Blue Goose ~ Day 23

June 23, 2014 ~ Lewiston, MT to Missoula, MT

This morning I found Beans 'n Things in downtown Lewiston and sat there a couple of hours, drinking an Americano and later eating a delicious breakfast panini of scrambled eggs, thick crisp bacon and cheese.

I had some errands to do, like getting the oil changed, which was another nice surprise as it took less than 15 minutes. I faxed some insurance papers at the local Albertson's (grocery store), got ice and a few groceries and mailed postcards.

Lewiston (at least based on the past 18 hours) would be on a short list of places I could live. It's surrounded by mountains in the distance, so the feeling is openness and big sky which was a rich blue this morning. The town seems solid, well maintained and prosperous in a non-ostentatious way. There are the requisite businesses and commercial establishments but they don't sprawl far from the city proper, and on this perfectly glorious June morning, it was an attractive, inviting place.

I drove west and slightly north to Great Falls, a busy congested town with Malmstrom Air Force base but also with the impressive Charles Russell Museum. I have been there and was tempted to stop again but didn't want to spend money, which I most surely would have. Like on jewelry or prints or books.

WIDIPEDIA

Malmstrom AFB is one of three US Air Force Bases that maintains and operates theMinuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile...Originally named Great Falls Army Air Base, later Great Falls Air Force Base, the facility was renamed Malmstrom Air Force Base on 1 October 1955 in honor of Colonel Einar Axel Malmstrom (1907–1954). Colonel Malmstrom, shot down on his 58th combat fighter mission in World War II, became the US commander of Luftwaffe Stalag Luft 1 South Compound, at Barth, Germany. After his release and return to active Air Force service, he died in the crash of a T-33 Shooting Star trainer on 21 August 1954 near Great Falls Air Force Base. In the short period of his tenure as vice wing commander, Colonel Malmstrom endeared himself to the local community. Saddened by the loss, the people of Great Falls began a drive to rename the base after him.

Lake Benton NWR is 15 miles north of Great Falls. Suddenly I was up on the high plains again, away from the river valley, and wondering exactly where this refuge was. Google and my refuge book weren't that helpful, but the iPhone came through....again. It really wasn't all that tucked away, but some of the refuges don't have Visitor Centers, and while I saw Benton Lake NWR signs, I wanted to find an auto route in the refuge. I was too impatient because once again I only drove a bit farther and found it, stopping at the entrance kiosk to get information, and then making a brief stop at the VC. I asked a woman about the GS (General Service) status of employees at the refuges and she said everyone "except maintenance" had a GS status, adding "I'm a GS."

WWW.MILITARY.COM

Cracking the GS code.The coding systems used to classify jobs vary by agency, but the most common system is the General Schedule (GS). The GS assigns every job a grade level from 1 to 15, according to the minimum level of education and experience its workers need. Jobs that require no experience or education are graded a GS-1, for example. Jobs that require a bachelor’s degree and no experience are graded a GS-5 or GS-7, depending on an applicant’s academic credentials and an agency’s policies. The table below shows the GS levels for entry-level workers with different amounts of education and little or no work experience.

I wondered if President Obama is GS-15.

The refuge was once a shallow lake and is flat with marshes surrounded by the auto route.

Benton Lake NWR - MT

The coolest sighting here was 100s of Wilson's Phalaropes, one of the few bird species in which the female is more brightly colored than the males. Or maybe the coolest and most unexpected sighting was another good look at a Sprague's Pipit, standing in the road at the far end of the marsh. The mosquitoes were abundant, and I kept opening and closing windows and squashing those that got in the van.

Benton Lake is wetlands and shortgrass prairie habitat. It was / is a shallow leftover glacial lake.

Prairies are classified as Tallgrass, Mixed or Shortgrass and are found in the states in the middle of our country from north to south. The grasses get shorter as one travels west. The states with Mixed Grass prairies are North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and northern Texas. Tallgrass prairies are east of these states covering most of Iowa and Illinois (or did historically) and don't penetrate as far south as Mixed or Shortgrass. Shortgrass prairies are in the west, including most of Montana, the eastern halves of Wyoming, Colorado and Texas. Just in case you wanted to know....

AND if you also want to know what a forb is, as I did, the dictionary says it is a "herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass." I had heard the word "forbs" used by refuge people when they talked about grassland management. Benton Lake seemed not to have a variety of either grasses or forbs compared to the ND refuges, but that is probably due to less rainfall.

I had decided to stay in Lincoln so drove MT 200 west, a spectacular route of mountains, rangeland, an occasional herd of black cows and the thin strip of highway ascending and descending long, long grades, all under what is aptly called the big sky. This was a storm to the north. Seldom is the sky uniformly grey and bleak.

MT 200 between Great Falls and Lewiston

I weakened in Lincoln and had dinner at the Montanan Steak House which I knew from previous visits and had a warm beef salad with corn, red peppers, thin tortilla strips, cheese, tomatoes cut in small cubes, little white beans and tender beef pieces with a crispy grilled exterior, all dressed with a spiced ranch. I ate the whole serving and then had warm pecan pie with vanilla ice cream. Almost every time I order desserts, I wish I hadn't but not tonight. The portion was modest and delicious. So, for anyone traveling through Lincoln who is the least bit hungry, stop for a treat. Plus, Lincoln is a small town with huge Ponderosas all over, espresso drive-throughs and The Three Bears, a cool little motel on the west end of town.

I drove through the city campground ($20 for "wet" camping and $10 for "dry") situated adjacent to a kids' baseball park with a summer's night game in progress but moved on due to some inner, undefined agenda and drove along the lovely Blackfoot River to Missoula - the Blackfoot River of A River Runs Through It fame.

On my map of the refuges, there is a Blackfoot River NWR but I couldn't find any further information, either on the Internet or in refuge guide.

The Walmart parking lot in Missoula had several RVs and I felt surrounded by fellow roadies. The next morning, there was even a small tent on the blacktop. That seemed weird, both since Walmart discourages any "spreading out" and also because who would want to sleep outside in any parking lot?

I watched fireworks from very nearby, all of which were exploding against a large grey cloud backdrop which was still visible as it is still so close to summer solstice with lingering daylight.