Sep 2007

Sunday morning we woke up in the Wal-mart in Devil's lake just fine, well rested and ready to go. Several other RV's (three anyway) had also taken advantage of their hospitality and stayed the night, but this store didn't open until 9 AM, so we were all pretty much gone before they opened.

About an hour later we got to Grand Forks, ND - which is on the border with Minnesota. The visitors center in Grand Forks WAS open, and we were able to pick up several useful brochures (including information about where campgrounds were around Devils Lake!) We also learned about some of the sights in MN on or near Hwy 2 that weren't in our travel books and decided to check them out. We learned that the city name comes from the fork in the rivers between the Red River and the Red Lakes River <<Recheck this!!>> I asked the girl at the counter about the weather in the winter and she said it gets down to 20 degrees below 0 F on a regular basis, maybe warming up to 0 degrees F in between cold spells.

We crossed the Red River into Minnesota and proceeded east.

There is a gradual shift in the landscape between North Dakota and Western Minnesota along Hwy 2, ND is both prairie and farmland, although there are quite a few ponds and lakes along Hwy 2 in eastern North Dakota). As we got into Minnesota, we saw mostly farmland. They grow a lot of sugar beets in this region. I also noticed that the barns along this stretch now seem to be painted (red or more often, white). I suppose that the wetter weather as we head east doesn't allow the farmers to scrimp on paint as much? We also began to see more trees the farther east we headed and more evergreens (vs decideous trees). We went through a number of small towns however, including Solway, MN - population 89!

We pulled off at the visitors center in Bemiji <<recheck spelling>> which was closed, as well as most of the downtown businesses (was this because it was Sunday or because it was after Labor Day?) The town is located by a nice lake and has a grand statue of Babe the Blue Ox and Paul Bunyon by the visitors center.

The gas station was open as well as a gift shop, from which Mom was able to obtain directions to Lake Itasca State Park, about 30 miles away, plus or minus. This is the headwaters of the Mississippi River. There was some dispute about that earlier in the century, but they were finally able to figure out that while a number of creeks and streams feed into the lake, they aren't consolidated into the river that eventually becomes the great Mississippi until they leave this lake. Of course we had to visit this, so this is where we also decided to stay for the night (very expensive for a state park though). Fortunately, our fellow campers were quite friendly.

Mom was pretty tired by the time we got to the 'Headwaters' monument, but was game enough to walk all the way out there (600+ feet each way from the parking lot).

If you ever get the change, it's a cool place to visit - probably the only place along the entire Mississippi River that you can actually walk across it! (I did, bought a button to say so also).

Logistics:

Starting Mileage: 112416, Devils Lake ND
Ending Mileage: 112657, Lake Itasca, MN
Weather: Sunny, 70 F

Trust me - I AM writing Blog Entries (as is Mom), but am having trouble posting them. The only thing that seems to work reliably is wireless internet, which we don't seem to have access to very often...

I am online using the data card tonight (which is working at a slow, dial-up speed), so will try to post this to at least let you know how we are - but the data card rarely lets me post the entry. OK - it seems if I write directly to the blog, I can publish the entry, but if I copy & paste, I can't publish. Now it gets really wierd - if I copy from Outlook, I can't pubish, but if I copy from Word - I can. So much for writing my entries in outlook first (I like that because I could organize my entries by day)! Oh well, at least I can update entries when I only have the data card now, maybe not pictures but at least text.

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We stayed in a nice RV park last night in Minot (it had power, hot showers, laundry and guest room). This morning I took Mom to the SDA church in Minot, then while she was there I got caught up on a few things. After church, she stayed for the pot luck & fellowship. I tried using the data card in the RV again, the signal was good and I could access the travel blog, but I couldn't post any new entries. This has happened a couple of times, so I suspect a security setting somewhere. I can update the blog when I have wireless internet, but not over the data card - even with a good signal. One thing I have learned on this trip is that a data card is not very useful out on the prairie - best to stick with wireless internet and sporadic access (or try satelite, which was a bit pricey for my taste).

After the church pot luck, I decided to head into town a bit because the camp host had said Minot had a really nice visitors center. The visitors center was closed, but it was located in a really nice "Scandinavian Heritage Center". We took lots of pictures:

We also picked up some visitor information outside the (closed) visitors center (I guess most tourists only visit North Dakota before Labor Day?). Mom said they showed a "National Historic District" in Minot called Edgewood. It was a residential area from about 1900 - 1910 with a number of interesting homes from that period. They were not open to the public, but you could drive through the neighborhood.

Finally, she suggested we try the Ward County Museum before we left town as it was in the same area. We had a little trouble spotting it, then noticed it was inside the county fairgrounds. When we got there however, it was closed until next June. The museum itself was contained in a stately old house from 1906, but there were also several pioneer buildings arranged in a village and a number of old tractors and farm implements. As I walked around taking some pictures from outside the fence, a very nice gentlemen named Bob Pederson suggested I could go inside the fence if I wanted. He was there waiting to meet another party who hadn't showed up yet, and was kind enough to point out some of the buildings and even unlocked a couple so I could take better pictures! So I did get some pretty good shots even though it was officially 'closed' for the season!

We finally left Minot about 3 PM and started East on Hwy 2. About an hour east of Minot is the Geographical Center of North America. This is at an intersection right on Hwy 2, so you hardly have to leave the highway to stop by it. Of course, we had to take a picture of ourselves by the marker.

While we were stopped, we noticed another museum behind a few buildings along the frontage road. I almost didn't go there because it was already late and we'd been to so many already, but thought we might as well give it a try.

This is in the town of Rugby and we did indeed see a lot of interesting things (each one has been different). Mom seemed to enjoy this one even more then I did, and went through the exhibits pointing out things she had used as a kid or young woman. I walked into one room and immediately thought of dad's barn - it was chock full of antique sewing machines, old flat irons, old stoves, and other sundry home appliances!

Can you guess what this wooden box is? I couldn't, but Mom knew - it is a washing machine.

Outside was another pioneer village, but this one was more turn of the century than the others I'd seen (they were 1800's). In each one, we see a different slice of American History.

There is one cabin from 1885:

There is a blacksmith shop, but this one had a single engine and pulleys to run tools:

There is a church, built in 1904:

And a Cook wagon, complete with information about how they were used:

There were two homes from about 1900. The white one wasn't open when we were there, but the Norway house next door was fully furnished. Itwas built in 1898 as a middle class dwelling. It had a kitchen inside, but also a separate summer kitchen.

Like many small towns, there is a Creamery:

The saloon (and some unwanted patrons, I'm sure):

And of course, a school (or two schools to be exact):

Finally they had three barns of antique and/or old vehicles. Mom was tired, so headed back to the gift shop while I went through them as quickly as I could. I took several photo's to show Mom later. One barn contained old cars and bicycles, the second old tractors (mostly in good shape and in a series, e.g. Farmall 1927, 1928, 1929, etc.). The third building contained various farm implements - most of which I have no idea what they werer. The exhibits were labeled and I could get some idea from the labels what some of them were used for. Mom might be able to shed some light on some of these from the pictures (I did not try to photograph everything). (I forgot to upload any pictures from the vehicle barns, will have to rethink this...)

After spending far longer than either of us expected at the Rugby museum, we again headed east (I think this was about 5:30 PM). The countryside of North Dakota was different than I expected, not as dry or barren on the eastern side of the state (from Minot). We didn't go through the N.D. Badlands, which are farther east, but the photo's we saw show them as being somewhat green also. We also passed many ponds, which I found somewhat surprising. Many of the ranches or farms had old buildings which had fallen into disrepair. It seems in this part of the country, when a farmstead is abandoned, folks just leave it to mother nature rather then taking the buildings down. Old farm equipment was a frequent sight along the highway, some around abandoned buildings others set up nicely as decorations on new farms or homes.

Late in the afternoon, we got to a town called "Devils Lake". I had seen a writeup on "Fort Totten", which is supposed to be the most intact fort from the cavelry days in ND. I thought it would be a nice way to cap off our trip through ND, but of course we got to the area after closing time, so planned to find a campground and tour it in the morning. We drove and drove and drove and drove - all the way around and through Devils Lake, without finding any campgrounds (I have since learned where there are a few, but as the visitors center in Minot and Devils Lake were closed when we came through, we were not very well provisioned with local maps and campground guides). I have learned since that Devils Lake is ND's largest lake. It is a natural lake (not caused by a dam) and has been rising for the last 12 years - for unkown reasons. Several sections of the road 'around' the lake were actually causeway's 'through' the lake (today anyway). We also passed utility poles that were in the water and an old, abandoned house that was either in the water or almost in the water (water in the front yard and water reeds growning around it).

We did make it to Fort Totten at dusk (closed as we expected), but still couldn't find any campgrounds, so we continued to drive around Devils Lake. This wasn't exactly what I was expecting, it was a brick fort - not a stockade style.

We did see plenty of water fowl and deer. At one point Mom spotted some deer (or antelope, we aren't sure) running away from us through a field. However, they appeared more to be hopping then running - quite a sight. The prairie sunset was very beautiful and I took a couple of shots of it, then noticed that it was also reflected in some of the ponds as we drove by, so tried getting those shots as well. Finally, very tired and about 100 miles later, we got back to the town of Devils Lake where we started. The first time we went through it, I had noticed a Wal-Mart, and knowing you can stay in a Wal-Mart anywhere in the US - decided that was a good enough campsite for us.

Enough of that, I decided Fort Totten wasn't worth the LONG drive back so in the morning we would just head east (Mom had decided this several hours earlier, but I'm a little stubborn sometimes).

Logistics:

Starting Mileage: 112216, Minot ND
Ending Mileage: 112416, Devils Lake ND
Weather: Sunny, mid to upper 60's F
Camped at Devils Lake Wal-mart, ND

Logistics:

Miles Driven -
Weather - Sunny, mid 60's F

Narrative:

Well, it is about 1 AM (Central Time) and I finally updated the blog for 9/7/07 (a week ago) and uploaded the pictures for the 8th. At this rate, I seem to be falling behind faster then I can get caught up. Mom suggested we stop taking pictures (or blogging), but I'd rather just soldier on. I suspect as I get past the learning curve - or start getting high speed internet access more often, I'll be able to sort of keep up?

Thanks to those who have commented on our efforts so far! I will try to start taking more pictures that include one or both of us. I'm also trying to do a better job on keeping the text blogging up to date in the 'placeholder' entries - less stuff I'll have to try to remember once I get around to uploading photos.

Today we only had to drive about 9 miles after we left my sister Penny's until we got to the North Dakota border (it was 90 miles from Penny's to Bismark however).

We also stopped at Fort Yates, ND, where Penny used to work and knows a lot of the people.

The name "Standing Rock" comes from this rock. It is held in reverence by the Sioux. According to Dakota legend, it is the body of a young Indian woman with her child on her back. She was left in camp after refusing to move south with her tribe. When others were sent back to find her, she had turned to stone. They have placed the stone with a view overlooking the Missouri River.

We visited Sitting Bulls grave, which is also in Fort Yates.

As we drove farther north, we saw a sign for Huff historical site. This was an indian town really, with fortifications and about 1,000 people dating to about 1450 AD. All that's left are mounds and depressions, but they're pretty significant.

We passed a ranch that raises Bison, I counted at least a hundred head just with what I could see from the road, but there were more over the hill.

We stopped in Bismark for provisions (Lewis & Clark had to hunt or trade with the indians they met). For the most part, it looked like any other city anywhere - we went to a supermarket for groceries, Lowes to replace the electric heater that died (pioneers would have had to make their own replacements for broken parts), and a drug store to mask the symptoms of a cold I've acquired.

Mom wanted to head east on I94 and get farther east a little faster (we are running a bit behind where we'd like to be), but as I have used the Lewis & Clark Expedition as my inspirition, I couldn' t pass up the opportunity to visit the replica of Fort Mandan, so we headed North intead. We got there just in time to join the last tour of the day (had to skip the visitors center). This is an "A" shaped fort and quite well appointed. Each cabin had a fireplace, they had a blacksmith shop (one ax could be traded to the indians for 8 gallons of corn), and quite a few 'state of the art' instruments for the day.

Front Gate:

Captains Quarters:

Soldiers Quarters:

Blacksmith Shop:

We asked the local folks about the best route east from there (Washburn, ND), and they recommended going on to Minot, then taking Hwy 2 east. We found a nice RV camp in Minot (with Internet) and I paid my bills (I LOVE online banking, bill payment and email), then have been working on the blog. Mom will attend chuch in Minot tomorrow, then we'll head east again - hopefully making it to Minnesota by tomorrow night (but there are a couple more places I want to stop and see along the way in ND)...

Starting Mileage: 111853, Ft Pierre, SD
Ending Mileage: 112002, McLaughlin SD
Weather: Windy, some overcast in AM

If you are wondering where phylisej's entries are, she has been writing - but on paper. We haven't had time to input them yet, but should shortly. In the meantime, I did get her photo's uploaded up to Mt. Rushmore, they just aren't in a blog entry yet. However, you can view any photo’s we upload without having to read through the blog text by clicking on an author. Once you get to that author’s info, I think there is an option for Photo Gallery or Photographs (or something like that). So you can see Mom’s photo’s up to Mt. Rushmore even though they aren’t in a blog entry yet (or mine for that matter).

The camp ground we stayed at in Fort Pierre was the exact same place the Lewis & Clark expedition stayed for five days back in 1803 - pretty cool! It is at the mouth of the Bad River, where it joins the Missouri River that they were traveling up.

We left Fort Pierre, South Dakota and decided to stop at the Visitors Center at Pierre, S.D. the next door city. This is also the State Capital of South Dakota which, with 14,095 people is the second smallest city that is a State Capital in the U.S. (next to Montpelier, VT). The lady at the visitors center was very helpful and gave us a city map, pointing out some things we might want to see. I liked the mailbox however.

We stopped by a nice city park so Mom could collect some sand from the Missouri River for her friend, then drove by the Governor’s Mansion and saw the Capital building across the lake.

Up the hill a bit was the Cultural Center and Museum. We’d been to several good museums already and this one didn’t look very impressive (most of it appeared to be underground), but we were already there so decided to give it a quick look. It turned out to be much more interesting than we expected, so of course we stayed there much longer then we expected (this is starting to seem like the theme of this trip?).

The museum was organized into exhibits by era, from the Native Peoples, through the early Settlers, minors, to turn of the century, to WW1, the Depression, WW2 and through today. Each exhibit had lights and sometimes sounds that turned on when people were detected. At one point there was even a mechanical cow that you could try to milk. A display compared your speed to that of a mechanical milker (I was much slower of course).

Mom was shocked when she finished going through the gift shop to find that she’d spent about $50 on books & such! (Usually I’m the one to overspend at the gift shops, while she buys a few postcards).

When we finally left the museum and again headed north, I was surprised at how quickly the town disappeared and the prairie and vast wheat and sunflower fields reappeared. There were no miles of strip malls or fast food joints on this route out of town, maybe a couple of tractor stores – then just prairie.

And wind – today was quite different then yesterday (which had been hot, dry, and without a wisp of wind). I had to drive below 50 mph the rest of the day to keep the RV under control and poor mom gasped every time a big semi passed us as we got blown around even more. I was a little low on gas and the wind was quite stressful, so I stopped near Blunt, SD to get gas. The station wasn't quite like the one's I'm used to seeing:

They had a cafe there so we decided to stay for lunch. The food wasn't very good, but it was nice to get off the road for a while. After we got back on the road, the wind didn't bother me as much. We kept up our spirits however and played our CD’s and drove on. We often passed ponds (probably dug or dammed by the farmers & ranchers in the area), and in one particularly big pond complex, saw a large number of waterfowl. Of course, they again took off as soon as we tried to pull over, but we got a few pictures off. I did see a large bird in a field once, probably a hawk, but didn’t bother to pull over that time (one of the few we didn’t stop for, did we say the trip would only take 8 months?)

We also stopped in a couple of small towns along the way (population less than 800 each, as have been many along this trip) and took a couple of pictures. A couple of days ago I realized that we had only been taking pictures of wildlife, wildflowers and scenery – but it might be nice to show some of the towns we went through also, so I’ve been trying to remember to do a little of this. I think both of these towns had more grain silo’s then people however.

After several hours of driving, we finally made it to the town Penny lives in, McLaughlin. It is VERY small and has a good section of it’s roads totally torn up to be rebuilt. The directions she gave us to her house weren’t quite up to date (she told us to turn at a shop called the “Dipper”, but the shop is now called the “T-Spoon”). So we had a little trouble finding her place, but since the town is so small we just drove around for awhile and eventually figured it out.

Penny took us on a short (?) tour of the area and showed us some of the places where she works. The town is surrounded by the Standing Rock Reservation and she works in Social Work, so has some very interesting insights and experience working with the Native American population and some of the issues they are dealing with. If she has time, I hope she can add some comments to this entry about some of this.

Mom took advantage of Penny’s small house and took a hot bath tonight. She has already crashed for the evening and I’m about to, but am borrowing her PC to get our blog caught up a bit. (My laptop has wireless internet and cellular data card, neither of which are available here – so again will have to upload the photo’s at the next RV park).

Tomorrow we plan to continue on North to Bismark, then another hour or so NW to a Knife River (Indian museum or cultural center – I’m not sure exactly). After that we’ll head east again, either on I94 or Hwy 2, eventually ending up at Lake Superior, then down to visit my Uncle Bob and Aunt Madeline in Berrien Center Michigan (not sure exactly when).

I hope we aren’t boring you with the delay’s keeping the blog up to date. Please post a comment or two and give us some feedback about it – do you want more text? Photo’s? What would you like us to write about?

Starting Mileage: 111700, Badlands NP SD
Ending Mileage: 111853, Ft Pierre SD
Weather: Sunny & Warm, 86 F

When we got up at Sage Creek Campground, it was no longer windy, so we hiked 1/2 mile or so to Sage Creek (Mom decided to wait on a log a short way into the hike, which was fine as long as there were no Rattlesnakes under it). When I got to Sage Creek, there was a very large Bison eating a couple hundred feet up the creek. I could hear others, but they were out of sight in the washes. We also saw another Bison on a ridge as we left the campground.

The horse campers I met yesterday too off on their mounts for a much longer ride into the wilderness. They only take day rides this time of year since it can get cold at night, but they say they like covering the longer distances they can by riding (besides, I think they just like riding their horses).

As we left the campground, we noticed a large prairie dog town at the edge of the road called "Roberts Prairie Dog Town". The grass was chewed down all around the prairie dog town, so you could easily see where it was vs the rest of the plains.

As we headed on up the (still gravel) road, we began to see more and more vista's of the badlands to our right, while still seeing grassland and prairie to our left. We also saw more and more overlooks (turnouts in the road) - I think I probably stopped at every one. A few vultures took advantage of the updrafts from the eroded cliffs and bluffs that make up the badlands and soared overhead. At one point, there were two Bison in the grassland that decided it was time for their morning bath I think. The took turns laying down in a dirt spot and rolling around - I couldn't resist trying to video tape this, but didn't have time to get the tripod out, so will have to upload it as an unsteady, but interesting spectacle.

As we got deeper and deeper into the Badlands NP itself, we continued to see some flat grasslands on top of eroded bluffs or down in between erosion zones. Once we also saw Bison on a grassy area in the midst of eroded badlands. Mom was especially surprised by this as she had imagined the Badlands to be much more devoid of life.

One of the places you could pull off was for a 'Fossil Walk'. Scientists have found over 250 species of fossils in this area of the Badlands. The Park Service has built a raised walkway for visitors to tour some of the sites, but protected the fossils in boxes with viewing lids. It was all quite interesting and a very easy (level) walk.

Later at the Visitors Center, we learned that geologists think the Badlands themselves are a relatively new land form. They are eroding very fast in geological terms, much faster than area's such as the Black Hills. Although there is very little water here, the government did try to encourage people to homestead the area. Most claims failed due to the harsh conditions (& lack of water), and many became known as 'starvation claims'. As we got deeper and deeper into the Badlands National Park, we began to see more vista's like what we expected. However, these cover a relatively small portion of the entire park and an even smaller portion of South Dakota:

I did also spot this fellow near the visitors center (warning, I stop for just about everything):

Finally leaving the Badlands, we started back towards the I90 Freeway. Along the way was a Homestead set up on the National Historic Register. While we had mixed feelings about how much time we are taking on the trip, Mom noticed the 'soddie' and wanted to make sure I got a picture of it. So I went ahead and paid the entrance fee and went through the homestead (mom was tired, so waited in the RV - but I took lots of pictures of course and described it to her). It was interesting. Even several miles away from the Badlands, water was always a problem. During bad times, this homestead had a well that could only produce a few buckets of water a day. Many of their neighbors wells just went dry, so I guess they were lucky. They also had the distinction of having white prairie dogs! In spite of the hardships though, the people who lived here loved their life on the prairie very much. When the husband, Edgar Brown, died his widow stayed on until she finally had to move in with her son in California. She continued to tell people how much she missed the homestead and her friends in South Dakota however.

We pulled over just before getting on the freeway to get gas. Right next to the gas station was a visitors center for the Minuteman Missle Silo National Park (but the Silo was 18 miles in the wrong direction and about to close for the day, so I just visited the visitors center briefly).

Finally heading East again on I90 we thought we were really flying and finally making some time. Lo and Behold I90 is filled with sights for vacationers (if an exit every 20 to 40 miles qualifies as 'filled'). We ignored most offers, but I got sucked in (?) with advertisements for an 1880's town. Actually, this turned out to be very well done and quite interesting. I don't think they are quite as far along as the one in Cashmere, but in some ways it's even better (they didn't have an irrigated lawn for example, there is also an outhouse behind virtually every building.) Quite a neat place...

I took a lot of pictures, but will include just the school exterior & interior here (I plan to include a blog entry just for particular sights like this one under Photographs later):

They also have some of the props and sets from Dances with Wolves movie.

Eventually we turned off on Hwy 83 North to head up to Pierre, hoping to visit my sister Penny again near the North Dakota border the next day. (I actually passed up an Automobile Museum at a later exit, although I was tempted). As we drove on Hwy 83 North, we kept seeing larger birds walking onto the side of the highway (and an occasional road kill). They took off every time we tried to pull over to photograph them, but I think we caught a few. We thought at first they were prairie hens, but they almost looked more like pheasants. We found out later that they were female pheasants, which are quite plentiful in this area and do like to walk out on the roadway for the gravel (and often do get hit).

As we drove through the small town of Fort Pierre, which is just before Pierre, S.D., we saw a sign for a City Park with camping. We decided to stay there for the night. This was right on the Missouri River and a lovely spot - quite a few bug though! It is by the mouth of the Bad River, right where it runs into the Missouri. It also turns out that this is the same spot where Lewis & Clark camped for five days in October 1804 - trying to negotiate a treaty with the Lakota Sioux. They were not successful in getting the treaty, but had some feasting and such during their time here.

Fort Pierre also turns out to be the longest inhabited place (for white people) in North America, as it was a fur trading center long before the rest of the midwest was settled (or even explored). More later - I'm falling asleep!