We left Antelope Creek Campground today and continued northeast on US-191 to Malta, MT where we picked up US-2 and started our long trek straight east. Similar to our road trip in 2019, my lovely co-pilot has reached her limit on switchback roads that climb mountains with no shoulder so we hit pay dirt today when we got on US-2. Although there are some occasional grades, The Great Northern Highway is one long straight road. We stopped for fuel in Culbertson, MT and paid $3.07/gallon. We left the state of Montana at mile marker 667 (that’s one wide state). US-2 follows the Missouri River through eastern Montana to Williston, ND. There were numerous historic markers along the way and as a fan of Lewis & Clark (and Sacajawea) it was difficult not stopping at each marker.
We passed through the southern end of Williston, ND on our way to our campground. Williston is/was an oil boom town. There is a lot of industry here heavily related to the oil industry, railroad industry, and farming. We are camping at Lewis & Clark State Park located on the Missouri River about 20 miles east of Williston. This is a nice campground with large sites and it is fairly empty for a Tuesday just after the Independence Day weekend. Although there are a lot of trees around our site, none of them are very tall and we were able to access the DISH Western Arc satellites from our roof mounted antenna. There is no Wi-Fi in the campground, but our cell phones (Beth’s Visible and my Tracfone) riding the Verizon infrastructure received roughly the same data throughput as our AT&T hotspot (3Mbps/0.2Mbps download/upload speeds).
Lewis & Clark SP – Site #24 
Lewis & Clark SP – Site #24
While we were in the area we went back into Williston for groceries and a meal out. Beth found a highly rated restaurant, Williston Brewing Company, that was right up our alley (and not far from the Albertson’s). We knew we had hit pay dirt when we discovered that the front door handles were old lever action rifles although seeing perfectly good rifles relegated to door handle duty did sadden me a bit. Later we got a second surprise when we learned that the bathroom door handles were 6 shooters.
We saw a sign on the bar advertising their pretzel appetizer on sale all month for $4. When I looked on the menu and found that they usually sell for $16 I had to have one just so I could feel good about saving $12. We had no idea the pretzel would be the hugest one we’d ever seen accompanied by cheese queso. It was delicious and we managed to eat about 2″ a piece. We took the rest home (its take out box was a pizza box if that gives you an idea how huge) and should be finished nibbling on it by the end of the month. Having been slightly disappointed with my previous cheese steak I decided this would be a good place to give it another shot and was very pleased although I think Beth still won the overall “pick the best meal” challenge with yet another delicious burger that came with a homemade spicy barbecue sauce that was quite tasty.
Williston Brewing Company – Door Handles 
Williston Brewing Company – Door Handles 
Williston Brewing Company – Cheese Steak 
Williston Brewing Company – BBQ Burger 
Williston Brewing Company – Pretzel
