Reconnecting in North Dakota

Medora, North Dakota

Horses up on the skyline

Setting sun reflecting on clouds over Lake Oahe (our RV on left-may have to magnify photo by clicking on it)

Best Walleye so far...

A few family & friends have commented that they have checked the blog and found no new entries. I think I have finally reached full relaxation mode, and have been pretty slack. However I did get my beads out and have had some enjoyable hours playing with them. I have also been editing a novel for an emerging writer, so I guess I haven't totally zoned out.

After we left Yellowstone, we entered Montana, then took a road less travelled through eastern Montana. It wasn't the most scenic of routes, but we saw a few antelope and an interesting ghost town along the way.

We spent a very pleasant few days in Medora which is just over the border into North Dakota, and a pretty little town. Next stop was Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota and a bustling city. We needed to call into the the optical centre at Walmart to order me a new pair of glasses, and Murray needed to get his fishing license there, so after that, it was pedal to the floor and we may a bee line to our campground 70 miles south down to the North & South Dakota border. Our friends Avalyn & Wes were camped there on Lake Oahe, and said it was a nice spot.

They were right, it is really lovely here on the lake. Our first sunset was beautiful - at this time of the year the sun doesn't set until 8.45pm, which must be very pleasant for the locals who know that in winter it gets dark by 5pm. It is such a treat to wake up each morning and look out the window and see the lake, or stand at the kitchen sink and see the lake. Good Feng Shui. There are no other souls around and it is lovely & quiet. In fact, apart from our friends, we are the only ones in the campground. It is harvest time in this area, so a lot of the local farmers are caught up with their own fields or helping neighbours. I thought some folks from the city might have turned up later this evening, but it is now 9.45pm Friday and no one else has arrived.

Each day Murray & Wes go out fishing in the boat and spend about 7 hours doing what they enjoy most. Needless to say we are eating lovely, fresh walleye once again. Time for a fish fry tomorrow for dinner. Last night Wes drove us 11 miles south to the little town of Pollock, where we had dinner in a cafe/restaurant. The most expensive items on the menu were walleye & rib fillet, but we get walleye back at the camper, so I enjoyed a juicy steak instead. On the drive to dinner we passed numerous golden wheat fields with many in the process of being harvested. We were amused by the antics of pheasants as they scooted off the road into the nearby grass - they are lucky it isn't pheasant hunting season (October) or they would not be so cheeky! Apparently, in hunting season, if the pheasants are on the side of the road and there are no 'posted' signs denoting you are on private property, you can get out of your car and shoot them. Of course, by the time you have got out of the car and retrieved & loaded your weapon, they have disappeared!

On the way home it was getting dark, but there was enough light to see the antlers on the male deer that just beat us across the road. Further along, a timid doe stood by the roadside with her nostrils quivering before turning around and moving off the road. Thankfully we haven't seen any snakes at the campground this visit, however the men did see a bull (harmless) snake swimming in the lake yesterday, and today they saw what has been described to us as a rattlesnake between 3 &4 ft. It was definitely a rattler, but the length is the questionable bit - one says it was 3', the other says more like 4'. Even at 1 ft they are killers, so I remain alert whenever I step outside the RV.