Circle K at 1205 (prices creeping up) and had to work very hard to clear off my car - there were so many bugs!  After that, I made my way west to US-85 and got on a wide, luxurious four lane highway.  Before long, I switched to ND-200 and started to see lots of evidence for oil fields along the highway.  A bit later, I crossed the Yellowstone River (the first time on this trip) and got on ND-58.  Almost immediately, I crossed the Missouri River and realized I was entering an area where the two rivers joined.  Next, I turned on to ND-1804 and drove west until I entered the State of Montana (the road became MT-327).  This was my 42nd state since departing on the Nomad Life!  Perhaps you are wondering why I was even in this area - I should have mentioned that my goal today was to visit Fort Union National Historical Site.  For some reason, this park is only accessible by car from the Montana side (although it straddles the border with North Dakota).  As a result, I entered the parking lot there and soon (1310) found myself back in Williams County, North Dakota - that's where the Fort was.  There was one older couple leaving the park when I arrived but, otherwise, I was the only guest.  In fact, there were many more Park Rangers than I ever dreamed of seeing in such a place - they outnumbered me nearly 10 to 1!  With all the solitude on the visitor side, I went exploring through the fort and learned a lot about the function and history of the fort.  Like many other places in the area, the park had a connection with Lewis and Clark.  But it was also connected to the management of Native Americans as they were gradually displaced from their land.  Once I finished visiting the fort and a small Native camp nearby, I went walking on the trails nearby.  For some reason, there were a lot of mosquitos - they pestered me all the way to the Missouri River.  I'd brought my binoculars and spotted a pelican on sandbar in the river.  Otherwise, there was very little bird activity.  Back at the parking lot, I was able to walk west to the border of Montana (Roosevelt County).  The birding was a little better there and I found a few historical markers.  All told, I spent almost an hour in the National Park unit before returning to my car.  By this point, it was 1410 (Central Time) but my phone was very confused...  I backtracked to ND-58 and got back on ND-200, which became MT-200 when I drove back into Montana (1330 Mountain Time).  My destination at this point was the town of Sidney and I arrived there at 1345 MT.  Before heading to my hotel, I stopped for lunch at Burger King (ate inside the restaurant).  When I was done with my mid-day meal (1400), I was surprised to return to my car and find it was VERY warm inside.  The temps had only reached the low 70s, the sun seemed blazing hot.  Maybe this sensation is related to how the weather had been so pleasant during the previous week...  I only had to drive a few miles south before I reached my hotel, the Microtel.  The nice desk clerk allowed me to check into my room at the (new, Mountain Time) 1420 and I quickly resumed teleworking.  During this time, Mollie called but I only talked with her briefly.  Otherwise, I stayed online for my job until 1900.  After that, I worked on my travel blog and took care of some finance stuff, including writing to the hotel in Watford City about the hotel cost discrepancy.  (Note that this strategy failed miserably over the next week and I had to give up on trying to recoup the extra costs).  There was time for Thanksgiving stuff - I got so wrapped up in this that I skipped dinner.  However, I didn't want to finish the day in my room.  Instead, at 1930, I left the hotel and drove about a mile into Downtown Sidney.  In addition to evidence of the oil business, ranching and other Western pursuits, there were LOTS of casinos.  I stopped at Meadowlark Brewing Company and bought a flight of (6) beers - all were very good.  Along the way, I met some nice local guys (they call their Thursday Happy Hour "The Liars Club") and I learned a lot about life in eastern Montana.  The tales they told were very enlightening...  With the last of my tasters, I hit 1000 unique beers on my Untapped App!  Even though the sign at the entrance of the bar said they would stay open until 2200, the staff was clearly wanting to close hours before that.  So, after my new friends departed, I hurried through my drinks as fast as I dared.  As I wrapped up my visit, the staff were all ready to close (2015).  With not much else to do, I walked around in the downtown area to get the rest of my steps for the day (I only reached 5K or two miles).  After that, I drove back to my hotel (arrived at 2045).  For the rest of the evening, I worked on more Thanksgiving stuff, revised some more blog entries and did some Duolingo exercises.  Bed time was at 2255 MT.  Today should be my last day in the Central Time Zone for a while...