We woke this morning to heavy cloud cover but no rain. So we packed up and continued our journey north.
Check out those clouds:
Up and down the rolling hills:
Many farms:
Oil and Wheat:
We arrived in Shelby and are staying at the Lewis and Clark RV Park for a night. Here is the park - those clouds continued to hang very low all day:
We needed to take care of a few things and once that was done we went for a little tour. We had been here in May 2007 and September 2007 and the downtown is still very quaint. We stopped at the visitor center for information on US-2 across Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota and had a great chat with the woman in charge.
Here is an interesting tidbit about Shelby:
“1923 World Heavyweight Championship Fight - Dempsey/Gibbons - This legendary 4th of July sporting event dubbed, “The Fight That Won’t Stay Dead!” is often hailed as boxing’s most historical event. It began as a real estate stunt and ended in a spectacular fiasco. The 40,000 seat arena held a mere 8,000 ticket holders before 4,000 ranchers and farmers stormed the gates prior to the opening bell! What a fight they witnessed! The brawl was the only World Heavyweight Boxing Championship Jack Dempsey fought all fifteen rounds to win! Shelby is working diligently to create Champions Park, an outdoor museum commemorating the July 4, 1923 event.”
Shelby is known as America’s Western Crossroads for transportation. The intersection of two of the nation’s busiest highways (I-15 and US-2) intersects here as well as the East -West and North-South lines of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad.
With all that activity of the cross roads, it is just a very small town.
When we were coming in, we saw this flag alongside the interstate. As we drove around, we found the park with the flag. It is the Veterans Memorial Flag and Park. The flag commemorates the Veterans Memorial Highway (I-15) and the 163rd Infantry Memorial Highway (US-2). This flag flies over 100 feet in the air and represents Shelby’s sacrifice, service and love of country. The neat thing is that you can see this flag on the hill from most of the Shelby area:
The panel on the left are bricks in memory of military loved ones. The panel on the right is a list of donors to the memorial and the flag. This huge flag is replaced yearly.
There is a city park where we stayed in 2007. So we checked that out and may stay there on our way back through.
Tomorrow we are heading to Canada so will be out of cell and internet access until we return (unless we find Wi-Fi)
So stay tuned for our next adventure and enjoy today.
Stats for today:
Miles Traveled: 87 Miles
Routes Traveled:
Montana: 21st Street; Smelter Avenue; 3rd Street, NW; Northwest Bypass; Vaughn Road; I-15; Oilfield Avenue
