We drove 70mph on Highway 200 through rolling hills, flats, bluffs, and thick sage like a carpet as far as we could see. Sometimes the road was gently banked which always feels good. We listened to podcasts, music, snacked, my wife practiced her choral music, and sometimes she napped. I drove, daydreamed, and kept watch for any sudden movement near the road. Initially I was disappointed with the route and a little pissed that my wife even suggested it. I had a different one in mind that included certain sections of road, specific views, with familiar food and coffee stops. Changing plans is difficult sometimes, but my response to her suggestion was ridiculous. Plus, it proved to be a good one. The route saved us time; we learned some geology, paleontology, and saw country we hadn’t in years.
An hour after leaving Glendive, the orange ‘road construction ahead’ signs started to appear. At first the speed limits were reduced periodically for unknown reasons. Maybe they were slowing us down to get us used to what was ahead because eventually we found ourselves stopped at a make-shift traffic light. It was red when we arrived and stayed that way for twenty minutes. Two-way traffic was reduced to one lane, so cars had to alternate. My wife napped soundly during the stop, and I listened to the prairie noise through my open window. Finally, the pilot vehicle arrived followed by five cars passing in the opposite direction. Once they passed, the driver turned around, the light turned green and she led us west through the torn-up asphalt, drop offs, gravel, and soft dirt. Even after our twenty-minute stop, there were only three vehicles in our cue— the pilot vehicle, a pick-up truck pulling a fifth wheel camper, and us. We followed at the rear just outside their dust cloud. After ten miles of a makeshift road, everything abruptly returned to normal. There were dump trucks, excavators, tractors, bulldozers, water trucks, and other escort vehicles gathered where the highway returned to normal.
Eventually we arrived at the Flowing Wells rest stop and took an extended break. After using the bathrooms and chatting with the custodian, we spent time reading the points of interest signs. We learned that the biggest dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurs, Triceratops, forty-foot-long crocodiles, giant lizards, enormous birds, and other swimming reptiles lived in and around a shallow sea right where we stood. When it wasn’t under water dividing the continent in two halves, it was a hot, humid subtropical coastline of marshes, rivers and river deltas with dense vegetation, and grassy plains further west where we were going. Flowing Wells and central Montana were unrecognizable seventy million years ago.
We left the rest stop and settled back-in to the rhythm of the road. Driving at full speed felt especially fluid as we left the Hell Creek Formation and the geologic dome the information sign said we were in. A few hours later as we approached Lewistown, the Little Snowy, the Big Snowy, and the Judith Mountains appeared on the horizon which surprised me because I’d forgotten they were there.
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“The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.“ Carl Sagan
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Songs :: Nature’s Way by Spirit, Heartless by Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Green River by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Desert Skies by The Marshall Tucker Band, I Dream A Highway by Gillian Welch, and Hot Sun by Wilco
Universe Concept Image — Hubble and James Webb Telescopes, Astrophysical Journal Letters :: Hell Creek Dinosaur Image — Wikipedia
© C. Davidson