The Adventures of Reba

Our friends’ road trip intersected with ours and for a couple of hours we got to converse in real life with people we’ve actually met before. Safe travels Mike, Kathryn, and Georgie too! (They took this photo for us)

Here are some more photos from around Bismarck, ND.

In college I interned for a Tennessee State Senator. The job was menial, but the building felt so important. I don’t often seek them out, but I do enjoy visiting state capitol buildings when nearby. North Dakota did not disappoint!

The House and Senate chambers form a circular shape

The sunlight and the columns and the chandeliers (made to resemble wheat) 😍

The sky reflecting on the black marble with the bronze columns

The view of the capitol grounds from the observatory at the top of the capitol building, which our Lyft driver told us about

The capitol building is called the Skyscraper on the Prairie because it’s the tallest building in North Dakota 🤯 at 21 stories

The governor’s residence, built in 2018 for $4.9 million

Sakakawea statue

Rebar bison?

Stairs at the state library

Mastodon and Dakota the dinomummy (rare specimen) at the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum

While Beau did more genealogy research in the state’s archives, I wandered around the capitol grounds, visiting the library, arboretum, several monuments, and the governor’s home. Later we had a delicious lunch at a little unassuming place called Walrus, wandered the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum, and visited the capitol building.

Last weekend we went to Fargo ND / Moorhead MN. We only stayed one night because there are surprisingly few RV options there. We did find a Harvest Host site at a brewery with great drinks! Unfortunately our neighbor there ran his diesel generator most of the night, so we didn’t get a whole lot of sleep. We did go to the city’s visitor center to see the wood chipper from the movie Fargo. And as you do in bigger towns, ran several errands, including our first trip to an Aldi grocery store and getting a much needed car wash! We also visited what was among the top 4 tallest structures in the world until 2019 when part of it was removed, the KVLY-TV antenna in Blanchard, ND.

Flashback to our visit to Carlsbad Caverns National Park, February 2022. Pictures can’t do it justice! It was too early in the year for the bats, but we did do the hike down. We boondocked for a few days on nearby BLM land and left as soon as it started snowing 😱

When you’re trying to book a campsite at Rocky Mountain National Park:

1. Filter for RV-allowed sites 🚐
2. Create a spreadsheet with all the sites that will fit your RV
3. Mark which sites open up 2 weeks and 4 days in advance
4. Check every morning for a week for a site available in your timeframe
5. Be ready to go at 10a Eastern Time
6. Do a happy dance when you manage to land a spot for Labor Day weekend 💃

Yesterday I was reminded that in life there’s never enough time allotted, the end often comes too soon. That’s why we’re out here now, not waiting for someday. I went for a bike ride and saw more wildlife than we’ve seen in a couple of weeks, dozens of dragonflies, 8 deer including 4 babies, 5 frogs, and a cow. I video called my mom and showed her the sunset, she showed me her porch that she’s been painting. We talked until it was dark out and time to ride home. It’s good to be reminded to love and live more.

This week we’ve been enjoying Fort Ransom State Park in the Sheyenne River Valley. The park is full of trails, including one that will eventually go all the way to Vermont. You can rent a covered wagon to stay in or take in the sites, like Pyramid Hill and the town of Fort Ransom. North Dakota’s only waterfall is also supposedly nearby, but I haven’t found it yet. North Dakota is so far the only state we’ve been to that we both hadn’t been to before, I’ve been more impressed by the scenery than I expected to be, and we’ve been loving all the state parks!

Last week ended with more genealogy research on Beau’s family. We visited the county courthouse recorder’s office and searched through old land records, connecting dots and learning new things. We visited towns like Sarles, where Main St is painted on a wooden sign and the postman waits for customers in his car rather than in the modest building that received 6 letters that day and “never” gets any tourists. We stopped in the town of Hannah, where the only business that really remains is a cafe, and old buildings are torn down before they fall down, like the restaurant Beau’s grand-uncle Hans once owned there. A lovely older couple stopped to chat with us strangers, turned out the man knew Hans, so we weren’t entirely strangers after all. Small towns make for a small world, but the centennial marker looks more like the town’s grave marker: Hannah, Born 1896, Died 1996. Gone are the railroad and so many of the residents that once called this place home.

This week was also my birthday! We didn’t have much of a celebration since there isn’t much around here, but I did enjoy a bike ride, BBQ, fresh baked cookies, and Star Trek!

This is 38: Exploring the world around me, a year FULL of memories and adventures, continuing to wonder who I want to be, always learning and growing and working on who I am.