Wednesday, October 26/2011

Our spot for the night

Upper Missouri River Brakes

Prairie Dog hole

We are crossing into the United States of America today and it is always with a bit of anxiety.  There are so many things that one can not bring across and although this will be our third year living the RV lifestyle, there is still so much to learn.

With the bus in "travel mode" (everything secured), we head towards the border.  Over the last few years the American side has been building new facilities and as we draw closer, it appears that the construction is finished and we will be going through at the new place.  It is a rather large area and now has housing here as well.

The border guard we encountered was young and friendly.  He asked us if we had any "wild" meat with us and we told him we had two packages of moose sausage.  I guess taking wild meat across the border is not allowed unless you have a copy of the shooter's hunting license to show that the meat was shot legally.  Because we only had two packages, he allowed us to keep it!!  (FYI - Marie, eat all the wild meat before your get to the border next year!!)  I did not tell him about the two deer steak in the freezer from Shirley because I was afraid that I just might have to wrestle him for it!!

We asked about the older border guard that had been working the last two years and was told that he had retired.  This guard walked through the bus and chatted with Hogan (who was trying to be his best friend) and never once looked at his doggie passport.  He scanned John's and mine then said have a good trip and off we went.  We were there about ten minutes and most of that time spent was idle chit chat.

We stopped in Malta to fuel up and get propane and of course, beer!! ($19.29 for a 30 pack!!)

We stopped for the night along the highway in a field - it was a hunting access area.  There were several huge holes in the ground and each of them had dirt piled all the way around the entrance.  They looked like mini volcanos!!  Hogan was busy checking out the area and sniffing around these holes which I thought just might be prairie dog holes.  Before too long, several of the creatures came out to check us out and chirp at Hogan.  We have never seen prairie dogs before but they reminded us of gophers only these were gophers on steroids!!  They were huge and not totally impressed with us for invading their space.  Hogan had a riot chasing them back into their holes and John and I sat back and enjoyed the show.

We sat outside the bus basking in the sunshine until it went down and the chill of the evening set it.

I got my arse kicked in yahtzee and I can see that this year looks to be shaping up like last year as far as my yahtzee skills go!!  It is a good thing that I am a good sport!!

We had spaghetti and meatballs for supper then spent the evening watching TV.  

It is warmer here tonight so I don't think we will need any heat in the bus.