This old house is one of the few remaining parts of the ghost town of Trotters, which was one of the Bucket List destinations I finally reached this summer. You aren’t likely to find this house without The Google or a drone, however. It’s visible for an instant as you head up the highway, but it’s easy to miss. I’d surveyed the area from above before heading out here, though, and assessed whether it was accessible once I got there. But there was something I hadn’t counted on.

The weeds on the center of the double-track trail heading back to this building were tall. As such, they did a great job of buffing the bottom of the car!

This is another example. The road here doesn’t technically exist any more, but it’s there…under a blanket of thick weeds, when it isn’t covered by water. The weeds are as high as the hood of my truck, so as I crept down the “road” in first gear (God bless manual transmissions!) they scrubbed the bottom of the truck thoroughly.

I didn’t really think anything of it until I got back from my photo trip and did a quick vehicle inspection. The sway bar in the front was such a shiny black that I thought it was wet from a fluid leak! It wasn’t until I got underneath and checked it out that I realized that the powder coat had been polished from rubbing on a mile or so of thick, hearty North Dakota weeds! That sure was handy!

Thankfully, the areas I visited didn’t have a high fire danger index. In the age of incredibly hot catalytic converters, I am extra mindful of the dangers of allowing those tall weeds to be ignited by prolonged contact with a hot cat. When conditions are favorable for fire, I don’t go anywhere near tall weeds or grasses with my vehicles. Thankfully in these instances I was safe from any chance of that…and I got a free cleaning, to boot!