Chief Looking’s Village – Sonali’s Garden

Bismarck, North Dakota.

In August, 2015, Lynn and I were in Bismarck for a Civil Air Patrol activity. While there, I decided to scout around for a place to capture the sunset. What came of that evening’s exploration was an image of the Missouri River Valley captured by my cell phone. I’d gathered other images with my Nikon, but the cell phone capture above ended up being my favorite. The majority of images captured that day were featured in a blog post on macro photography as I spent some time in a small garden that was ablaze with summer flowers. 

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Cellpic Sunday – 4 November 2018

Fargo, North Dakota.

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… er, ah, I mean, a short time ago in a parking lot nearby, I found this Nissan Rogue. The owner, just getting back to his Rogue from the local Best Buy store, paused for a photo with his transportation. My favorite part of the tack is the lightsaber on the rear window wiper. Too bad his vehicle wasn’t washed and prepped for its photo shoot and debut on these august pages. >grin<

Buckstop Junction – The Buck Stops Here in Bismarck

Bismarck, North Dakota.

It’s harvest time in North Dakota and one of the annual activities of the season for a dozen years now, is Applefest, a celebration of autumn and a fundraiser for the Bismarck Cancer Center. Applefest this year was September 22 and 23 and as in years past was held at Buckstop Junction, a recreated pioneer village on the southeast end of the Bismarck metro area. Activities included everything from a pie eating contest to a 5K run and many more. Having recently stopped at a frontier village at Jamestown, on our way to Bismarck, we decided to check out Buckstop Junction. It was our good fortune to be there during Applefest 2018.

But I Digress – Louis L’Amour, Favorite Son of Jamestown North Dakota

Jamestown, North Dakota.

One of the more interesting attractions in Jamestown’s Frontier Village (see last week’s Travel Tuesday post,) is the building known as Louis L’amour’s writing shack. The building has nothing to do with where he wrote as he left Jamestown as a teenager, but is instead an homage to his prolific writing. Born the last of seven children in the midwestern farming community of Jamestown, North Dakota, Louis spent the first fifteen years of his life there. Though he never finished high school, he was a self-educated man, for a short time a prize fighter, a hobo riding the American railroads, and eventually one of the most successful and prolific writers in the 20th century. 

Frontier Village – A Drive Down Louis L’Amour Lane

Jamestown, North Dakota.

Over the years in our travels, we’ve stopped at recreated villages and historic towns in the old west from Goldfield and Tortilla Flat in Arizona to Deadwood, South Dakota and Cheyenne, Wyoming. North Dakota has a collection of villages that are great historic stops along the I-94 corridor. Bonanzaville in West Fargo focuses on the Bonanza farmers and homesteaders in the Red River Valley. Buckstop Junction in Bismarck highlights homesteaders and settlers put down roots in the Missouri River valley. Not to be left out, the largest community between Fargo and Bismarck has its own historic village.

Cellpic Sunday – 7 October 2018

 

Mandan, North Dakota.

A few weeks ago, our Civil Air Patrol members participated in a training session at the Mandan Airport. As it turned out, the weather wasn’t much good for flying and the cadets who were scheduled to get orientation rides were disappointed.

Red River Zoo – A WOW Experience for the Community

Fargo, North Dakota.

Fargo opened a zoo in 1999, and 18 years later, Lynn and I finally decided to visit. Not that we have anything against zoos or this zoo in particular. It just wasn’t a priority for us. A chance mention made me realize that our grandson, Owen, who lives with our daughter has been there several times. It was about time for Owen to show us what we’ve been missing. The first unusual animal is the tigeralo (what else would you call it?) As part of an art exhibit some years ago, painted buffalo are found all around the city. I’d never seen this buffalo painted in tiger stripes. I thought it is very creative and fitting for the zoo, though there are no big cats of any kind on exhibit here.