Accident Looking for a Place to Happen

I think I need to stay home, locked in a safe place!

Remember how Bill smashed my hand while putting up drywall?  My hand was doing pretty well until I ran that very same knuckle into the door jam of the RV.  Now, really. I had four other perfectly good knuckles that I could have rammed into that lousy piece of metal but, no, I had to re-injure the same poor knuckle that was trying so valiantly to heal! Boy! Did that hurt. I could feel it all the way up to my elbow and my hand again looked like the Dough Boy.

Okay - I made it through another hand episode. Everything was okay until we reached Sioux Falls and I had to take the sway bar off the RV hitch so Bill could back into our site. It was hot and rainy and, my first mistake, I was hurrying in order to beat the rain and to appease my darling Bill who was drumming his fingers with my slow motion. Any RVer or boater or whoever knows the joys of getting ready for a trip in the pouring rain or dealing with an inpatient spouse. That morning we had pulled out of Custer, SD in the rain. We had dried out on the trip across SD (did you know that SD is a very long state driving from the SW corner to the SE corner?) and I had no desire for a repeat of the wet performance in the evening.

Then my second mistake. Not paying attention to what I was doing. Well, actually, the hitch stuff is Bill's MOS. I take care of the inside stuff and he takes care of the outside stuff so I do have an excuse when dealing with the hitch business. Anyway, I pulled off the wrong securing pin first. When I pulled off the other one, the stupid and very heavy piece of equipment fell on my right ankle. Now that really hurt!

I could have said a few choice words but instead I spent the next few moments hopping around on one foot and swearing under my breath that I would never again in my whole life touch that lousy sway bar. Originally, I thought about swearing that I would never go anywhere again with the RV but I knew I would not live up to that oath. Not touching the sway bar was a better bet.

In the meantime, the running van with Bill still drumming his fingers was sitting in the middle of the road, blocking all traffic, and the campground host was waiting to direct Bill into our site. No sympathy from either one of them.

The RV finally got situated in our space and I limped around getting my jobs done. It wasn't very long before my ankle looked very similar to my hand – except that my ankle was a much darker color.

Today we drove down from Sioux Falls, SD to St. Joseph, MO. I kept my ankle up on the dashboard and admired the scenery as we drove down I-29. I really like this interstate, especially the part of it at the lower part of Iowa into Missouri. You can really see the bluffs off to the east with the flat prairie to the west. And again, lots of green fields.

But there is one thing for sure – tomorrow we are going to the old section of St. Joseph, MO and no swollen hand or purple ankle is going to keep me from wandering around the historical section!

Oh – one neat thing did happen while pulling into the campground in Sioux Falls. With all the airplanes flying over, I realized we were at the end of the airport runway. Then the overhead sounds changed so I looked up – in time to see an osprey fly over in helo mode and banked hard to the left. Obviously, it was coming in for a landing. Bill looked up in time to see it. He told me later that he had never seen an osprey flying in helo mode, only in airplane mode. I quickly called Eric to ask him if there was an AF base up here that had ospreys but he was busy chasing our two little granddaughters out of the parking lot at his squadron building and couldn't talk to me then. Oh well - it was fun seeing the osprey fly over.

This is all I have to say for now. Keep your fingers crossed that the pictures I'm trying to download will load okay. Or else this post will have only words.

And then – more later . . .

P.S. - I tried to download pictures.  No go.  WiFi is too slow.

Custer State Park in the Black Hills of South Dakota

A view of the Needles at the top of one of the mountains
and the location of the narrowest tunnel I have ever
driven through - it was 8'4" wide & 12' high

Bill and I arrived here in the Black Hills and Custer, SD a few days ago.  Our original plan was to stay for two days but we were so impressed with the area, we decided to stay an extra day.  Oh for the joys of traveling when you don't have to punch a stupid time clock or answer to some idiotic boss!  I love it! 

This area is truly one of God's gifts to mankind.  The scenery is absolutely unbelievable.  It is another area where you look across rolling green hillsides and the land just goes and goes forever.  Most of the trees are of the pine family and, unfortunately, a pine beetle has invaded the forests and you can see large patches of trees that are brown and dead.  Mixed in with the pines are aspen.  I've never seen them in person in the fall, but I understand the aspen turn a gorgeous yellow.  Anyway, the forests flow down some of the hillsides and run into vast open pasture lands of green, green, and more green.  Breathtaking!

One day we took the famous Needles Highway Scenic Drive.  The map is very specific in warning you about the tee-tiny tunnels that are part of this drive.  The first one we had to transverse was only 8'4" wide by 12' high.  The other one was bigger at 9' wide by 12'3" high.  So Bill pulled off at a trailhead parking area and got out his trusty measuring tape (thank goodness we carry our NOMADS tools with us all the time!) to measure the van.  He decided if we folded in the outside mirrors, we could make it through the two tunnels.  By the time we reached the first tunnel, there were cars parked everywhere and people were milling about looking towards the tunnel.  I heard someone say that a bus was trying to go through the tunnel and it looked like it was stuck.  I thought to myself "You've got to be kidding me!"  Since we were stuck in a traffic jam in the very narrow roadway leading to the tunnel, I got out and looked where everyone was pointing.  I honestly could not believe my eyes - sure enough, there was a huge vehicle in the tunnel completely blocking any and all light from the other side.  When I first looked, all you could see were headlights; the rest of the tunnel was dark.  As I stood there for about ten minutes, I could begin to make out the shape of a bus.  A bus!  Not just a little bus, but a full-sized commercial bus!  I stood there dumb-founded as I watched it finally come out of the tunnel.

This is Bill measuring the van to be
sure we could make it through that
ridiculously tiny tunnel

This is the stupid commercial bus that
almost got stuck in the tunnel

Then we sat there for another twenty to thirty minutes as the long line of cars behind the bus followed it through the tunnel.  They must have been backed up for a mile down the mountain road.

And, we thought we were worried about being too big to make it through the tunnel?

This is a picture of the tee-tiny tunnel from the exit side

 

 



Custer State Park is known for its bison herds.  As you drive the Wildlife Loop, you can see some of these herds off in the distance.  The first day we tried to drive the loop, bison had traffic backed up quite a ways so we turned around and decided to try the loop the next day.  Was a good decision because the next day there were very few cars on the road and we saw three or four herds of good size.  I could not help but think about what these small herds must have looked like four and five hundred years ago when the bison were so numerous they completely blacked out the prairies for as far as the eye could see.  What a magnificent sight that must have been.  Then I got to thinking about the Native Americans of the 19th century and the fury and pain they felt as they watched their mainstay of life be destroyed by greedy men.  Apparently, greed was the same in years long before what we have recently experienced.  Regardless, thanks to a number of people, the bison survived and continue to fascinate those fortunate enough to see them in the wild.
 

Bison are not only large animal that lives free in Custer State Park.  We saw lots of white tail deer, many were sprouting fuzzy antlers.  And we saw a fair number of pronghorns also.  One crossed the road right in front of us and Bill got a couple of pictures of it in full gallop.  Pronghorn (aka antelope) are native to the west USA. 

 





Another animal that lives a good life in Custer State Park are the donkeys.  They were once used to pull wagons through the mountains and carts out of the mines, but after they out-lived their usefulness, many of them were left to their own.  They survived in the Black Hills and now live in the state park.  We found a small group of them and watched a couple of them walk up to a car coming the other way.  The two donkeys went right up to the SUV's windows and seemed curious to see what was on the inside.  Then the same two whose picture is just below began grooming each other.  We think the dark one was the mother and the gray one was the colt.  They were definitely familiar with each other and enjoyed each other's company!

 

One of the main attractions in the Black Hills is Mount Rushmore.  As we had been there six years ago, we opted out of repeating that adventure with mass humanity and concentrated on driving through the southern part of the Black Hills.  The picture below was typical of what we saw - these huge rocks sticking up out of the ground with houses built right next to them.  That is some backyard rock garden!

 

We made it down to Hot Springs.  And hot is not an adequate word to describe the temperature down there.  I know the entire nation is suffering under a brutal heat wave.  It definitely was hitting Hot Springs the day we went there.  It was so brutal, I didn't have the energy to investigate the town or even take one picture.  I will probably regret that one day.  The town, though, was interesting.  Most of the buildings were made from red sandstone and had that typical western feeling about them.  Unfortunately, the town seemed very run down and even seedy in places.  I did get into a really nice quilt shop and bought some bison fabric to make a wall hanging with.  I always like to buy one piece of fabric that's indicative of the areas we visit.  One day I will do something with all this fabric.

 

One thing I did learn about Hot Springs is that it was the area where the Native Americans spent their winters.  The warm springs and mountains sheltered them from the brutal cold winds that swept the plains.  And the whole Black Hills was their winter home until gold was discovered in 1874.  You can guess the rest of that story.

 

I can't figure out how to move this stupid picture up a few paragraphs to where it really belongs.  Sometimes this blog site is not very user friendly.  It is an exercise in agravation control.  I think I'm funking that exercise right now. And it's getting very late on Thursday evening and we leave early tomorrow morning for Sioux Falls, SD  so I think I will just say -

 

More later . . .

 



Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora, ND

View of the Little Missouri River that flows through and
formed the magnificent scenery in TRNP

Just some of the feril horses we saw - this family came
within about 100 yds of where we were parked

These little prairie dogs were all over the place - loved
to watch them scurrying from one burrow to the next



This is what Bill called "Bison -v- Harley"

End result = Bison - 1; Harley - 0

                                          Early evening clouds in TRNP

                                     Sunset in the park







 

From Minot, we drove down to Medora, ND, located at the far southwestern corner of North Dakota and spent two days wandering Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It's located in the National Grasslands area and has three different units - the more popular South Unit (entrance is right in Medora), the less visited North Unit (about 65 miles to the north), and the Elkhorn Ranch section (located between the two units on rugged dirt road). 

 

We had been in the South Unit before so this time, we decided to go up to the North Unit.  Halfway there, driving through flat green farm lands for as far as the eye could see, I began to wonder why I agreed to do this.  Two weeks of hard work and one long day of driving had worn me out but being the tireless adventurer that I am, I said "Sure, let's go!"  Not only were there huge fields, we also saw lots of fields with newly baled hay that literally dotted the landscape.  Scattered among all the pretty hay bales were the oil derricks pumping continuously.  Then we would go over a small rise and see a tall structure sticking up in the air - new oil wells being drilled.  All of this among all the green fields and hay bales.  More than one use for all this land makes the owner very rich.  Staci's brother Daniel (our daughter-in-laws brother who we have known since he was born and who now works the oil fields out of Minot) told us that one well he worked on brought in over 26,000 barrels of oil in two weeks; the payment to the land owner was something around $120,000 - not bad for two weeks of sitting back and watching the liquid gold being pumped from your ground.

 

The long drive up to the North Unit was definitely worth it - fantastic scenery was everywhere.  Rugged buttes and mesas formed a stark badland but when you looked closer, the barrenness was broken up by small wild flowers scattered around.  We stopped at one overlook area.  I left Bill up by the road where he was taking some pictures.  I stopped to talk to some people who were looking down through the boards of the deck only to discover they had seen a rattlesnake crawl under the enclosed portion of the deck.  And boy was that snake mad!  I couldn't see it through the boards, but I could sure hear its rattle going crazy.  He was not a happy camper!  So being the prudent person I am, I left it to its own happy devices under the deck.

 

After we got back to the RV that was parked at the Medora Campground, we decided to drive through the South Unit at dusk.  The animals are more active in the evening than they are during the day.  And we were rewarded - saw lots of bison (including the one that challenged the motorcycle), deer, elk, prairie dogs, a lone pronghorn, and, best of all, herds of feral horses.  These horses came from domesticated horses and now roam the park as free range horses.  There were a number of youngsters playing with each other and annoying their mothers.  One mare became annoyed and hauled off and nipped the rear end of her colt.  They certainly lead a good life!  And fat!  You could never get a saddle around these horses.

 

The bison challenge to the motorcycle was funny.  We had been following this old bison for a ways when he came to a bend in the road and this motorcycle rode up.  The guy on the bike stopped abruptly to watch which way the bison would go.  The huge animal kept his course aiming straight for the motorcycle.  Apparently, the guy on the bike got wise and turned around to go back the way he had come.  Just as the guy looked back over his shoulder, the bison decided the joke was on him and wandered off the road into the brush.  As we passed the guy on the bike, he had a very relieved smile on his face. 

 

Oh - Medora.  Strange name for a town.  There's a story here.  A French Marquis married the daughter of a rich New York banker (who was a baron in his own right) and came out to this area with the idea of shipping beef back to the east in refrigerated rail cars.  He founded the town in 1883 and named it after his wife.  They built a hunting cabin (only 26 rooms small) and hunted and entertained their friends and family for three years when the business fell apart, partially due to drought, inability to obtain quality cattle, and his inattention to the business.  They left the area and went back to France but he had a wanderlust spirit and was eventually killed in Sahara Desert by African tribesmen.

 

Finally - the biggest influence on this area was none other than Teddy Roosevelt.  He came out here hunting in 1883, the same time as the Marquis was building the town of Medora.  He loved the area so much, he invested in cattle ranching and spent a lot of time on horseback leading the "strenuous life" that he loved .  When his first wife Alice died in childbirth and his mother died within hours of each other, he returned to this area in hopes of finding relief to his intense grief.  He started a ranch of his own (the Elkhorn) and continued with his partnership with the Maltese Cross ranch.  The hard work and camaraderie he developed with his ranchhands helped to heal his spirit.  And he truly fell in love with the rugged beauty of this land.  He once wrote that if it had not been for the time and experience he had here, he would never have made it to the presidency.  Thank goodness for that - would we have the national parks we have now if TR had not loved this area?

 

More later . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

Putting up drywall

Bill, John, & Gary putting up drywall on the ceiling of
a house that was built in 1907 and was flooded in 2011
up to a foot below the ceililng

Me securing ceiling drywall - that ceiling didn't look
so high before I climbed that ladder!

Steve's house - built in1907

Today we worked on a house in the historic area of Minot.  House was built in 1907 and has been in the owner's family since it was built.  Water flooded almost to the ceiling of the first floor.  We just about have all the drywall in place and roofers came today and were putting on a whole new roof.  They had all the OSB boards on the roof by the time we left at 4:00.

It's a really neat house.  Has a full basement, ground floor is about 800 - 1000 sq. ft. and the small second floor would make a great sewing room.  But if I lived here, I'd be worried every time it rained - for fear of being flooded again.

We did learn today from some people we chatted with at the Bark Park (Lexi and Belle had fun playing with other big doggies) that there were two floods that hit weeks apart in 2011.  The first one consisted of heavy rain and the start of snow melt followed by more rain that sat over the area combined with the release of water from a dam in Canada.  That second episode is what caused all the really heavy damage.  The water sat over this area for quite a while.  A good number of the houses here have been repaired but there is still a significant number of homes either boarded up or in some stage of repair.  Regardless, we are happy to be here lending whatever help we can give.

Tomorrow is our last work day.  It's a good thing - both Bill and I are tired!  Drywall work in tiring to us old (?) people who aren't used to doing that kind of work.  Personally, I need time to recover from working with Bill.  He slammed my hand into the wall yesterday while I was "helping" him with a large sheet of drywall.  He didn't know my hand was holding the side of the drywall when he shoved it hard to get it into place next to another wall.  Unfortunately, my hand provided all kinds of cushioning!  I was proud of myself, though - I didn't say one bad word except for "Bill!"  The knuckle of my left hand swelled up double it's normal size and now it has flattened out and is a pretty shade of dark pink.  Now I know what Mohammed Ali felt like after a fight.

More later . . .

Fort Totten State Historic Site – July 4, 2013

Not long ago, I read a book about wives of the frontier army officers – Army Wives of the American Frontier by Anne Bruner Eales. Fascinating book. It took more than love for their husbands for women to survive the rugged, often dangerous conditions of the West and since we were working in a prime location in North Dakota, I decided to find some of the forts mentioned in the book and see how close they are to here. Ft. Abraham Lincoln (where Custer and the 7^th Cavalry started out for their ill-fated end at the Little Bighorn) was located just south of Bismarck. We will go right past it when we leave Minot and head to Theo. Roosevelt Nat'l. Park – if we have time we will stop.

Then we heard about Ft. Totten. It was not mentioned in the book, but it is reported to be one of best-preserved frontier forts of the western USA. It's only about 120 miles to the east. Heck, what is 120 miles when we already traveled over 1600 miles from home to Minot?



Geographic Center of North
America, Rugby, ND

So, the 4^th of July found us on the road heading east to the Fort Totten State Historic Site. About halfway there driving through some very flat but very green farmland, I began to wonder why we just didn't stay back at the trailer and relax. It had been three long, hot work days and I was tee-totally worn out. But then we drove through Rugby, ND and saw the monument for the geographical center of North America. In Rugby, ND? Interesting. So we kept driving.

Glad we did. The fort is located very close to a beautiful lake and sits on the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation. You drive around the lake and then through some marginal housing until you see the backside of the fort. When I walked through the entrance gate, I was immediately reminded of all the years of walking onto the campuses of VMI and The Citadel – parade ground in the center with trees on the perimeter and all the buildings lined up perfectly around the parade ground.



Ft Totten - parade ground on the left with buildings
surrounding on all sides

The original log fort, constructed in 1867, was located about 800 yards from the present location. Contractors then used local raw materials to make the brick and mortar and used locally saw lumber to build the more permanent structures. It was finally finished in 1871.

For the most part, the fort was used by both infantry and cavalry units in police functions. They patrolled the northern border, attempted to control the liquor traffic (were bootleggers running booze from Canada in 1870s?), and protected residents of the reservation and nearby settlers. The less than glamorous existence for the soldiers stationed there included routine patrols, daily drills, and housekeeping, and the boredom led to high rates of alcoholism and desertions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fort was decommissioned in 1890 and was turned over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs who opened a boarding school for children from the reservation. This school was not the first school in this area for Indian children. The Grey Nuns of Montreal began a school in 1874 for the Wahpeton, Sisseton, and Cuthead bands of Sioux. For the new school, many of the fort's buildings were substantially changed and for the next 45 years, the Indian Industrial School provided coursework centered on domestic skills for girls and on farming and industrial skills for boys. At that time, the idea was to “de-Indian” the children and then assimilate them into the predominate white society by taking them away from their parents and tribes and all influences and support their tribes had provided to them. Both Bill and I found it interesting that one of the aspects of Indian culture that the feds wanted to change was the Indian's lack of the concept of “ownership”. Bill's comment was that the feds couldn't leave well enough alone but had to convert the Indians to the idea of owning things, thereby introducing greed for material items into the native culture. Another aspect of native life the educators discouraged was the children running, sliding down hills, and other outdoor activities. It was viewed as not contributing to their education. But it was further mentioned that the educators failed to realize that these activities had been part of an Indian child's education for centuries long before the Europeans arrived in this land and it prepared the children for the roles they were to have in their tribes.

In 1935, a change in fed policy toward Indian schools brought about the closure of the school. From 1935 – 1939, the fort was used as a “Tuberculosis Preventorium”. We both wondered what the heck this was. Neither of us had ever heard of this but quickly learned that when tuberculosis ran rampant through the reservations, the center was established to isolate people considered at high risk for contracting the disease from the rest of the community and then encouraged them to get outdoor exercise in the sunshine. I thought how ironic – just a few short years before this, the feds had discouraged the free outdoor activities the children had learned from their parents.

Finally, the fort was used as the Fort Totten Community School from 1940 to 1959 which provided elementary and high school education for the community. A new school was built in 1959 and in 1960, the fort was transferred to the State Historical Society for use as a historical site.

Right now, it consists of over 9 acres and contains 16 of the original 39 buildings. The buildings themselves are in great shape and some have been renovated to show both fort life and school life. It looked like a pretty spartan existence. And very cold in the winter. The brick walls were pretty substantial but lacked any insulation. One soldier wrote about a winter that was so brutal, soldiers got frostbite in just crossing the parade ground. Now that's cold!  And during renovations, old children's uniforms were found behind wooden walls, probably used in a vain attempt to block the cold.

We wandered in and out of most of the open buildings and decided we were glad not to have lived in any of the buildings, during both summer or winter! In one of the officer's quarters, the old floor was gone and you could see down to the foundation. In the very back of the narrow quarters, there were big holes in the ground, lined with brick. These were the cisterns that stored all the water that was used in the household – drinking, cooking, bathing, etc. All this water got mixed together and caused a lot of sickness. Eventually, they figured out to keep the water uses separate. Another reason we are happy to live now and not then.

Oops – guess I got carried away with this post. It won't hurt my feelings if you didn't read the whole thing, but I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

 

Driving north from the fort along the lake

                                                              

                                                              Some of the farm fields we see all the time.

More later . . .

Working in Minot

We arrived here in Minot, ND a week ago today.  Can't believe we have already been here a week!  Wow - time does fly when you are having fun or working. 

Minot is an interesting city.  I was told by someone that the town was founded when the Union Pacific Railroad was being built and this area was used as a supply depot and a home base for workers.  It became know as the Magic City because it was magical in how fast the nomadic workers made it into a town.  In essence, Minot is located in a bowl with a river that meanders its way through the town.  There are a number of big parks; one in particular is dedicated to the Scandinavian settlers.  We haven't make it there yet but plan on walking through it this weekend.  There are lots and lots of big green trees and miles of green fields surrounding the town.  And, for the most part, it is flat, flat, flat which makes it possible to see forever without anything obstructing your eye sight.  Not like my home mountainous area at all!

It's pretty here now but come winter, it does get cold, cold, cold.  And right now, Minot is in the center of a huge oil boom so the city is growing by leaps and bounds.

We are parked at a Lutheran church that had been used as a staging ground for the initial disaster relief when the river flooded in June/July 2011.  There were thousands of houses under eight to ten feet of water.  Many of the houses stayed that way for weeks as the city dyked the downtown and hospital areas in an attempt to save those buildings.  It created a huge pool with nowhere for the water to drain.  Many of the houses have been repaired and are occupied.  Others were torn down while others are in various stages of rebuilding.  It takes years for disasters such as this one to be resolved.  And this is the time when the NOMADS become involved. 

This is our project house

This was taken from the living room looking through the
studs into the front bedroom.  Teri, Kitty, and Carol are
getting ready to screw down the sub-floor wood.
 

This past Monday, we started working on a tee-tiny house located right next to Minot State University.  NOMADS had already started working on the house as the interior was cleaned out and the outside plywood was wrapped in the NovaWrap paper.  We all helped carry in supplies then we cut, glued, and screwed down the plywood sub-floor.  In the picture of the house, you will notice a small chimney.  That chimney doesn't exist anymore.  Larry chisel-hammered it out completely down to the base in the basement (oh, did I forget to mention that this tiny house has a basement with narrow steps going down?) then we all helped haul out all the bricks and debris to a construction dumpster outside.  The dumpster was delivered after the house picture was taken.  Then we swept and swept and swept and created a big dust storm in the house.  By the time we left that day, it looked pretty good inside.

We took the 4th of July off (more on that in a later post) but went back today to finish up the portion of the job that we were asked to do.  We are working through an agency called Hope Village - they supply all the materials and directions of what they need to have done.  The houses we work on are those for people who are in financial straits and really need the help.  Anyway, today while the guys reframed the windows and worked more on the sub-floor, the ladies put in all the insulation.  All those exterior walls you see behind Teri, Kitty, and Carol are now filled with pink, fluffy, and extremely itchy stuff.  I was never sooooo glad to get into a shower as I was this lunchtime when we finished!

Oh yes - I saw a big C-130 fly over us the other day.  Minot Air Force Base is located just a few miles north of the city and the plane was being used to spray for mosquitoes.  Since it was being used as a sort of crop duster (an awfully BIG one), it flew very low to the ground.  The whole ground shook as it passed overhead.  But I always feel a thrill when I see one of our military aircraft fly by.  Must come naturally - you know, once a military brat, always a military brat.  And now with two sons flying in the AF, the thrill is definitely there!

Oops - time to cook a couple of steaks for dinner, so -

More later . . .