Visited Missouri R. and Yellowstone R. Confluence Center, Fort Union and Fort Buford.
Whenever we take an extended trip we can always count on some mechanical issue, no matter what we're driving. It's a tradition, almost something to look forward to and this evening it was a rear wheel bearing.
Thayer managed to take the thing apart but could not repair it without a new part. We spent the night there and then got towed to a garage outside of Watford City, home of Larry and Carla Sorenson. Got the part ordered, bad news is that it would take 5 or 6 days.
Turned out to not be entirely bad news at all, as we got to spend those waiting days making new friends, traveling through the countryside, walking the fields, and learning about this rapidly changing community. Natural gas companies are fracking the oil deposits wherever they can acquire the mineral rights to do so. Crops are cleared from farmers' land within a matter of hours and wells drilled as quickly as possible. There has been a massive influx of people drawn to the area, all looking for the high paying oil field jobs. Farmers are torn between their traditional way of life of caring for and working the land, and large amounts of easy money being offered for drilling, mining gravel and sand, and sites for disposal of waste from the wells. The natural beauty of the land is being stripped away at an astonishing rate. We visited with one couple who bought land about 15 miles from town 5 years ago so they could have some solitude and peace and quiet. In just a few years they now have natural gas drilling going on on two sides of their property and a 3rd is planned for a remaining side. They have LOUD flares (openly burning natural gas and waste fumes, sounding like a jet engine) less than 800 ft. from their home. Besides getting some money they have little else to say about it all, though they have fought it tooth and nail. In addition to the mining operations there is also rapid development of housing, shopping, hotels, and service industries, all stretching this little town to new horizons. I can only imagine how they are coping in the schools with the influx of families.
Your little Rialta is going for a ride. :) Obviously it got fixed ... else wise I wouldn't even be reading his. :)
ReplyDeleteI know we talked about the fracking going on ... it seems that many communities are faced with this dilemma. Hopefully it doesn't come to my area.