Culbertson, Montana

After leaving Glacier National Park, we drove with the intent to get as close to Malta, Montana as possible. It was raining a bit but then cleared up and pretty soon, we had an incredible corridor of sun. On our left, covering southern Alberta was a huge black storm and on our right was another huge black storm over southern Montana. We had a beautiful little swath of sun! How lucky!! As we got to Chester, we noticed the southern storm was moving our way and then we started to see fork lightening touching down. A little disconcerting when you're out there in the middle of the prairie with not even a bush to hide beside. We decided to dodge the storm and we pulled into the little town of Joplin (pop. 200 when everyone is home) and we found Nancy's Joplin Bar and Grill - the only place in town. Nancy cooked us up some awesome fried chicken and potatoes and we visited with some locals. John brought us up to speed on a lot of the agricultural information on this area. A million square miles of wheat and cattle. We also got the low down on Williston, North Dakota. They found a major oil reservoir and thousands of people are pouring into the town, inflating the cost of everything to outrageous proportions. It's so busy, you have to wait in line to drive through the town. Sometimes, it can take up to 2 hours to get through... we were warned by everyone to avoid it at all costs...
Hmmm....
Of course, our curiosity is killing us.
We'll probably go. :)
Nancy got in touch with someone she knows in a town down the way who texted back that it was good we holed up for the night. Her friend reported they had just gotten over 1/2" of rain in less than 10 minutes and then some hail the size of golf balls!!
We were invited to camp out in their little town park which was gorgeous! A beautiful clean bathroom to boot and it was free!
Today, we drove and drove and drove through more prairie. It sure is beautiful here... we eventually called it quits in this little town of Culbertson. Again, more free camping in a beautiful town park, complete with a bathroom and even power in the washroom! DEEEELUX!
(June 24/25, 2013)
This photo is of the grain elevators in Joplin, Montana...