Reluctantly,
VERY reluctantly, we packed up and headed over to Fargo, North
Dakota, and added another State to our list of states visited.
We
had no previous knowledge of Fargo, I had seen that the Elks had a
large parking lot and traveling Elks could park there. So off we
went. The lodge was very welcoming and not only provided us with a
free drink but pins and T Shirts too!
We
set off to explore, Fargo appears to be a booming town with lots of
new shopping centers and industry. They have several local Breweries
and we sampled most of them! Fargo and Morehead are twin cities
straddling the border between North Dakota and Minnesota, Morehead is
home to a couple of very interesting Norwegian related objects. A
Viking ship that was built by a local gentleman and sailed by his
son's across the Atlantic to Norway, and a replica Stavkirk, the
traditional Norwegian wooden church.
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| The Viking ship replica that sailed across the Atlantic |
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| The Stavkirk |
Fargo
has an Air Museum but it was closed for most of our time there due to
a special event. The website said it would reopen on Sunday but when
we got there they were still working to clean up. One of the
volunteers kindly opened the museum hanger for us and let us wander
around for a couple of minutes.
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| Interior of the Stavkirk |
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| All hand carved by one man |
We
were dry camping at the Elks and we've had a problem develop with our
generator where it would fire up but die again. It got worse and now
we couldn't recharge the batteries so we checked into a city
campground for a night so we could get everything charged and dump
our tanks.
The
next day we did a dreary 200 miles of I94 which is dead straight and
dead flat for most of the way. We took our customary break after 2
hours at Jamestown ND, which just happened to be the hometown of our
friend from San Diego Loretta Armstrong. When she saw we were heading
this was she told us we had to stop and see the giant Buffalo and the
general store she used to hang around when she was younger.
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| A 60 ton concrete Buffalo, well why not? |
There was
a Walmart to park at, a Tap House for lunch and the Buffalo was a
mile down the road so we had good break. We bought some DVD's at a
Goodwill and snacks at Dollar Tree too.
The
day ended at the Bismarck Elks Lodge, again dry camping in a huge
parking lot. The Lodge here is proud of it's bar. It dates from 1880
and such dignitaries as Teddy Roosevelt and Tom Mix have taken
refreshment at it's counter during it's many travels around the
Dakotas before it found it's present home in 1966.
Fiddling
around with the generator and calling local stores to see if they had
a fuel filter for it had me stumble on a free online Owners Manual
for it. When I read the trouble shooting section they listed our
condition, fires up but dies. Their corrective actions showed low oil
as the first thing to check. And that was it! There is an oil
pressure sensor and if the oil pressure doesn't get up to spec in a
couple of seconds it kills the ignition. When I added about a pint of
oil it ran just fine! DUHHH.
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| The generator, works great when you add oil! |
Bismarck
and Mandan are “Adjoined” towns. (like Minneapolis/St Paul).
Mandan is also the name of the Native American Tribe in the area.
Thru this area runs the Lewis and Clark Trail.
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| Mandan winter house |
So
where am I going with this??
Life
is full of circles and coincidences.
When
we moved to San Diego in 2006 it was to work on a new class of supply
ships for the US Navy the T-AKE class. Classes of ships are named
after the first ship in that class,
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| USNS Lewis and Clark |
The
first ship in the T-AKE class? USNS Lewis and Clark!
The
second ship? USNS Sacagawea
OK
here's where I have to address US History for our European friends
and relatives.
In
1803 Thomas Jefferson, the President at that time cut a deal with
Napoleon the French Emperor to buy the “Louisiana Territory”.
This Territory wasn't just the current State of Louisiana however, It
included just about all of the current USA west of the Mississippi!
In
order to explore this vast new territory and to find a way cross
country to the Pacific Jefferson organized an expedition named the
Corps of discovery led by 2 army captains. Merriweather Lewis and
William Clark.
The
Lewis and Clark Expedition set off from St Louis Missouri and
followed the Missouri River by boat and on foot until the winter got
near.
They
met a band of friendly Indians the Mandan's who helped feed them thru
the winter.
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| Charbonneau, Lewis and Clark |
The
Expedition hired a French hunter trapper Toussaint
Charbonneau. He had an Indian wife who was related to several other
tribes along their prospective path and spoke several native
languages, her name was Sacagawea.
The
ships in the T-AKE class were named after Americans who were first in
their field. Hence Lewis and Clark. The legend of Sacagawea taking the lead and translated for that expedition led to the second ship being
named for her.
So
there is the circle, my working life in shipbuilding, the move to San
Diego, and our arrival in Bismarck/ Mandan with it's connections to
Lewis and Clark.
Naturally
we had to visit Fort Mandan, which is a recreation of the expeditions
winter quarters, and to the Mandan Village National Monument.
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| Entrance to Fort Mandan |
With
so many coincidences and links going in, it was hardly surprising
that when we got to the village there was a special event for school
children going on and we were welcomed by the rangers and told to
join in wherever we wanted.
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| Although Tipi's are associated with Indians, the Mandan didn't use them |
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| Beautiful artwork on Buffalo hide. |
As
we made to leave I spotted a gentleman in Native Dress and we walked
over to talk to him. He turned out to be Keith Bear a flute maker,
player and songwriter of renown who has played with orchestras all
over the world and has been nominated for a Grammy! We were treated
to a talk about his flutes and songs and a sampling of his beautiful
music.
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| Keith Bear |
