RAMANAM
In the Name of The Father, and of The Son and of The Holy Spirit, Amen.
Countrymen.
Today began with my leaving food in the refer at Malta. Not all that I carry, but I hate to waste. About $20 dollars’ worth. I was in a hurry to get going. Not wise. Have established protocol to prevent recurrence.
Road tripping is an art in re deploying and redeploying assets. The process is as follows:
Try to overnight at a facility where one can pull up to the room itself, or use a hotel’s baggage cart (as this evening).
To redeploy, first assemble all items in their containers in a central location, usually the bed. Then dump water from the ice case that has overnighted in the car. Then reload food into the ice case that was deployed to the room the previous night. (Because it is out of sight and therefore first order of business.) Then load the items from the central location. Then double-check the room and REFER for items.
Especially important for the age-impaired. 🙂
Northern Plains scenery, plus my BNSF lady friend, between Malta and just west of Williston, ND.
But approaching Williston, and onwards until well east of it, OIL!!!
A whole new world has been/is being built there and south/southeast from there. It is describable in superlatives only. And according to Bill all in the last 5-6 years!!!!
Basic data: all oil is hauled by truck from the well head to the tank farms by my BNSF lady friend’s tracks. 1M+ BBD are pumped now from the Bakken. An oil truck can haul 200 BBls. 50+ BNSF oil trains leave Williston ALONE for market every day. Do the math, it is mind-boggling.
Farmer *Oly Torgelson* is taking a $5M royalty check every month for doing nothing but letting the companies pump on his land.
The federal land has not been touched, yet!
The old “praying mantis” pumps are still the most efficient, same as in the early 1900s and since. A new vertical hydraulic pump is deployed but not as efficient as the old “mantis” pump. It is being improved all the time. I saw some hydraulics but not many.
There is so much money floating around here, says Bill. Five years ago Williston was a sleepy town. Now it is a city with one purpose. Same for the towns to the south, such as Dickinson and many others. A world is being created.
“Man towns,” same design as those Boogie inhabited in Baghdad, are everywhere, huge. Everyone drives a pickup. There are so many trucks going to well heads on dirt roads that when the highways, such as US 2, are wet with rain, one’s windshield is constantly coated with mud. Take plenty of windshield washer!
Lots of flares — burning off excess gas from earth’s recesses. Bill says currently 80% of the NG from below at the oil well heads is recovered for market but some still gets by in the separation process (I do not have details on that) that occurs at the well head, so that is flared off. But State of ND is demanding that ever more of the non-flared-off NG be recovered for market.
Rain all day today, sometimes serious, usually not. Lovely weather. 47-60 degrees depending on location.
Bill says the McDonalds across the street from this lovely accommodation of his where I am for two nights at least, the McDonalds which just had a three-unit police call, was built last year. I speculated that perhaps the police wanted first in the to-go line.
ND residents rubbed their hands over the oil business. Now are chagrined with what comes with it that they never had: prostitution, drugs, con artists, grifters, cheats and idlers, knifers, killers … the complete underbelly of America.
And the Indians! Good grief what Rakshasas!
There is enough oil on the Blackfoot Reservation to make every Indian there a multi-millionaire, but their demand for all profits and padded employment rolls, plus never keeping word on anything, resolves companies not to work there. So they do not.
The Sioux, on the other hand, farther east at Fort Peck Reservation, let companies produce, but nothing on the reservation changes for the better, everything remains in shambles, down-going, even with millions coming in daily. Where does the money go? And the Fort Peckers claim 25% unemployment US taxpayers have to dole to support. Every Indian on the reservation, by the tribe’s oil revenue statistics, is a multi-millionaire!
They live like dogs, or worse, a living example of the evils of the dole.
Staybridge Suites, where Bill keeps his room lease and I stay for two or three nights, does a lovely job. Best national chain I have seen. I do not own their stock and am not on their payroll. 🙂
Bill’s suite has an actual refer, a stove, a sink, a couch, a king bed, large bath, proper desk/net connectivity, an eating counter and the surfaces are built for the height of moderns. 1940s and 50s people were shorter than we are and so staying in those mom and pop motels is painful when prepping food, showering or cleaning teeth. Bill pays $120 a night on a long-term lease. This place must go for much more than that on a day use. And the windows open, thank God, fresh air.
Jerome says the oil cars are filled straight up so they do not slosh — which for a liquid load causes instability — and have fine brakes and tight couplers, so they are easier to haul than other cars although still walking on eggs given the volatility of the light Bakken oil, which is nearly gasoline right out of the ground.
AMDG – VICTORY