May 23, 2013 - Visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Today we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It is located in what is called the North Dakota Badlands. In 2009 we visited the Badlands in South Dakota. Mr Roosevelt moved to a town named Medora which is on I-94 about 20 miles east of the Montana State Line. We are staying in Dickinson about 45 miles east of the National Park. I only have 24 of the approximately 50 pictures that we took included in this post because the web site limited me to that. I will post another batch after I send this one. You'll get two notices today so I can...

May 23, 2013 - Theodore Roosevelt National Park 2nd edition

For my friends in Kansas, I'd like you to know that western Kansas isn't the only place that is flat and unpopulated. North Dakota is also like that. We drove almost 100 miles passing exit after exit that had signs that said "No Services". The fuel tank was getting low and I was concerned about finding a station with diesel. Finally we found one and I felt relieved. The worst thing about North Dakota is the wind. It seems to blow here all day about 20 to 30 miles per hour. We asked one of the Park workers if it was this windy all the time...

May 20, 2013 - day 25 grand forks ND

days 24/25 it was raining and photos were not taken or just a few... the wind and heavy or misty rain kept getting on my camera's lens and it could do damage, so! day 25 was ruined with heavy traffic in big construction road work, many downtown roadways into it were closed or monitored with flagpeople so we just go out of dodge and working peoples way... gas and everything is very high and the campsite, to say the least, "we were robbed"... i only drink NA beer and it can only be brought in a state store and they close at 6 and on sunday......

May 18, 2013 - day 23 to Jamestown ND

day 23 was/is bad, bad photos and really bad weather all day and tonght, we got cought in another severe rain/wind/hail storm much like last year where we really feared for ourselves, as i write this, it is still raining and heavy winds. we do not know what else might come alongs in this flat land...a tornado not out of the picture... this is NOT the trip we had planned and coming north may have been stupid... in some of todays photos you can see the mammatus clouds that form funnels for tornados... our todays...

May 10, 2013 - Teddy Roosevelt National Park -- The North Dakota Badlands

Visited Teddy Roosevelt National Park, near Medora ND yesterday and today. Had a nice campsite next to the Little Missouri River ... woke up to a herd of bison in our front yard ... one bull was about 20 feet from the camper when he came grazing through our site. We visited here in May of 2008 ... check our TripJournal for Spring '08, May 19 & 21 ... you'll see more pictures of Teddy Roosevelt Nat'l Park. We're having a blast!!!

May 9, 2013 - Best Place by a Dam Site in North Dakota

Today we gave a closer look to Garrison Dam and Sakakawea Lake. Garrison Dam forms the reservoir from the Missouri River. Sakakawea Lake is 178 miles long and has over 1500 miles of shoreline. This is a beautiful setting ... the Army Corps of Engineers provides such nice campgrounds along their dams and lakes. The only really sad thing about this formidable dam, the huge lake it provides for recreation, and the electricity it provides for hundreds of thousands of homes is the fact that when it was formed from Garrison Dam, it eliminated...

May 8, 2013 - Sakakawea Country

Today we visited more of the historical sites on this stretch of the Missouri River. Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Company spent their first winter here in the area of the Mandan Native Americans ... about 50 miles north of current day Bismarck. They built a fort for their company, met Toussaint Charbonneau and his young wife Sakakawea, and befriended the Mandan, Hidatsa, & Arikaras Indians. We learned of their adventures in this area, visited their replicated fort, and visited other locations of Native American villages of the three...

May 7, 2013 - Soldiers and Native Americans

The Bismarck area is rich in the history of Native Americans, Railroads, and the US Cavalry. The Mandan group of Native Americans built their communities next to the Missouri River living in earth lodges ... they were not nomadic like other plains Native American groups, but stayed settled in this area. This community was named "On-The-Slant" ... and as you might expect, the village was built on a slanted section of land just west of the Missouri River. White man immigrants brought smallpox to the area which caused the death of 75% of the...

May 7, 2013 - North Dakota State House

One of our enjoyable adventures is to visit / tour state capitols along our travel ways. Bismarck has been North Dakota's capitol since its inception. This is the second building, built in 1933 after the original building burned ... speculation has it political arguments led to the demise of the building ... but the official report says "spontaneous combustion" ... about the same thing, I'd say!!! By the way ... they are much smarter in North Dakota than the state leaders are in Wisconsin. State law limits legislative sessions to 80 days...

May 6, 2013 - Sheyenne River Valley Nat'l Scenic Byway

Today we experienced the Sheyenne River Valley National Scenic ByWay. Out across "flat" North Dakota, every so often you run across a river valley that suggests you're not in ND at all. It is the longest river in ND (581 miles long) and is entirely in the state ... starts in ND ... ends in ND. Lots of Railroad / Native American / Agricultural information as the pics show. This was a nice distraction from the otherwise darn long / flat / and kind of boring trip through ND. More to come in the days ahead.

May 5, 2013 - Lake Wobegon Country

We drove through Lake Wobegon country today ... just west of St Cloud ... where the Lake Wobegon trail runs through farmland and hills. Garrison spoke well of this country, where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average. It was a quiet day on our trip through ... but we remembered well some of those Lake Wobegon stories. We didn't "Go Too Far" ... but we did get "To Far Go" <--- think about it!!! Spent the night in a parking lot ... LOL. No campgrounds open yet that we saw today ... hope...

May 3, 2013 - We're Still a Long Way from Home

Drove through Montana and were amazed at the large number of acres of fields all plowed up and ready for wheat to be planted. And then we got into North Dakota and were even more amazed at the thousands of acres of plowed fields and lack of populated areas. Except for the oil rigs. Lots and lots of drilling rigs and other large pieces of equipment in the fields. Especially around Dickenson, ND, where they were building large motels at every expressway intersection and what looked like big apartment complexes. We have heard that there is a...