Fracking and the Night of the Centipedes

Oil well, Stanley ND from bittenandbound.com

God bless North Dakota. The state is most likely the only one in the U.S. operating with a surplus in the state budget - even though there have been tax cuts and increased spending. According to an August 25 NPR story, a $700 million surplus is projected for next year. Currently, North Dakota .enjoyed only 3.6 per cent unemployment in July. And on top of all that, Whiting Petroleum alone intends to drill 400 more wells. All this activity has made North Dakota, the place where the buffalo used to roam, the fourth largest oil producing state in the nation. Well, bully! as Theodore Roosevelt would have said.

All this economic development, however, interfered with my lodging while driving across eastern Montana and North Dakota. There are no rooms to be had in Williston, ND or Minot ND. In fact, I drove from Havre, MT to Rugby, ND to find a room at the Northern Lights Inn. Considering the vintage of the place, the room rate was pretty affordable: $89 plus tax for the night.

Northern Lights Inn, photo: www.tripadvisor.com

Another reason I chose the Northern Lights Inn was because the next closest (decent?) lodging was in Devil's Lake, ND, and that would have meant tacking another hour onto an already a nine hour drive which had been further extended due to some vehicular head light malfunctions. The other choice was driving straight through to Grand Forks, ND which would have made my day's drive twelve and a half hours of driving time alone


Despite the need for a replacement headlamp (which was taken care of in Minot by MBM Auto), I still got to Rugby before nightfall and checked in with Lou at the front desk. Lou couldn't have been more helpful, even loaned me an iron and little ironing board, showed me where to park, pointed out the complimentary breakfast area. I had read reviews of this little inn online at www.tripadvisor.com and most gave a moderate rating. The place was worn yet clean, smelled of some sort of carpet freshener (which I think is manufactured by some hotel supply house, and I'm also quite sure its use is compulsory no matter if it's the Ritz or the Settle Inn).  The bathroom fixtures were vintage 70s olive green with coordinating linoleum and counter top. The carpet showed cigarette burns and swaths in the nap from the last vacuuming. The window that actually opened. I unpacked, repacked, and went out for an ice cream cone at the DQ I spotted right across Hwy 2.

Rugby is a pleasant little town, the geographic center of North America. That's something on which the town capitalizes, the giant marker at the corner of Highways 2 and 3, right across from The Hub, a cafe and souvenir shop. Downtown is still quaint. The grocery store closes at 8 or 9 o'clock, the teenage girls at Dairy Queen weren't quite sure, but I could make it if I went right then. The grocery store even had Greek yogurt. Mature trees line the streets. There is a paved walking trail along the highway out to the golf course.

I returned to the NLI, updated this blog, organized by things for the next day, and turned out the light. Just as I was snuggling down, I decided that I would like an extra blanket, and turned on the light. Looked down to put on my flops. And saw what looked like a reddish-brown earth worm. With lots of legs. Legs that were very busy. Then I saw another one squeezing out from under the baseboard of the wall between the bathroom and the bedroom area. With a sigh, I went to get a tissue to scoop them up and give them a burial at toilet, flipped on the light in the bathroom and saw three more. When I turned around and looked at the the room, I saw several more scattered across the carpet. I phoned the front desk.

"Uh, hi, Lou this is Room 113," I said.
"Yes?"
"Yeah, there are about a dozen centipedes in here."
"Oh, dear ..."
"Could you move me to another room?" Pause. "Or maybe move them to another room?"
"I would, but I just don't have anything else. The oil boom, you know."
I watched a centipede make its way up the wall by the bed.
She continued. "I could come down there with some Raid..."
"Hm. Well. You can move me to another room, or I can check out right now and you can refund my money."

Bless her, by the time I pulled on my clothes and stuffed the rest in my duffle and trailed out to my car, she had sent the credit card cancellation through and had  a receipt for me. Now my decision was between driving on to Devil's Lake, where there was still no guarantee of a room, or onto Grand Forks, where there probably was a room but it would be three and a half hours and it was after midnight. I snuggled into my car and slept until 4:30 a.m. when I woke up, went to the local gas station/convenience store, filled the car's tank with gas and my tank with coffee and set out toward Dunseith, where I would turn east and cross the rest of the state.

Sunrise somewhere around Dunseith, ND

In my addled state, I took a wrong turn, thinking that I would be on my generous cousin's doorstep way too early if I continued driving east. Cando, ND is picturesque in the morning. Devil's Lake is not. The North Dakota Highway Patrol officer that flashed his lights at me and handed me a speeding ticket was not particularly attractive, either, but at $45, I got off easy. Grand Forks looked great at 9-ish a.m. and the Settle Inn had cheap rates so I attempted to sleep through the housekeeping staff's vacuuming until it was time to get up, shower and complete my drive.

Moonset, somewhere around Dunseith, ND

An additional note about all this "fracking", as it is called. A recent New York Times article (online 9/3/10) referred to how fracking makes drinking water "nice and flammable." Suits against various oil companies have been filed by individuals in the northeast alleging that the chemicals used to help extract natural gas from shale as well as natural gas itself, are contaminating wells, lakes and groundwater.  The times article goes on to say that Exxon Mobil recently paid $40 billion (that's with a 'b') to a company that specializes in extracting natural gas from shale. The Department of Energy estimates that more that 20 percent of the U.S. oil supply will be from fracking by 2020. No, we are certainly not weaning ourselves off of oil.

If Exxon Mobil spent a fraction of that $40 billion on research and development for other fuel sources and alternative energies, there might be some movement. But as long as big oil refuses to let go of their greed and not see the bigger picture, we can all count on signs warning us to keep our water pitchers clear of open flame.


Next, hometown.