St. Cloud is a lovely town and we spent some time at two gardens along the Mississippi, the Munsinger Gardens and the Clemens Gardens. Spectacular!
Our time in North Dakota flew by in a haze of all things Theodore Roosevelt. Well, there was a little New York Yankee history involved, too. Yankees, as in New York City baseball team? Valid question, my friends. Let me help you. Roger Maris, known for 61 in '61, half of the M & M so famous in New York legend, was born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota. So, naturally, that is home to the Roger Maris Museum, located in the lovely West Acres Shopping Center.
Yes, for those of you near and dear to me, I voluntarily entered a shopping mall. No coercion necessary. It was a neat little area with windows displaying various artifacts of Mr. Maris and a small (six seats) theater running a loop about his life. It was wonderful. One hour was sufficient time to spend and leave knowing quite a bit more about a favorite player from my youth. For those of you who do not understand the M & M reference, it is NOT about a chocolate candy coated in a hard, colorful substance. It IS a reference to two Yankee greats, Mantle and Maris. So much valuable information for the day you say, "I'll take the history of baseball for $200, Alex."
The 61st home run ball
Our other stop was at a full service gas station, where I met a native Fargoian (?). We were watching a couple of helpful, eager younger clerks try to fill our propane tanks and while the entertainment value was exceptional (how many college students does it take to safely fill propane tanks?), we began chatting. He seemed quite surprised, but pleased, we chose North Dakota as a vacation destination. I did confess that while visiting the Roger Maris Museum and Theodore Roosevelt National Park were a big reason we were chose his home state, I was also checking on a theory of a friend of a friend, to wit, that North Dakota is a training facility for the CIA. Seems any one queried as to knowing someone from North Dakota replied in the negative. So, I assured my pal, Karen Henning, I would check it out. He merely smiled and nodded and mentioned a few autumn activities should be scheduled while we were in the area, but offered no other things to see in Fargo. He did not deny the theory of the CIA training facility. Interesting... Oh, the answer to the riddle is two college students plus the manager of the rest stop. The manager to do the actual filling of the tanks and attempting to show them how this task is done, the students to explain that is exactly how they tried but failed, hoping for a better grade I guess.
Our home base in North Dakota was the city of Dickinson, one of the larger cities in the western part of the state. The downtown was a few blocks of uninteresting buildings, but did have a marvelous statue of a young Theodore Roosevelt.
Theodore Roosevelt National Park was a wonderful experience. It is rugged and wild and beautiful and divided into two sections, North and South. Our first visit was to the South Park and we took the scenic drive to get the feel for the area. We saw bison (not buffalo), a pronghorn (not an antelope), feral horses (not wild horses) and prairie dogs (big, fat, bold prairie dogs). The weekend we arrived was the Dakota Nights: Astronomy Festival. There were lectures and telescopes and power point presentations that made our hearts soar. John and I both learned a lot about some of the constellations and how they were named, the Northern lights and the planet Mercury.
One of many majestic views of Theodore Roosevelt National Park
Our first hike proved much shorter than we had planned. Let me first give you some background. There are a great many warnings posted about the bison. This is their home, they were here first and they are not docile. They have a live and let live attitude unless you annoy them. Seems they annoy easily and when annoyed will charge the offender. And as large and cumbersome as they appear, they run really, really fast and have very sharp, pointy horns. So, imagine my surprise, when hiking through some tall grass, the log I had spotted from afar a while back, stood up and glared at us. (I am sure he was glaring, I was that close). I turned to John to suggested that we change course, but once he saw the lack of color in my face and glanced over my shoulder he was far ahead of me. Turns out that humans who fear having an obituary read, "gored and trampled by a bison, not buffalo" can move pretty darn quickly.
This is not the one we saw, but a neighbor of his
The North Park entrance is fifty miles north of the south park and a bit more rustic. The lone Park Ranger seemed happy to see us. I think the rangers in this park are the Maytag Repairmen of the National Parks system. It is a lonely job. The views of the North Dakota Badlands were amazing. But, what is really fascinating was the topography of the area. Lots of rugged hiking trails available and we chose an exceptionally pretty one with not much grazing area. Though, truth be told, I was hyper-vigilant for logs with horns.
Hiking trail North Park
Another area of interest is The Enchanted Highway. Technically it is a county road about thirty-three miles in length. What makes it enchanting are the scrap metal sculptures that appear along the route. Gary Greff is the artist who conceived and executed this idea and began work in 1989. I wish I could post pictures of all eight that we saw because they are a sight to behold. The artists goal is to ensure the survival of small towns, like Regent, ND, where the road ends.
Fisherman's Delight
Grasshoppers in the Field
As I wrap up this missive, John mentioned I should BRIEFLY say something about the oil industry. In the last five years the area we were in has seen a rise in population due to the drilling for oil that has created many jobs. North Dakota is concerned with drilling safely and protecting the beauty of the land. It appears they are doing a bang up job. Along with the oil industry, other areas of commerce are bustling as well. We drove through a fifteen mile construction zone along a soon to be no longer two lane road that caused John to comment, "I didn't know there was this much construction equipment in the entire country, let alone North Dakota." So, if you are job hunting, may I suggest Dickinson, North Dakota. Burger King and Walmart start their employees at $15.00 per hour.
