Undaunted Courage by Ambrose

Chosen book for the trip?  Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose -- not because we carefully researched our trip and knew we'd be following on their figurative heels, but because it was from that neck of the woods and Ambrose is an interesting author...We enjoyed this two-part presentation.

Lunched with the bison, overlooking and overlooking and overlooking (you can see a long way in ND!).

"Greeting visitors at the front entrance of the Interpretive Center, stand three 12-foot tall steel statues depicting Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and Mandan Chief Sheheke. By Tom Near"

The Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center doubles as one of the most beautiful rest area facilities we saw on our trip.  The Center gives a basic overview of the amazing journey envisioned by Jefferson and undertaken by Lewis and Clark, as well as several others, lesser known but displaying fortitude and determination as exemplary as their leaders.

Not far from the Interpretive Center we enjoyed visiting Fort Mandan.  Evidently, not many choose this segment of the museum as we were privileged to tour this replica with our own well-educated guide.  The attempt for historical accuracy is evident both in the fort itself, the furnishings, and the narrative.

Minot, North Dakota camping

If you take a look at this photo you'll get an idea of our set-up.  Sometimes we didn't put up our camp kitchen, so the picnic table, whatever it's condition, served as counter, stove, dining room table, storage, sink, etc.  We used that old gold carry-on bag to store the stove when we packed things in the car.  We did have a water jug along.  One of those invaluable blue Rubbermaid tubs that traveled all over the country with us served as our dish bin.  A couple 'green' grocery bags were pantry, snack bag, cord and flashlight bags.  Our really nice white and blue tablecloth that Wingerts gave us worked well for the whole time.  I have to tweak the tools for the Alaska trip but it really worked pretty well.  Look at the RVs above my head and you'll get an idea of how far down the slope we were.

Those RVs, the parking lot for our car, the garage below are near to the height of the shed lower down.  We couldn't park near our campsite.  Of course, as 'old people' traveling with a tent, we had a lot of stuff to unload.  I was tired, of course, and not much help.  And, of course, my protector sweet-talked the camp host into letting us drive the car across the grass just for ten minutes so we could unload.  Two guys sharing a tent a bit away from ours sat on their picnic table and openly gawked at how much stuff we pulled out of our car.  I told them I charged a buck for admission to the show.  Well, I guess it does look like a pile when you pull out two blue clothes tubs, one for dishes, three 'green' bags, a tent, two sleeping bags, pump up two air mattresses, a water jug, a stove, a port-a-potti, reading material, a cooler, and who knows what all else.

As you can see from these few photos, the scenery in the tenting area was very pleasant, placid, pretty...You'd never guess that it had been the scene of a lot of violence just a year before.

The calm, lazy river you can see in the background flooded this campground.  You can see on the shed in the following photo, the watermark from the 2011 flood.  That shed was at approximately the height of the RVs in the first picture.  Water had been as high as the main office in the central part of the campground.  In fact, we saw evidence in other parts of the city that the flood had left extensive damage still being repaired.  We had intended to stay in a free/cheap city campground I found on the internet.  When we found it we realized that, not only was camping there unsafe because of the neighborhood, but it looked pretty abandoned with plenty of high-water marks on the trees in the park.

In the afternoon the next day we had a call unlike any we ever had over 45 years of camping.  It was from someone in the office of this campground.  Although we had only reserved and paid for one night, they wanted to know if we were staying another.  They had an unaccounted-for tent there.  We, however, were almost to our next destination in Medora. 

International Peace Garden

This tower between North Dakota, USA and Manitoba, Canada visually points to God, perhaps not the intention of the designer.  Never the less, God is...

Crossing the border -- and, in a world gone crazy with violence and hatred, just think of the miles between us and Canada without armies, guns, fences, suspicion...

In the shadow of the tower is a place for quiet reflection -- with plenty of food for thought in whatever direction your mind tends to travel, and whatever religion or lack thereof.

Not having really read up on the International Peace Garden, we were surprised to find the North American Game Warden Museum this facility.  As we pulled into the parking lot and stepped out of the car, we saw several plaques lining the walk.  Almost immediately we saw two placed in honor of Grace Academy Graduate, David Grove, shot almost two years ago while on duty.

After speaking with the curator of the museum and explaining that we knew of David and his mother, Lucy, she took us outside and pointed out the Pennsylvania plaque honoring David. 

This area honoring those who have fallen in the line of duty is purposefully pointed toward the Peace Tower.

We enjoyed the landscaping in the gardens, obviously designed with care.  As pointed out by the museum curator, the entire facility lacks upkeep because they are short staffed.  Workers, particularly in western North Dakota, prefer the higher paying jobs in the oilfields over the kind of wages these facilities, restaurants, farms and ranches are able to pay.

Each post in a planter has the same message in several different languages, "May Peace Prevail on Earth".

A favorite happenstance involved meeting Blaine and Susie, farmers from ND who were saddened that our first view of the gardens showed some neglect.  While an excellent design is evident and we thoroughly enjoyed the gardens, there were weeds in many places.  The facility is just too large for the number of people working.  They were short thirty-five individuals this year.  In the past the International Peace Garden Music Camp enjoyed an excellent reputation, with concerts hosted at the center of the garden.

 

 

The farmers got on rather well.  We hope to see them in West Michigan some day.

Between Hawk's and the border

So many places in the Midwest face paralyzing drought.  Seeing all these bales dotting miles of farm land made us think of the Amish families selling their dairy herds in Rosebud, MI, because of a lack of feed.

Canola swathed.  Harvesting this way is an attempt to prevent field loss of this tiny grain.

Evidently, swathing is not the perfect solution.

Loved, loved, loved!!! watching the combines harvesting.

Hawks' Farm Museum

We rambled from one thing to another in our visit to Dale and Martha Hawk museum in Wolford, North Dakota.  In hindsight, while many things were curiosities, far too often we recollected something like them in our past.  Should things really be displayed if the users are still living?  Of course, only one of us grew up in agriculture...

Did this carry bundles of sheaved grain?

We know these tracks were in those barns that have a peak coming forward from the top of the hip roof and were used to carry loose hay into the mow.

And, this is a hay mower, originally pulled by horses.  This one was converted to be pull by a tractor, similar to the one Grandpa Steenwyk used.

 We even found the old telephones like they used on the farm at 5550 Chicago Drive!

 Of course, I"m a little more oriented toward the things inside the house rather than the barn.  I couldn't believe it.  This house,that probably preserves many things from times other than the era it replicates, has a shelf full of old National Geographics!  No one's been able to throw them out since they were first published in 1888!

Oh, yeah, made me think of home when I saw this table.  I've a little more room at mine but this is impressive--

 particularly when you realize the time -- no dishwasher, probably no running water, no gas range, and on wheels!

 And this, I covet.  What an amazing library building.  Lawyers always did have the bucks for books...

Destination North Dakota

Crossing The Bridge -- that's the final proof of Up North, right? Love it -- sand, trees, and water lapping the horizon... Pitching the tent that first time in Iron River, MI released any vestiges of packing angst.