A capital time in the Capital

5/30 Our stay in Miles City over we departed uneventfully and headed to North Dakota, our first stop in a while that wasn’t in Montana. We really liked Montana and visiting and catching up with friends but it was time to head to Maine and see our family. After driving for 6 hours we arrived in Bismarck, North Dakota. The trip once again reminded us of how spread out things are in the west and frankly how land rich and property poor farmers that feed us all are. The barns and farm equipment were top notch, the homes a place to get out of the weather….period. That’s not to say there arent pockets of affluence where homes are the focus but these seemed to be only in larger cities and suburbs and vacation areas like our friends lived in. I want to be clear though…. The west is beautiful.

We arrived at our site in Bismarck which was an easy spot to get to off the interstate. Another KOA Journey which I think means they are easy to get to for travelers. Our site was an end site surrounded by trees. Not great for my Starlink but nice in the heat. Not a great deal of places to walk the dogs but enough to stretch their legs and meet other pups. Still amazed that people dont clean up after or keep the dogs on leashes. Seems that campers are prone to letting their dogs run free which with a greyhound that doesnt like to be approached quickly by other dogs is not great. Oh well we all survived minus any bites or neighbor issues.

It feels like I am being more cranky than usual as I write this. That said if I could remark how amazing it is that all the trees in our sites seem to be shedding stuff that sticks everywhere. When not camping I must tolerate it or maybe the trees arent so messy at home but there were flowers and other stuff dropping on my truck and Airstream in Bismarck and in Bismarck these paper thin white seed pods evryyyyywheeerrrre. And as part of a design to spread their parent trees were almost impossible to get off once they were on particularly if they were rained on. Guess how I know this lol. Off to the car wash though my poor Airstream is a mess outside. Will need to figure out a way to make time to get to a truck wash place as part of my planning time wise next trip.

We were staying two nights in Bismarck and frankly we were tired from all the driving but decided to check out the North Dakota Heritage Center on the capital grounds. Almost decided to nap instead and we both were glad we mustered some energy to go. What an amazing amazing museum. North Dakota, Montana et al are great fossil areas and many of the finds were on display. The interactive displays and massive dinosaurs on display were great. Learned a lot. They also have a past and today section with amazing recreations of early prarie homes, early farming implements, sixties bomb shelters and public service films along with a minuteman silo recreation, a fifties soda shop (teens became a more affluent customer base with the rise of the middle class and ability to drive and own cars so soda shops flourished as a hangout place) and on and on. There was a very interesting Native American section (sections are giant individual areas in the museum). And so much more including giant stone balls called cannon balls on display outside only present in North Dakota and created by glaciers rolling aggregates and dirt. Very cool.

After doing some shopping at Dan’s a giant supermarket with frankly all sorts of stuff Ive not seen before, we headed home for dinner, reading and a rest. It was raining after dinner so I waited til the AM to hookup etc but we woke to sun and blue sky so an easy hookup and pick up and off we went to Minnesota. Kind of nice to feel we were accomplishing something each day by being in new states and closer to Maine. A very nice stop in Bismarck, ND.