Devils Lake, North Dakota

Map of North Dakota. Red routes 2009. Yellow route 2007/2008. Circle current location
Grahams Island on Devils Lake

Raymond Sunset Fishing Devils Lake

Moon as sun sets

Campfire with Mark & Gen

Noughts & Crosses

Devils Lake, the town, was originally Sioux Indian land (they now own a large casino nearby) and was named after the largest natural body of water in the state of North Dakota. There is a lovely State Park located on Grahams Island surrounded by Devils Lake. We are staying at the campground here for 5 days, and fortunately, the weather has been glorious.

On our first full day here, the aunt & uncle (Almyra & Raymond) of a guy (Troy) we met at the ranch called in to visit. They both love to fish, so they picked us up and we headed to some rocks alongside the road across the lake. It was about an hour before sunset, and while those three fished, I clicked! The sunset was so beautiful. On one side of the road I had the sunset, and on the other side I had the moon. All three of them caught fish and they let us keep all the fillets which was nice of them. Another chap was fishing nearby, and he kindly contributed his catch to us as well. As well as the fish, Almyra and Raymond bought us some potatoes, onions & corn fresh from their garden. So thoughtful.

The next day after lunch, Mark, a family friend of Troy's and Mark's friend Gen called in to visit. They offered to take us for a drive around the area. I had invited them to stay to dinner, so I stayed back to set up for dinner and take a phone call from Australia and Murray joined them for a few hours. Within minutes of their return, the four of us were sitting outside sharing food, wine and coffee. The weather was delightful, so we lit our campfire and had the kuchen Gen bought for dessert. This area of North Dakota is renowned for its hunting (deer & pheasant) and Mark kindly gave us some trial sizes of game he had caught to try. There was a pack of several venison sausages, some ground antelope, antelope chops (de-boned) and venison tenderloin. Mark also offered us the use of an RV hook-up on his property. It seems that everywhere we go in this country, the locals are so friendly and generous. Each RVing adventure we undertake is a most enjoyable blend of scenic countrysides and wonderful people. No wonder we can't stop coming back each year.

This morning we got on our bikes and rode around the campground. We came across a clearing that had a noughts & crosses panel, so we stopped for a game. Then it was back home to turn on the BBQ and cook the antelope chops. Delicious. Tender and tasty. Thanks Mark!

Unforgivable Omission

Kim Born 21st August 1980

With Older Brother Benn

With Younger Brother Mark

With her Cat Bowie (& Peckle)

Celebrating her PhD Defence in London, Ontario 2007

With her mum & Darling Beautiful Aunty Ret Christmas 2008

My last blog entry elicited two comments: Firstly was that things must be tough if the most exciting event to write about involves an antenna. Secondly was a comment from my daughter. It so happens that the day I made the entry, 21st of August, was her 29th birthday. Yet I failed to even mention the 'momentous occasion' of her birth. So to make up for such a dastardly omission, I have decided to put some photos of her progression through life. I am sure she will kill me, but what the heck!

She is a geologist and is currently a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Earth Sciences Dept of the St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia. In November she takes up a post on the staff at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. Visiting her is always an adventure as we get to see parts of the world we have never been before. Christmas in Copenhagen - hmmm, that sounds exciting. Not this year, but next year perhaps?

Adding Technology

TV Antenna Booster

Internet Antenna Booster

As you may have guessed, our favourite RV campgrounds are those situated on or near to a water feature, usually lakes. This often means that we are quite a distance from the nearest town. While that is one of the reasons we prefer the proximity to water, the downside is that our internet and TV reception can be quite poor.

In America RVing is a way of life for many people, so the companies that deal with internet and TV connections have a ready-made market for any gadgets that can improve reception. Fellow campers Trish & Dave suggested we take a look at a Winegard Wingman antenna. With 4 snap-on screws and 1lb weight, the antenna is designed to increase the range of digital TV channels - not only more channels, but less disturbance in transmission. Sometimes you get pixelation or voice drop out if the signal is weak. After researching this site (http://www.winegardwingman.com/) which even has a video clip and thought we would give it a try. For $32 it seems to be worth every penny - or should that be dollar? The staff at the RV store where we purchased it offered to take it back if we weren't satisfied with the outcome.

The internet is my main source of communication so it can be frustrating when researching a topic or doing a skype with family to have a slow connection. Although we have found that on each successive trip to the USA we find the signal strength of our internet connection to be stronger and stronger, and available in remote areas that once ha d no signal. Then again, if for the cost of $30 you can purchase an antenna that sits on top of your RV to improve the signal and improve it from 2 to 4 bars, count me in. For anyone considering to buy a similar item, a Magnetic Mount Antenna with 10' of cable was $20 and the USB Modem Adaptor was $10. We have a similar gadget back home in Oz, and it makes a big difference to our internet connectivity and sanity!

Wild Game Dinner

Setting the mood for the wild game dinner
Youth Pheasant Season (courtesy http://www.nodakoutdoors.com/ouroutdoors20.php)

Lining up for the wild game feast

All meals clearly labelled (yes, this was before the food came out!)

A bit of everything for starters...the bear is the darkest blob on the left

On our first night back at Audubon Lake campground, Avalyn & Wes invited us to join them at a local church fund raiser. They were having a dinner featuring a smorgasbord of wild game followed by an hour's entertainment by a local comedian, Milo. As everyone entered the hall, they put their name in a basket and during the evening, names were pulled out and everyone won something from a selection of gifts donated by community businesses. Avalyn won a Tshirt, Murray an insulated travel mug, Wes a camoflauge cap and I won $160 voucher for a martial arts course. As I am already at black belt standard (as if) I gave it back for them to pass on to a youth in the town. But typical of the area, although each child also won a prize, all the kids names went into a final draw for a .22 Ruger Rifle. It was won by a 10 yr old girl. The only rule is the parents have to accompany the child to pick up the rifle and have it registered. In the schools they already have driver-ed as a one-off subject in grade 8, and they are working on having gun-safety ed as a one-off subject too. In this region where hunting is a culture, they have a special school holiday on Fri 12 Sep to kick start the weekend for 14 & 15 year olds' first deer hunting season. They also have a dedicated youth pheasant hunting weekend on 3 Oct. These dates are for North Dakota - other states would have their own dates.

Now to the wild game feast. At least 100 people lined up and there was so much food left over. All of the food was donated. As the hunting season is not far away, people are clearing out their freezers ready for the new kills. They had no bear though, so they rang a friend in Minnesota and he went and shot a bear for the BBQ. I wish I could say the bear was nice and tasty, but to be honest, like most wild game, it can be tough, so needs to be either cooked slowly in a casserole or else slightly undercooked on a grill. I guess they had so much food to cook on the grill, or cut the meat up too small so that it overcooked. Either way, the bear was so tough it was harder to eat than beef jerky. Well, it may not have all been like that, but certainly all four of us had the same experience. As well as bear, we had elk, venison, wild goose, wild turkey, pheasant and buffalo. The volunteers did a wonderful job preparing and serving the food. Everything was well labelled so that you knew what was being offered. The creamed pheasant & pheasant hotpot were delicious. They also had these morsels called goose and pheasant poppers - it was a piece (about 1.5" square) of goose/pheasant, topped with a piece of jalapeno chili pepper, then wrapped in bacon & grilled on the BBQ. They were nice too. It was all free. They passed a donation basket around at the end of the evening though, and all proceeds went to the church. Win win.

Back on the Ranch, North Dakota

Wind Farm in Sunflower Field
Tractor with Bird's Nest (see yellow arrow)

Bird Nest with Egg and Hatched Chick

Boys & their Toys: replacing cutting blades ready for Murray to slash the hay

Taylor & Hayley feed the steers/heifers

Peach Kuchen with cinnamon on top

North Dakota Tan Lines

Adult Lemonade

You may recall we had a 2 day stop over with Clint & Amanda on a ranch in North Dakota last year. If you missed that blog entry, see the link at the bottom of this entry. It gave us such a unique experience that we returned to spend another 3 nights there. On the back roads to the ranch we passed a wind farm. My sister had sent photos of a wind farm they recently visited in Adelaide, South Australia, so I figured I should take a photo of those here in North Dakota - showing a foreground of sunflowers. It was 8.30pm when we were nearing the ranch, and the setting sun was hidden by clouds. We noticed a field of sunflowers had all their faces pointing to the east instead of facing the sun setting in the west. It turns out that most single-headed sunflowers face east ALL DAY. Other types move facing the sun but stop at a certain point then return to face the east. In one field we noticed all the heads facing one way except for one recalcitrant flower - a real non-conformist. You find one in every group!

Anyway, moving right along, we made it to the ranch and settled into our old spot and connected up to the power. We wandered up to the house and chatted with the family. For the next two days Murray rode a hay cutter tractor - in 36 C (95 F) heat - and enjoyed the experience once again. I stayed in the airconditioning either in our RV or the main house. I learnt a new recipe - Kuchen (pronounced cougan) - which is german for 'cake'. It has a pastry base and a baked custard filling dotted with fruit of your choice. The first one I had used rhubarb, the next used blueberry and the one I made used tinned sliced peaches. When I get home I will make one using black cherries. Nice to serve with morning tea or after dinner as a dessert with cream or icecream.

Many of you may have heard of the nasty winter experienced across the USA, but especially in the north. North Dakota was no different. The ranch got a whopping 110" of snow all up - the animals had to be housed in the barn or in close to the barn and hand fed. Two bulls that were alive when they fed them one night were both frozen dead in the morning. Now it is summer and they are out working long hours in the blazing sun. What a contrast. North Dakotan farmers have 2 tan lines: wrists (always wear long shirts in summer) and neck.

Lamb doesn't feature much in an American's diet, so Amanda (being an Aussie) appreciates being able to eat the sheep the ranch provides. Clint buys 4 sheep each year, the kids groom them for a few months, enter them in the annual state fair in July, then they are butchered for their freezer. We had our first feed of lamb since leaving Oz 5 months ago. Roast lamb - hard to beat! The twice baked potatoes were a great side dish to accompany the corn on the cob - fresh & sweet. Both nights we had freshly squeezed 'adult lemonade'. Half a dozen fresh lemons squeezed and pulped into a one gallon jug half filled with ice. Add sugar and 3/4 litre of vodka. Fill to the top with ice. Screw lid on the jug, wrap in a towel and shake lengthways for 15 - 20 mins (luckily they have 4 daughters to take a turn shaking) and serve. Just like fresh lemonade only with a punch!

Ranch Experience 2008: you can use your back arrow to get back to this blog

Beaver Creek RA, North Dakota

View of our RV site on the Lake

Lovely Scenery Route 1804 (Sunflower Field)

Chokecherry Tree

Chokecherry Bunch

Peyote Stitch Bracelet on Loom

The fishing segment on the Bismarck radio was extolling the great fishing at Beaver Creek on Lake Oahe, about one hour south of North Dakota's capital, Bismarck. Apparently 250,000 walleye had been registered caught on the lake since this summer. It just so happened we had planned to spend 5 days there after we got the RV back from the repair shop, as I told you in my previous blog. Well, we did drive down there, and it was such a pretty drive. Deer were poised on the edge of a cornfield, a pheasant scuttled across the road into the wheatfield, and a big, fat skunk was lying dead on the side of the road. Sunflower, corn and wheat fields lined the road all the way down.

Being an Army Corps of Engineers campground, it only had electricity at the site, so we filled our water tank up on entry. We found a perfect site overlooking the lake and were surprised there were not more campers. At $12 a night, it is a steal. The next day was Friday so another 4 RVs arrived, all relatives of the same family. As I was about to go for a walk, I met one of the ladies, then other of the family joined us, so the 3 of us went for a walk together and got to know each other. Lovely folk from nearby towns who were having a family get together. They told us how the recent floods following the snow melt impacted on family and friends in a town about 15 miles from the campground. They also informed me that the lake we were camped on had been dry for the past 7 years - all they had was a narrow creek leading out to the Missouri river. Now all you can see is water. They say weather works in 7 year cycles.

Little did we know the fish had stopped biting two weeks earlier. Just stopped. Apparently by then there was so much natural food supply for them, they didn't need to work at finding bait dangling from hopeful fishermen! That didn't stop Murray throwing a line out directly below our motorhome. No luck. The next day a chap was taking his boat out and came over to see if Murray wanted to join him. Hello??? He didn't need to be asked twice. After 2 hours in the boat they only had a few bites, but no fish, so they came back to shore. Fishing under the bridge netted Murray a few catfish the next day, but he threw them back. I'm not sure why he did throw them back, as the last ones he caught, we rolled in a cajun seasoning and they were very enjoyable.

Across the Missouri River from the campground is the Prairie Knights casino. In my last entry I mentioned that the casino sends a covered pontoon boat over every two hours on Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays between midday and 10pm so that campers can take advantage of free transport and hopefully spend several dollars on the slot machines (pokies to the Aussies), food and drinks. Despite the fact that Murray didn't catch any fish, we were enjoying being away from the bright lights too much to visit the casino. In winter, the river ices up and locals drive their cars over the ice to get to the casino. Unbelievable.

On our first day at the lake, I noticed a car pull up not far from our RV. A woman got out and proceeded to fill a shopping bag with something she was picking off a tree. After she left we checked it out, and the tree was loaded with ripe, dark red berries. The locals identified it as a chokecherry tree. Another friend Kathy (whose husband Milt had the boat that Murray caught the big fish from) makes chokecherry jam and sauce, and had given us a jar. I contacted her and she said the birds ate theirs as soon as they were ripe, so if I could pick her some, that would be great. I was able to pick lots of nice, ripe bunches for her, but was puzzled as to why the birds weren't eating these. I thought they may have been poisonous, and not chokecherries after all...

After our 5 day sojourn by Lake Oahe, we drove back to Bismarck. I got to see the movie The Julie & Julia Project and thoroughly enjoyed it. Murray saw a man-movie, something about a bomb maker. After dinner at Red Lobster, we headed off to stay with our family on the Ranch. Obviously my lobster eating frenzy in Canada didn't quite end my craving for that delicacy!

Although Judy (Ottawa) had taught me how to hand sew peyote stitch, Avalyn had bought me a loom to see how that worked for peyote stitch. While Murray was out fishing I had time to experiment, and the photo you see is a work in progress. Once I got the hang of the loom it went very nicely. Thanks Avalyn!

Before & After RV Damage

Damage before repair
RV after repair

Beaver Creek Recreation Area North Dakota

After 3 years of RVing (in 6 months stints) we had our first altercation in the RV. While we were in Canada we nudged a tree while reversing to level-up in a campsite. Murray was annoyed with himself, but I reminded him that he had driven thousands of miles (34704mi or 55870 km in fact) and in so many awkward or tight situations, and this was his first ever accident. No one was injured and so we should be thankful instead. The damage was limited to the fibreglass shell at the rear on my side, and the ladder to the roof got slightly buckled. However, because it required fibreglass repair, several layers of paint, a new 'holiday rambler' sticker and a new ladder, it was in the body shop for a week. Fortunately our insurance picks up most of the repair bill (our deductible was $188). We paid for the hire car, but at $24/day which is the deal our insurance company arranged for us, we couldn't complain. We are just waiting for the bottom part of the ladder to arrive to complete the repair job.

We treated this interlude without our RV as a mini-adventure of its own - we dropped the RV in to the repair shop, picked up our rental car, and hit the mall first, then had a delicious chicken scampi lunch at Olive Garden before catching a 2.30pm session at the movies. From there we headed to stay at a delightful B&B right on Lake Sakakawea about an hour north of the North Dakota Capital. The photos and story were on the previous blog. Murray had a few fishing adventures while we were there, but nothing as exciting as hauling in his big Northern Pike.

Our RV is all back in one piece again, and it was nice to have our 'home' back again. The drive south from Bismarck was very enjoyable - lots of corn, wheat, sunflower and flax crops. We saw deer and pheasants en route and we are now safely ensconced in a campsite overlooking another lake in North Dakota. This time down near the South Dakota border. In rattlesnake territory, so we are keeping alert. We will spend 5 nights here. You can tell our preference is to be camped by the water. Great for Murray to fish, and such a nice atmosphere for me to walk, bead, read knowing that everytime I lift my head I can see a beautiful water scene. A casino across the river sends over a pontoon boat every hour between midday and 10pm so that campers can eat in the restaurant or play the poker machines and then get a free lift back.

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining

Our Temporary 'Home'
View from our Balcony

View from Inside

Spot the Deer!

In my recent end of month email I mentioned our RV was in being repaired. As you can imagine, we were quite distressed at the thought of not having our own 'home' and the pleasures that come with our RV life. However, as my mum used to say 'when one door shuts, another door opens'. Other people may relate it to the saying 'every cloud has a silver lining'. Whatever floats your boat... but the upshot of it is that we had to find alternative accommodation for 7 days. We checked out the one and only motel in the town closest to the lake we have been staying on, and they were booked out. Fortunately, the motel owner knew of a couple who had a home on a nearby lake, and they sometimes took in paying customers. She rang them, and next thing you know, I am meeting with Frieda & Lenny who own the house. I was taken upstairs to the guest area and it was very comfortable & roomy with a deck looking out over Lake Sakakawea. The front lawns leads right to the water and has its own dock which I figured would be handy for Murray to fish off. Murray had yet to see the house, but I accepted on his behalf and agreed we would stay with them for a week.

We picked up the hire car, had lunch, saw a movie then made our way up to our temporary lodging. Frieda and Lenny made us very welcome and opened up their home to us. The next day Murray went fishing with his mate Wes and caught enough fish to bring back to feed the four of us. Frieda whipped up a green salad and I prepared the fish for the BBQ as well as some potato & onion done in Alfoil on the BBQ. Frieda pickles her own beetroot and we had that as well as a seafood salad Murray had picked up on his way home. We all got to know each other a bit better over dinner. That was 4 nights ago. Before we had arranged to stay, they had already made plans to take their new camper on an overnight trip, so they drove out at 10.30am on Sat and returned at 1pm Sunday. Even though they had only met us a few days prior, they trusted us to stay in their home. I guess things may be different with city folk (with good reason), but the country people we have met over here have graciously offered us their cars to use, and their homes to share. Really warm-hearted, welcoming and lovely people.

To get to their house is a 2 mile drive on a highway road, and then another few miles of dirt road. It takes you past flax, wheat, sunflower and canola fields - just so pretty. We were driving here at sunset the other day and pheasants were ducking into the side of the road - pheasant season doesn't start here until October, so they are free to roam without worry until the hunters appear! Yesterday we saw two deer bound across the road as we drove around the nearby state park campground and marina. We really enjoy seeing the local crops and wildlife. Our enforced break from the RV has introduced us to more delightful people and a different living experience. We are so fortunate.

Today Lenny has taken Murray out in his pontoon boat that is kept tied up to their dock in the summer months. Frieda and I are about to head north to pick up her grandson John who turns the magical age of 15 today. I am hoping he can enlighten me with some registry and computer processor queries that I have to keep my machine running fast. I am keen to enrol in a university course that teaches the registry side of computers. I have done some initial research and even contacted some course providers, but they mainly teach about the products you use with computers ie Microsoft Word, Excel etc , and not the background machinations that go on. Should be fun interacting with John. He has his heart set on a scholarship to either Harvard or Yale and his grades are looking good so far.

While I was in Ottawa with my friend Judy, she taught me a new beading technique called peyote stitch. I have since made two bracelets using this stitch. Avalyn has a friend who had an American Indian husband and she used peyote stitch to make his belts, watch and hat bands in his tribal colours. However, she knew her friend used a loom, whereas I was using a needle and thread. Avalyn called into a craft store and picked me up a loom and gave it to me as a gift at lunch yesterday. I am itching to try it out, so I will let you know how I get on!