Day 69, Pierre, SD to Bismarck, ND 239 miles
"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire
it."
~Albert Einstein
We have been so blessed with good weather. If you've followed the weather, the Midwest is in an almost triple digit heat wave. Leaving Pierre, blue sky peeked through the clouds, a promise of warm weather indeed. However, as we continued North, the clouds took control and rain loomed. Yet no precipitation. We rode in comfort as the temperature hovered around seventy. When we checked into the KOA, they told us it rained an inch and a half last night. Wow.
From one capitol to another, the landscape varies little; cornfields take turns with wheat or hay, and an occasional lake pops up about as often as a small town. QG commented about the vast landscape that extends to the horizon, with little human presence.
It's been fifty years since I visited Bismarck. Honest. Our family took vacations to Bismarck and Jamestown to visit relatives when I was a tyke. In my head I know fifty years have passed, yet seeing the bustling metropolis with every franchise imaginable shocked me. What was I expecting, '59 Mercs like ours milling around town?
Bismarck’s capitol building looked like the box it should have arrived in. Or
Harry at the architect's office was given a pencil and T-square to design it.
However, the tour morphed my opinion, as the design was to utilize the building to its maximum potential. Instead of having a capitol with numerous boxes surrounding it where the real work takes place; this building does the work too.
The Heritage Center, adjacent, takes you on a trip through time from dinosaurs to the 1940's. We learned more history and got the answer to why Sitting Bull was killed by the Sioux Tribal Police, from his tribe. Sitting Bull decided to go to Pineridge and government officials thought his motive was to start another insurrection. When Sitting Bull arrived, both federal marshal and Sioux police met him. Everyone drew guns, and they had a standoff, just like in the westerns.
Someone fired a shot and all hell broke loose, shots fired from every side.
Sitting Bull died along with quite a few of the police.
Two statues stand outside the Heritage Center; a bison, created from pieces of rebar, and a statue of Sacagawea with her baby on her back. She proved to be key to Lewis and Clark's expedition as an interpreter, but more importantly a woman arriving with a group of men meant they were coming in peace. Never thought I'd learn so much history on this trip.
Tomorrow, I'll check out Dickinson and Medora, ND with their 3% unemployment
then the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Quilter Girl will stay behind. Don't read anything into that. We're fine. She just needs to sew.
8 comments:
So... Quilter Girl is staying behind, but your're saying the two of you are fine? It sounds more like sew, sew to me!
Have fun in Dickinson, and be sure to send us all some money if you strike some o' that thar black gold along the way!
Your weather was so ideal-don't use up all your luck in one stretch.
That was really the capitol building?? May be efficient but some stately (LOL) beauty would be inspiring to view.
MIL
I was torn... The Capitol looked ugly, but was practical. I prefer some awe inspiring architecture, however. The building was... Sew sew. Plagiarism!
I don't mean to needle you, but you must be experiencing some quilt for leaving QG behind. If there have been any sharp words that could cut, stretch or tear apart the very fabric of your relationship, I hope you're able to make the necessary alterations to patch things up quickly.
We're piecing it together. Relationships can be sew challenging.
My brother read your reply. Now you have hem in stitches, too!
Yep. Figured I pinned it.
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