While Murray is away...

Murray flew to Tel Aviv for three weeks to fulfil a lifelong dream of visiting the Holy Land. On the left is his photo take of Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Impressive. Several of my North Dakota girlfriends will look in on me while he is away, and my friend Jan flew in to visit me, from her home in Frederick, Maryland. She was able to spend 3 nights with me in the RV, and it was wonderful to have the chance to catch up on each others lives. The last time we were together was on a Western Caribbean cruise in 2012, so we were well overdue for a catch up. 

We sat down and worked out our previous get togethers, and it was an impressive list:

2002/2003 - worked together in Maryland, USA for 2 years

2003 - Italy - 12 days driving around Milan, Venice, Florence, Pisa, Tuscany, Montecassino and Rome

2004 - Australia - Spent 3 days on a yacht in the Whitsunday Islands & snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef, followed by a week driving the south Island of New Zealand

2005 - Ottawa - 3 days (we stayed with our friend Judy)

2007 - Kentucky camping for 3 days, then Las Vegas for a bachelorette weekend for Jan's daughter

2008 - Nashville for 3 days 

2009 - Sydney, Australia (Bondi Beach, Blue Mountains etc) for a week

2012 - Western Caribbean Cruise (with friends Rainie and Tom, and Jan and Dick's daughter Nicole) for 5 days

2014 - Bismarck, North Dakota for 3 days

On arrival at Bismarck airport Jan picked up a rental car, and drove about 15 minutes to join me at the campground. On our first outing together, one of the first things we saw were two colourful scarves, so we couldn't resist buying them to express our shared friendship. We wore the scarves each day, and even swapped them over at one stage. Our first sightseeing stop was the North Dakota Heritage Center in the middle of downtown Bismarck. Some of the galleries and the gift shop opened in April this year, with the final opening being set for November. The Center houses an impressive display of information and artefacts dating back to the glacier and dinosaur era. While we were there, we saw school children enjoying the interactive displays scattered throughout the galleries. 

Fort Abraham Lincoln is about 30 minutes drive from our campground, and it was from this military Fort that General Custer rode out with over 200 soldiers to meet the Sioux at the Battle of Little Big Horn in 1876, and where Custer and his men died. The Custer house has been authentically re-built to replicate the original house he shared with his wife. The original house was demolished by locals looking for building materials for their own homes. In the photo of the Fort (above), the Commissary is the building in the far left, then you can only just see Custer's home to the right of it, and then the granary is further right again, which is almost in the centre of the photo. On the far right are the soldiers' barracks. What you can't see are the stables where Custer's horse Comanche had his stall. My family are very familiar with Comanche, the brave horse. The stables are further to the right of the photo, but missed the cut! I thought the scene was so picturesque I just had to ask Jan to stop the car so that I could take the photo.

We did a tour of the Custer house, led by a guide dressed in period costume. The top left photo is of Jan and I in Custer's private study (he loved to hunt, and his hunting trophies hung throughout the house - none of these are his original ones), and the photo on the right is Jan with our guide in the kitchen. Every room held some original item of furniture or crockery or other item from Custer's house. 

Not far from the Fort is On-A-Slant Indian Village which was built and occupied by the Mandan Indians from around 1575 to 1781, when they were almost all wiped out by smallpox; a disease introduced by the Europeans. The village has been carefully reconstructed to retain that part of American History. A small museum is part of the display.

Below you can see one of the typical mounds or 'earthlodges' that the Mandan Indians built to live, cook, meet and sleep in. There was a fireplace in the centre of each lodge - they were reportedly warm in winter and cool in summer. Jan was acting rather playful when I took the photo below!

We didn't spend ALL the time sightseeing though - we also had time to check out a few shops, and eat some nice meals - oh, yes, and enjoy a margarita. 

On Jan's last evening, we were sitting in the RV chatting around 9pm, when I looked to the West and saw the sun setting. Then I noticed some darker pink clouds to the North, and then a pinkish rainbow to the East. Murray had our main camera, so it was the iPhone to the rescue - the resultant panorama photo was taken with me standing on the steps of our RV. I panned from left to right (W

est to East). A perfect ending to a very special interlude. Thanks Jan.