Mall of America - Minnesota

On Tuesday this week we had some proactive maintenance arranged for the RV. The RV was booked in at 8am and we were out by midday which was perfect timing as I had noticed a nice looking Diner a few blocks away. It turned out to be a Denny's Diner - Denny's is a large chain restaurant which offered us a very pleasant eating experience. The decor was very much 'Happy Day's', and the menu was extensive. You can eat pretty cheap over here - check this out on their menu: 

$4 Everyday Value Slam®

Two buttermilk pancakes, two eggs cooked to order and two bacon strips or two sausage links.

Inside the Diner

Blueberry pancake

Where we are staying in Minnesota is not far from the famous Mall of America. A mall of around 500 shops that gets around 40 million visitors a year. We met our friend Betty there and had a lovely lunch together. Betty is an American who was married to an aussie, Brian. Sadly, Brian lost his life to cancer almost 5 years ago, but when he was still alive, he and Betty lived in Canberra for 6 months each year, and were in the church choir that Murray also sang in. This is the 3rd year that we have been able to catch up with Betty on our US travels. 

As well as the 3 levels of shops within a mall that is large enough to house 7 Yankee Stadiums, the Mall of America has the world's largest underwater aquarium, plus a 14 screen movie theatre, and has the largest indoor theme park in the United States. Thankfully for me they also had somewhere I could have a pedicure. After 3 months of living in open toe crocs, my feet needed some attention! The Vietnamese beautician was very nice and offered Murray a free massage in the chair while he waited for me. 

They need huge lifts inside the Mall of America

Time for a pedicure for me

Some of the shops in the Mall

Theme Park

Lunch with Betty

Mississipi River - Yes, again...

Those of you who have followed the blog going back a few years may recall there are several blog entries that mention the Mississippi River. I have no idea why the Mississippi has such an effect on me. Perhaps it has something to do with learning of this mighty river as a kid and never in a million years thinking I would see it, and then to actually see it - a bit like Alaska and to a lesser extent, Monument Valley in Utah. But although I have seen the river over and over, it still has the same effect on me. As I said to my sister who was also a midwife, seeing the Mississippi for me is a bit like delivering babies for a living was - joyful and exciting every time. 

While the Mississippi is not the longest river in the US river system (that accolade goes to the Missouri River), it is the second-longest, and it is the deepest and carries the largest volume of water of the US rivers. After the Missouri and the Mississippi, the Yukon and then the Rio Grande river systems follow next in line.

In 2008 Murray and I visited the headwaters of the River at Bemidji in north-west Minnesota. Several times we have walked by the River at its end where it flows into the Gulf of Mexico in New Orleans and we have saw it in flood in St Louis in 2007. We took a riverboat cruise on it in Memphis in 2002, and I have enjoyed every meeting with the majestic old River since we first met. 

Bemidji, Minnesota 2008

Flooded Mississippi in St Louis, Missouri 2007

On this trip we were thrilled when our campground (located close to where we had booked in for an RV service) here in Minnesota happened to be right beside the River. In fact, our campsite was the closest one to the water. I was in heaven. After dinner we went for a brisk walk around the neighbourhood and noticed that the size of the Canada geese here were much bigger than those in North Dakota. Obviously born a month or so earlier. On our way home we stopped to chat to a chap who owned 2 houses on the River and one across the street. We also walked through the local cemetery (also right beside the River) and were surprised to note all the floral decorations were off the ground. Later we saw a sign that advised the florals had to be high to allow for more efficient lawn mowing. Don't see that too often! We stopped and chatted to a family who sell agates (quartz) for a living and they were in town for an Agate Show. They dig, cut and polish their own rocks. The parents home-school their 4 sons. They used to have a shop in a town in Colorado, but a change to the highway route diverted traffic so they closed up and now just work from home. They run a web site and sell at gem shows like the one they are attending in Minnesota this weekend. It was getting dark by the time we returned to our RV, and the River looked beautiful in the moonlight. The Canada geese made it an even more tranquil view. 

Campsite next to my favourite river

About to head out for our walk

Canada Geese at the edge of our campground

You might have to click on this to see the floral tributes above the ground at this cemetery

Canada Geese on the River at the end of our walk

RV Resort Minnesota

Fully concreted site (pad) overlooking water feature

It is not often we stay at an upmarket RV Resort, preferring the middle of the road RV parks that average out to around $20 a night. However, the British Golf was on for 4 days this week, and Murray was keen to have reliable cable TV coverage, so I searched for a campground here in Minnesota, close to where we are getting a part fitted next week. The only campground that came up on my radar is the RV Resort where have just spent a very pleasant few days. Murray would set his alarm to wake up at 3.30am to see the start of play, and then when the golf had finished for the day he would take a nap. Around 6pm when it had cooled off a bit, we would do our brisk walk and get back by 7pm for a shower and dinner. Last night it was still 30 C (86F) at 7pm, we deferred our walk until after dinner and eventually went at 9pm. Still light of course. While deer and black bears visit this area, we never saw any on our walks.

Very tranquil view - our RV is down on the right 

One difference between an RV Resort and a regular campground is that although some campgrounds do have long term tenants, the Resorts actually sell sites/lots for permanent residents, while leaving a few sites available for passing campers like us. It seems quite hefty, but for $70,000 you can buy a site, and then pay $100 per month for utilities - apart from electricity. You pay for your own power usage. So for your $100 you get water, sewer, wifi, cable TV, plus there is a lovely pool and a jacuzzi, and the grounds are beautifully maintained. There is a laundry where residents pay per load ($1.75 for a wash, and $1.50 to dry). This resort is still in the early stages of development, but they have a 5 year plan to see it finished. For a lot of retirees, they can sell their home, and with the money buy a reasonably priced 5th wheel and invest the rest for additional income. With a set up like some have here, they can spend months at a time touring and visiting family in their RV, but come back to their permanent site for the rest of the time. Their annual utility rates here are probably less than what they were paying for land rates for their home, and then they would have had water, upkeep etc on top of that. Living like this wouldn't suit me, but it works well for some.

Looking across the water to our RV

Nice pool area

I went for a walk around the resort to check out the amenities and had a chat to one of the staff. Apparently you can buy your site, then customise it. One couple had their RV parked on the site, and they had also built a small cabin beside it. As this resort is close to a lovely golf course (the owner of this resort designs golf courses, and owns 3 of them), this couple also has a golf cart. 

Another owner built a small house (see left) next to his site, and also bought the adjoining 3 RV sites. He rents the RV sites out for extra income, or they are there for family and friends who visit in their RVs.

One of the highlights of the RV life as I have mentioned before is meeting new people along the way. Although this campground is out of town in a quiet back street near a lake, we noticed a Grill restaurant only half a mile away. Easy walking distance. On one of Murray's solo walks he called in to check out the menu as we had planned to eat there the next night. As luck would have it, the staff member he spoke to was an Aussie (she hasn't been back home for 25 years), and as it was her night off the next night, Murray suggested her and her partner might like to join us for dinner. Meg and Kenny duly arranged to meet us there at 6pm. As we were just walking out of the campground, the owner saw us and knew where we were headed and he gave us a lift in his golf buggy. As it was a hot afternoon, we were grateful for the ride. He also offered to bring us home, but we appreciated having the short walk to start burning off the calories we had just consumed. We enjoyed chatting with Meg and Kenny, and most of the staff came over at various times to meet us and say hello, and that is how we met Donna. Believe it or not, her brother is Rick, Lindy Chamberlain's second husband who is an American. Lindy and Rick are due out to visit Donna in a few weeks. They are frequent visitors and well loved by their American family.

Bison in North Dakota

Dakota Legend - 4 year old female albino bison

As well as being the home of the World's Largest Buffalo, Jamestown North Dakota attracts lots of tourists to see the mythical white buffalo. A White buffalo is an American Bison, with only one white buffalo born for every 10 million births. The National Buffalo Museum is home to a herd of 30 bison that roam freely on 250 acres, and three of the bison are albino. White buffalos are considered sacred by the American Indian tribes, and the Great Plains tribes say they are the symbol of hope, rebirth and unity. "The arrival of the white buffalo is like the second coming of Christ, says Floyd Hand, a Sioux medicine man from Pine Ridge, S.D., who was one of the first to make the pilgrimage. It "will bring about purity of mind, body and spirit, and unify all nations, black, red, yellow, and white." Apart from the three white buffalo in Jamestown, there are only about another twenty recorded living in the USA.

Until recently, the last white buffalo recorded this century died in 1959, so when White Cloud, a female albino bison was born on a private farm in 1996, it caused quite a stir. She was donated to the museum in 1997 where she still roams today. She has since had five calves; the first four were normal brown calves, but her fifth calf was an albino like her. He was a bull calf, born in 1996 and named Dakota Miracle. He also roams with the group.  In 2008 a female white calf was born to a brown bison in the herd, and is known as Dakota Legend. When we saw the herd, we mainly watched Dakota Legend who was by herself - a regular said she is often off on her own, and not with the main herd. On a distant rise we could some of the herd, and amongst them was the white bull, Dakota Miracle. He was head and shoulders above the others. No sign of White Cloud or the other bison. 

Dakota Legend in foreground is dwarfed by the World's Largest Buffalo

Her pink albino eyes gave her a 'spooky' look

In the distance, Dakota Miracle can be seen head and shoulders above the brown herd

I had no intention of crossing this field!

Our RV campground was only 1 block from Frontier Village where the National Buffalo Museum is located. Frontier Village is also home to historic buildings where the past life of the pioneers is on display. It was nice to be able to walk past these buffalo (see photo below) along the country lane, then enter into the Frontier Village and enjoy the glimpse of history. Entry was free and there were some interesting local crafts as well as antiques for sale in several authentic stores. An interesting place to spend an hour. 

We could see these bison from our RV window

One side of street at the Frontier Village

1929 Chevvy

Original Pioneer Church - notice the wood heater up the front left of the church

Original Wells Fargo Stagecoach

Summers in North Dakota

This is the sixth summer that we have enjoyed spending a few weeks in North Dakota. We have made some special friends there, and each year on our return we catch up with Avalyn and Wes, Kathy and Milt, Frieda and Lenny, Irene, and our ranch friends Amanda and Clint along with their 4 daughters (Taylor, Hayley, Emily and Macey). 

We shouldn't have been shocked to see the changes the recent oil boom in the NW of the state has made to Bismarck, the Capital of North Dakota, but we were. The traffic on the roads has increased, and new buildings are mushrooming everywhere. Later this year North Dakota is expected to become the third highest oil producing state in the USA - it was ninth a few years ago. Oil was first mined in that area in the 1950's, but now the high price of crude oil combined with new technology that allows oil to be extracted from dense rocks has led to the current boom. To cope with the huge population influx they are building houses, schools and hotels as fast as they can. Hospital wards are having trouble coping with the increase in patients, and nurses are in high demand. Unemployment has dropped to 3.3% overall in the state which is the lowest in USA, but in main oil boom town it is down to 1%. For every job applicant there are reported to be 9 job vacancies and the boom has attracted workers from other states where the recession is taking its toll. Some workers are coming from as far away as Florida. McDonald's pays staff about double what they pay on average nationally, just to keep the place running. Many workers from out of state have bought caravans/trailers/motorhomes to live in while they work long hours away from home and family, many hoping to make enough money to stave off losing their homes to foreclosure. I spoke to one such man in the laundry at a campground two weeks ago. He was from Michigan and couldn't believe how much work was available here. He has contacted many of his friends struggling to work as self-contractors in his home state to come to North Dakota and not only get good wages, but health benefits and contributions to a pension plan. He said anyone wanting to work in this state could get a job, unlike other states. But I digress...

Summer in North Dakota is synonymous with fields rippling with golden wheat, bales of freshly mown hay, ripening corn, lush green soya beans, bright yellow canola and pretty blue flax. Canada geese are raising their chicks on the lakes, and young pheasants run and hide in the grass at the side of the road as we drive past. We have never been here for a winter, but the comparison between the richness of  summer colours and the prolific harvests of summer against the cold, dark days of winter where fields are often covered in several feet of snow must be at opposite ends of the scale. I think I understand why so many North Dakotans are snowbirds, and head south to residences in Florida, Arizona or Texas (among other states) before the first snow flurries appear. As for us, we hope to be safely back in Australia by then, enjoying our own summer.

Fisherman taking his catch of 3 walleye to the fish cleaning station at reservoir campground

Field of Flax - in a few days the whole field will be a sea of blue

Beautiful bird life at Lake Audubon

Yep, our favourite spot at Lake Audubon

Same campground, different view for you

If the sun wasn't hidden behind a cloud this canola field would have been a much brighter yellow

Ripening Corn

Independence Day 4th July 2012

The Cowgirls limber up for the rodeo

If you want to see patriotism at its best, you need to be in the USA on the 4th July. It really is very moving, very genuine, and amazing to witness. We were fortunate to be invited to join Kathy and Milt at the 133rd Mandan Rodeo, followed by the largest fireworks display in North Dakota. We got there early enough to get a great position on the bleachers, and it was a glorious afternoon and evening. I took these photos from up in the grandstand, so to get a good view, you may need to click on each photo to get a full appreciation.  

The front horse paraded the ring with the Stars and Stripes while the Anthem was played

A bit of the action for you...

The rodeo had the usual events such as bull riding, bucking bronco riding, barrel races (although this was a bit different in that each barrel had a balloon above it and the rider had to shoot the ballon with a pistol or rifle), steer roping and crowning of the Rodeo Queen. They had the usual rodeo clown working the crowd and upstaging the commentator. For additional entertainment they had the clown dress up as a Japanese Sumo Wrestler judge, and two pretend Sumo Wrestlers had a contest in the arena. One of the contestants was called 'One Long Thong'. You will understand if you check out the video below. Their antics sure made the crowd laugh. 

We had been to a few rodeos in the USA before, including one in Cody, Wyoming, but we had never seen Chuck Wagon races! What a hoot. Three teams, each with a wagon pulled by four horses, raced into the arena, then around a race track before entering the arena again and passing the finish line to a thunderous finale. 

This is one you will need to click on to see the Chuck Wagons racing

Another novelty event that we hadn't seen were teams competing to milk long-horned cows. Each team had to rope the cow, and get it to stand still long enough to get some milk in a baby's bottle, and then run the bottle to the judge. Some teams threw the cow to the ground then milked it, and others milked the cow while it was held still by other members of the team.  What made it all the more exciting for us was to notice that one of the teams was our very own friends from the Ranch. Clint and his eldest daughter Taylor led the F-Bar Ranch team - you may recall that Ranch is where we visit each year, and it was where we helped out with branding of calves this year. Another event had teams roping a long-horned steer and loading it into a cattle trailer. The F-Bar's steer stopped dead in its tracks and needed all hands on deck to push it into the trailer. Fireworks were constantly going off all around the grounds which not only made for beautiful scenery, but added extra bewilderment to the cows, bulls and steers in the arena. 

Fireworks surrounded the arena all during the rodeo

During the evening we kept seeing 'Memory Lanterns' passing above us in the sky. They are small paper hot-air balloons with a small candle inside that were introduced by a fireworks dealer (Memory Fireworks) here in Bismarck, North Dakota in 2005 and are launched to honour and remember loved ones, particularly those serving in the military. Since 2009 the dealer has donated $1 for every lantern sold to the North Dakota National Guard. He raised just under $5,000 in the first year! The lanterns float across the night sky until the candle goes out. By the end of the night there were too many to count. 

The smaller lights in the sky are the Memory Lanterns - dwarfed by the fireworks

Once the rodeo itself finished around 10.30, the firework display started in earnest. It was spectacular, especially the finale. I wonder what state the world will be in when July 4th comes around again?

Camping and Fishing

After we left the Ranch, we spent another enjoyable week at Audubon Lake with Kathy and Milt. The guys went fishing and had a good haul, while the girls went visiting and shopping. Of an evening, the four of us played dominoes for hours. The second-last Sunday in June found us back on the road and heading south to join Avalyn and Wes at Beaver Bay on the Missouri River, about an hour south of Bismarck. Due to the  mild winter, crops are ripening earlier than usual, and it was a surprise to see the canola almost ready to harvest. Before we left the campground, Frieda and Lenny called in to visit for a while on their way to McClusky for a family get together. Their grandson has won a scholarship to Harvard and they had just been to visit him the day before - they will miss him when he moves to Cambridge.

Milt and Murray with their day's catch at Audubon

Bright yellow canola field - pity it was overcast!

 We then drove to Bismarck and met Irene for lunch and enjoyed our time with her. By 3pm we were on the road to Beaver Bay, and as luck would have it, who should be right behind us but Avalyn and Wes - Wes pulling their big new Pinnacle 40 ft camper, and Avalyn was towing their boat. 

Wes pulling new 5th wheel with Avalyn behind towing their boat

Turn right at the brown sign and you enter Beaver Bay

Beautiful bucolic view across the water (for you Gem)

View out of our RV door 

The campground at Beaver Bay is lovely and quiet during the week, and we have been enjoying evening walks to see the wildlife. Deer, squirrels and rabbits on the ground, and all kinds of birds in the air. We play dominoes until 9.30pm then take a 2 km walk which is out to the entrance gate and back. The sun doesn't set until around 10pm, and it is still light for another 30 minutes after that. The weather was a bit blustery the first few days, so the guys worked on sorting out a few bugs in Wes and Avalyn's brand new 5th wheel camper rather than take the boat out fishing. The satellite TV wiring was all wrong and they had no signal, so Murray was able to get up on their roof and sort that out for them. Filling out warranty paperwork has been another little job they have taken care of. However they made the most of the first fishing day and had the boat in the water by 9am. 

Wes with the best catch of the day

We broke up another day by driving 20 minutes down to check out our next campground and pick out our campsite. Then another day we drove 10 minutes into the nearby town of Linton for lunch and checked out the hardware and drug (chemist) stores both of which had shelves of interesting gifts. The cafe had an unusual version of potato fries, so I took a photo to share with you. They were crispy and crunchy - very nice. Yes, I hear you, loaded with calories too!

Note the unusual fries on the top right of the plate. 

White tail bunnies everywhere

4' snake crosses our path during our walk

Saw the deer each evening around 9.30 pm

While it was wonderful camping right beside the river, the downside of these remote camping areas is that we have no cell phone signal at all, but thankfully our Verizon internet has service - albeit a very, very, very slow download speed.