Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Wow, we have been busy the last few days. We did indeed arrive at Jeff and Wendi's on Sunday. It was wonderful to see them all again, and to check out their new house. North Dakota is SOOOOO FLAT !!!!!! and so straight. Jeff said that there are more people in Columbus, Ohio, than in all of North Dakota. He also told us that ND is ranked 50th as far as tree cover goes. You only see trees by a river, or by houses. He and Wendi also told us about all the flooding that is now -finally after 2 months- gone. Hard to imagine. The girls had a blast playing with Lahni (6 years old) and pestering Nathan (15 years old). Jeff grilled for us, and we just had a great time.
Monday - Wendi had to leave for a week long FFA convention, and Nathan left for driver's ed. Jeff, Paul, the 3 girls and I toured the Children's Museum of Fargo (fun for the girls) and Jeff took us a tour of NDUniversity where he works as a weed control specialist. Sugarbeets are the main crop around here, and he knows how to keep the weeds away. Nice campus. In the afternoon we headed south to Lake Preston, South Dakota. We slept in a fishing motel and although our dear friend Ruth Dorsten would not have approved, we enjoyed our stay there. Lake Preston is just a "pothole lake" so there is no recreation on it. We actually never saw the lake itself, just the Lake Preston Motel and the "downtown". Kinda like a New Bremen size.
Tuesday - Toured the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead. We thought it was going to be hokey, but it turned out to be GREAT !!!! We toured a shanty, a sod house, Ma's cabin, and the barn. There were people there who helped us...braid rope, make a corncob doll, grind wheat, take a pony/cart ride, and there were chicks and kittens to hold. Then we rode in a covered wagon to the old school house where the girls dressed in bonnets and smocks and the school teacher gave us some lessons as we were sitting at the old style desks. We HAD to buy one of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books, and are reading it aloud in the car. Very informative place. Then we drove on to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Unreal. You have to Google it to see what I'm talking about. It was really a fun place to stop. Then, on to the Badlands. We took the 30 mile scenic loop through, and got out a few times to walk out on the boardwalks that they have. UNREAL !!! It looks like someone VERY BIG took buckets of sand and dumped them wherever. It looks like the moon might. It was really nice - overcast and cool, but not rainy. We just kept saying, "This is unreal. This is so neat. Wow, look at that." We saw an antelope and lots of prairie dogs. Definitely a place to see if you are out this way. At the end of the loop is the town of Wall, and Wall Drug. There are signs forever as you drive for Wall Drug, and their advertising worked. We stopped for supper, 5 cent coffee, free ice water, and some walking around. Into our Big Sky Lodge about 9:00 their time. We drove into mountain time zone about half way across SD. This is a great name for this place. We are on a hill overlooking Rapid City. They have a hot tub, and we used it last night. It was quite the experience to sit there in the dark and look over the entire city all lit up. I always like the looks of cities at night - it reminds me of a painting on black velvet. Today we are scheduled to go to Mt. Rushmore, but the weather report is not good, so we may switch and go to Devil's Tower instead. We'll try to keep our same motels, so if you need to contact us, just flip them. I'll try to keep you posted.
Until the next blog.
Hi to my new followers.
Penny