ND, SD – Jul 2022

Well, another few glorious weeks gallivanting around the countryside – this time focusing on western North Dakota, and a bit of western South Dakota.  Lots of beautiful rolling hills, with a little podunk town about every 50 miles or so (or so it seems).  Definitely picturesque during this time of year, but I can only imagine what it’s like under 6 feet of snow.  No thanks!  Funny thing about the picture shown above. I was in MD visiting for a few days and while driving on the Baltimore Beltway, I happened to see this truck. It looked strangely familiar to me, and upon closer inspection, I finally recognized it as an orange juice tanker from my home base home town of Lake Wales, FL. What are the odds?

Family & Friends

Shortly after arriving in Dickinson, ND I hopped on a couple of planes to make my way back to Maryland to spend several days.  It was a special trip as I got to celebrate a few events while I was there, and also got to meet my new three month old grandson Henry.  For the first event, I could not possibly be more proud of my daughter Ashley.  Due to life’s circumstances, she never did finish high school when she was in her late teens.  As a father, I was hopeful she would graduate from high school, then proceed to college, graduate, then have a job/career that would lead her through that traditional life.  I actually didn’t even go that route myself, as once I finished high school, I was done – finished with school for the time being.  I ended up joining the Air Force, spent the next ten years serving while also getting my college degree and building a career.  So, traditional methods are not always the norm.  Anyway, Ashley had always been very smart, and a great student.  Well, 14 years later, she decided to enroll in a GED program through the local community college.  She spent many months of days, nights, and weekends taking various classes to prepare her for her diploma.  Not only did she absolutely crush all the classes, she scored the highest scores ever in each subject area, and was selected to be the graduating class valedictorian.  Damn what a proud moment!  And all of this during a pandemic, helping her son with his virtual learning, and being pregnant all at the same time. Wow!  So we finally had the graduation – actually graduating three years worth of students since the pandemic messed up the prior years, and Ashley in her honors tassels was up on the stage, and ultimately gave her valedictorian speech.  I’m so damn proud of this girl for finishing her high school, and I look forward to whatever comes next for her.  Well done Ashley!  After the graduation, we took pictures, then back to Ashley’s place for a Maryland Crab Feast!  I created a couple of graduation videos if anyone is interested in taking a look.  There are two versions – a short version that just has highlights from the graduation, and the second, a longer version, that has those highlights as well as her speech.  I apologize in advance for the poor sound quality – the college opted to keep everyone masked during the event – even for the speakers (geez!).

Here are links to the Videos …

• Short Version
• Long Version

Also while back in Maryland, the other events I got to share in were a couple of birthdays.  First, I enjoyed a birthday dinner for my grandson AJ who had just turned 12.  Geez, where has the time gone.  Happy birthday AJ!  Next, we celebrated my oldest daughter Samantha’s 33rd birthday. Hard to believe I have a 33 year old kid.  Seems like just the other day that I was changing her diapers, or working and volunteering at her elementary school, or going to 4H meetings, etc.  Anyway, her and my granddaughter Savannah came up from Florida to, among other things, attend the graduation.  It was wonderful seeing her and spending time with Savannah, and especially great to celebrate her birthday.

It was only a 4-day trip back to MD, so I didn’t have too much time to visit with other friends and family while there.  But I did get an opportunity to grab lunch with my dear friends Tom and Mary Ann.  They are busy preparing their MD home to be sold, and will soon become full time Delaware residents – that is until they hopefully buy a winter place in sunny Florida.  One can only hope!  It was wonderful catching up with you both.

Geez – I just finished publishing this edition when I realized that I neglected to include info and pics of my new grandson.  I use my photo library to build the collage pics to use in each edition, then use those collage pics to guide me through the writing process.  However, all the pics of Henry and I were taken by my daughter, who then sent them to me via txt.  So, I had not yet saved those pics to my library, and hence neglected to create a college and include them here on the initial post.  All fixed now!  Born April 1 (April Fools Baby) of this year, Henry Grayson entered the world roughly a month early, weighing in at 7 lbs 6 oz.  He’s got reddish hair and light brown eyes. He’s definitely a cutie!  Since he was a month premature, he did spend a couple of days in the hospital, but soon after was sent home with a clean bill of health.  What a wonderful addition to the family.  Welcome Henry!

So, now back to North Dakota.  When I arrived in Dickinson on a sunny Wednesday afternoon, it wasn’t long thereafter that my brother Gerry arrived.  In fact, I was just finishing up the outside setup for electric, water, and sewer.  So, he got to see that process, as well as opening up the slide outs, and setting up the inside. I’m sure it was thrilling!   Once again as he’s done in the past, he planned a meetup with me as he travelled from his Florida home to head back to Washington state to spend the summer with his kids and grands.  So, he checked into the mobile hotel that is my RV, and spent a couple of days with me sightseeing around western ND.  We spent that day relaxing, sitting outside with some wine, and visited a nearby restaurant where we both enjoyed a hearty Shrimp Diablo pasta dish.  The next day we toured the southern section of Theadore Roosevelt National Park (more on that below), then had dinner at the awesome Little Missouri Saloon in the cool little town of Medora.  It was both of our first visit to this national park, and it certainly did not disappoint.  I always look forward to meetups with my brother while traveling, and appreciate his taking the time from his cross-country travels to spend a couple days with me.  I look forward to future meetups, and I promise, no more Segway tours!

Playing Tourist

My brother and I visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park (Yes! – Another star on my national park visit board).  This place was amazing!  There are two main sections and entrances to this vast 70k+ acre park in the Badlands of western ND.  The larger southern unit which we visited, and the smaller northern unit some 80 miles to the north.  Both sections have scenic drives, as well as some 100 miles of hiking and horse trails.  The southern scenic drive is a 48 mile loop that takes you through the vast rolling badlands with amazing scenery in all directions, with numerous stops and overlooks throughout.  My brother and I did a bit of hiking and hill climbing to get to all the overlooks, and the results were so worth it.  Like any other expansive surroundings, the pictures that I took really do not do justice to the sheer beautiful landscapes that this national park offers.  Though we got a somewhat early start, the day grew warm quickly, which I assume forced many of the parks wildlife to cooler hidden areas. We did see lots of prairie dogs, and a few bison.  Not much else in the animal department.  But the breathtaking scenery with rivers and buttes throughout were incredible.  Fun fact – a butte is an elevated landmass that is formed via erosion with the gradual wearing away of earth by water, wind and ice.  Mountains on the other hand are elevated portions of the earth’s crust, having grown or been pushed up from below – usually through seismic events occurring underground.  Many of the buttes in this national park were formed during the glacial period some thousands of years ago.  A beautiful national treasure that everyone should put on their bucket list.

Next up was a visit to Hebron, ND – some 35 miles east of Dickinson, to visit a place called Fort Sauerkraut.  It was November of 1890 when the town’s German settlers got word that a band of Sioux Indians had escaped from a nearby reservation, and were raiding towns on their way to Canada.  So atop a hill overlooking the town, the locals built a 100 foot long fort – constructed of railroad ties and sod, to shelter the woman and children and food supplies.  The fort was also equipped with port holes for the gunners in their defensive positions ready for the attack.  Well, the attack never came, and everyone returned home sometime in Dec of that year.  Among the many food items that were stored in the fort were cakes of sauerkraut – hance the name given to the fort.  An interesting place with an interesting history.

I then took a drive along what is known as the Enchanted Highway.  This was a fascinating roadway with a very interesting story.  Thirty-two miles south of the major highway I-94 lies the little town of Regent – population 170 as of the 2020 census.  Being so far away from any major highway, and offering virtually little in the way of tourism, the town was reportedly dying.  It would be town local hero and career school teacher and artist Gary Greff who would take actions to save the town.  He said he was inspired by the movie Field of Dreams, notably the phrase “Build it and they will come”.  So he did just that.  Along that otherwise lonely stretch of roadway from I-94 south to Regent, he built a series of metal sculptures.  Not just any sculptures, but a collection of the worlds largest metal sculptures.  It Starts with the 110 feet tall, 150 wide Geese in Flight sculpture visible from I94, which in 2002 was recognized by the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest scrap metal sculpture.  Six other sculptures have been built, located every few miles along the two-lane highway heading south to Regent.  Each sculpture has a pull-out to stop, admire, and take pictures of the art work.  Some even have picnic tables to enjoy lunch.

Gary started building the sculptures in 1989, and built the last one in the late 2000’s.  I had read that he still occasionally does work and touch ups on the art pieces.  And, as luck would have it, I noticed a bucket truck at the piece called Fisherman’s Dream, with someone high up off the ground with a welding torch.  Turns out, it was Gary Greff!  He was very gracious to climb down on the ladder and meet with a few of us who were there admiring his work.  He’s an amazing guy.  At 73 years young, he still climbs up on ladders or up in bucket trucks doing welding repairs to his art work.  Several pieces in this work had broken or were loosened by a recent high wind storm, so he was there patching them up.  He even showed us his shirt that caught on fire from one of the embers of his welding.  He sure has a lot of spunk for a guy his age.  Anyway, I left him with a nice cash donation thanking him for his efforts in creating a truly remarkable series of art, and for taking the initiative to bring folks to Regent who might not otherwise visit.  His works certainly did get me to go there and have lunch, so mission accomplished!

Downtown Dickinson had several Roadside tourist areas of interest, and first up was the Ukrainian Cultural Institute.  I knew that the earliest residents of North Dakota would have been the Native Americans.  What I didn’t know was they were followed by immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia in the 1800s.  I also learned that Ukrainians also made up a sizable portion of the state’s population.  It is estimated that upwards of 10,000 Ukrainians migrated to various portions of North Dakota in the late 1800s, making it among the largest concentrations of Ukrainian settlements along with New York and Pennsylvania.  So this former restaurant was purchased some 30 years ago, and has become the cultural center of all things Ukrainian.  They have a large collection of artifacts, a large library of historical books, and many examples of Pysanka, or hand decorated Easter eggs.  In today’s horrific actions against the country of Ukrain by Russian forces, you can imagine the solidarity and drive that exists among these community members to engage in all they can to help their fellow countryman.  This was a very educational and somber visit.

Also downtown was the Dickinson Dinosaur Museum and a Regional Museum and Agricultural Museum.  The Dino museum was actually a working museum, complete with a lab where you can watch paleontologists and archeologists actively processing fossils and bone segments.  They also had a very nice collection of rocks and gems of various types.  However, I did notice that they did not seem to have a Petoskey Stone in their collection.  I learned about (and wrote about) Petoskey stones when I was visiting the west coast of Michigan back in the summer of 2019.  So, I chatted with one of the museum’s staff and mentioned that they needed to get some for their collection.  Among the many dinosaurs on display, one of the coolest was a complete real skull of a triceratops named Bill.  The Regional museum had lots of history and artifacts that are native to North Dakota, and the Ag museum was filled with historical farming equipment used throughout North Dakota’s history.  A really cool afternoon was spent visiting these three museums.

Last up in the local area was a visit to a statue of a  young Teddy Roosevelt.  It was in this spot in 1886 when then 27 year old Theadore gave his first political Independence Day speech, standing upon a soap box.  He was a New York Assemblyman at the time, but loved the Dakota Badlands, and credited that western lifestyle in shaping him into the man he became.  His speech included: “Like all Americans, I like big things; big parades, big forests and mountains, big wheat fields, railroads – and herds of cattle too; big factories, steamboats, and everything else.  But we must keep steadily in mind that no people were ever yet benefited by riches if their property corrupted their virtue.  It is more important that we should show ourselves honest, brave, truthful, and intelligent than that we should own all the railways and grain elevators in the world.”  Gee – we sure could use the application of some of that wisdom today!  Last up was a visit to the Lefor bank vault.  It ls all that remains from a 1913 bank that went belly up during the Great Depression  The bank itself is long gone, but the vault, being too tough to destroy, is now a roadside attraction complete with its decorative historic metal frame.  Definitely cool!

After my two week visit to Dickinson, I headed south to my next stop in Sturgis, SD.  I’ve been here a few days now, and have already made a few tourist visits.  I decided that I’ve amassed enough stuff between Dickinson and my short stay here in Sturgis to knock out another edition of this blog.  My first visit would actually take me just across the SD boarder into Wyoming.  There I would find Vore Buffalo Jump Site.  Plains Indians depended on buffalo for much of their material needs, and would often form communal hunts to drive herds of buffalo over a cliff or into a trap where the animals were killed, butchered and processed in mass.  Tribes used this natural sinkhole between 1500 and 1800.  This buffalo bone graveyard was discovered in the early 1970s during the construction of I-90 nearby.  Studies were performed, archeological digs were done, and they discovered the protected remains of over 20 layers of buffalo that had been captured and processed over the roughly 300 years time.  A truly interesting find!

Last up in this edition of the Luv2RV Blog is yet another collection of claims of being the geographic center of something.  For my regular readers who from the last blog learned of the several claims of being the geographic center of North America, we now find a couple of sites with the designation of being the true geographic center of the US.  Similar to the various claims about being the center of North America, there are multiple sites claiming to be the center of the US.  First designated in 1918, a site in Lebanon, KS is the recognized center of the continental US (contiguous 48-states).  However, when Alaska and Hawaii were added as states in 1959, a new calculation was done and the center of the entire Nation would now be found in rural Belle Fourche, SD. Though not the actual location, the chamber of commerce from downtown Belle Fourche decided in 2007 to recognize itself as the center (being the closest town after all) with a wonderful and elaborate Geographic Center of the Nation monument located behind the towns visitor center.  It’s a fun, fitting roadside attraction worth of a stop and some pictures.  However, if you want to see the true and actual location of the national center, you have to drive some 22 miles north, traverse 8 miles on a narrow dirt road, to land in the absolute middle of nowhere to find a simple pole and a flag and a decal reflecting the actual official US Geodetic location.  So of course I had to go there too.  It was definitely a fun and eventful ride through some rolling hills into the literal middle of no where.  There, out a bit in the fields a short walk from a small roadside pull-out, was the actual location.  It was hard via a picture to show just how out in the boonies this place actually was, so did a quick 360 degree panoramic video to show that there were absolutely no signs of life anywhere around.  Here’s that short video for your amusement.

Final Thoughts

Well that’s about it for this edition of the Blog.  I’ll be here in Sturgis for another week and a half, leaving a couple of weeks ahead of the insanity that is the annual motorcycle rally.  There’s lots to see in this area, including two additional national parks that I can check off my list.  From here, I’ll be making a couple of stops in Wyoming as I continue my trek southward for the next couple of months. Again, I truly appreciate all of you that follow along in my journey as a full-time RVer.  I continue to cherish the opportunity to travel and sightsee as I do, and look forward to many more years of similar nomadic lifestyle.  Till next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!