Days 30 and 31 - The Land of Corn

After leaving Judge Amidon in Fargo Wednesday afternoon, we headed across the border to Minnesota and stopped for the night in the St. Cloud area about 35 miles west of Minneapolis. Don't go there for the food.  We went to a microbrewery that is rated #2 for the area by Yelp and Trip Advisor. If it's second, there must be no good food or craft beer to be found there; probably our worst meal of the trip. Oh well, can't win them all.

Mississippi River at St. Cloud

What we did like about St. Cloud was Munsinger Gardens on the east bank of the Mississippi River. These large gardens were close to peak and extraordinary. Gardens on the flood plain are largely annuals, so just imagine how much work goes into hothouse growing and planting with the long, cold Minnesota winters. Above the flood plain, large perennial gardens were beautifully designed by floral color. We were glad we stopped before skipping town. Mary's sister Sarah and you other master gardeners would love it.

Mary at Munsinger Gardens

Munsinger Perennial Garden

 


Mary and I love to find little treasures in small-town America. Owatonna is a small town south of Minneapolis on I-35. It's name comes from a legend about a frail Native-American woman who drank the healing waters from mineral springs. We stopped at Mineral Springs Park to say hello to Ms. Owatonna and have our lunch. For all you Amidons out there, this park sure had the feel of Lititz Springs Park and brought back memories. Oh yes, Phil enjoyed watching a pair of Great Crested Flycatchers, too.

Owatonna

Next it was onto corn country. We spent Thursday night near Cedar Rapids, Iowa, visiting our nephew Mark Amidon, his wife Dawn, and their dogs Maggie and Gracie. It has been 9 years since we last saw Mark and Dawn at a family reunion, We had a lot of catching up to do, especially since Mark had several Air Force duty stations, retired from the military and took an engineering job in Iowa since then. And their twins Matthew and Michael have all grown up and left the nest, so Mark and Dawn are looking for a smaller home. We also got happy news that Mark's sister Amy will be getting married soon out in Colorado.

Mark and Dawn Amidon

Today, after Cedar Rapids, all we saw was corn for miles and miles through eastern Iowa and all the way across Illinois - often as far as the eye could see in any direction except for an occasional barn and field of soybeans. It really is amazing to see that much land under production.

Tonight finds us near Dayton, Ohio, less than seven hours from home. Our journey truly has been a great experience seeing new places, exploring geological wonders, learning history, finding new birds and spending time with family members we see not often enough. Now we are ready to be home, but we are already are working on our bucket list of future travel destinations. We hope you liked coming along on our ride. It was a long-hoped-for journey that we are both so glad we finally made...eighteen states later, we feel we know, at last, the beautiful, natural diversity of the place we call home.

Days 28 and 29 - Across the Wide Missouri

It's time for another history lesson and then lots of birds. Of course, this means Phil has been in his element for the past two days, with good sport Mary right with him as another history buff and designated backroads driver. Leaving Theodore Roosevelt behind, our first stop was in Mandan, North Dakota, on the western shore of the Missouri River - known locally as The River.

Phil at The River

Mandan has intrigued us for awhile, since it was another stop for Lewis and Clark on their epic journey. It was here that they found a deserted Mandan Indian village before staying with Mandans for the winter of 1803 at another village upstream. The tribe already had been decimated by smallpox spread from Native-American trading partners. At Fort Lincoln State Park in Mandan, we toured the reconstructed On-a-Slant Village along the banks of The River. Mandans had small round boats similar to Celtic curraghs, some tribal members were pale and red-headed. These and a few word similarities have led to speculation that they encountered the legendary Prince Medoc, other 13th century Welsh adventurers or their descendants - unlikely but why not.

Mandan Bull Boat

Fort Lincoln also was the headquarters for General Custer's Seventh Cavalry when they set out for the Little Big Horn in 1876. A private in the unit gave us a tour of the reconstructed home of the general and his wife, and we learned that Custer was not a man people liked to get close to - he loved to eat onions at every meal. An earlier infantry fort was located at the same site, but foot soldiers sent to protect Northern Pacific railroad workers could not keep up with Sioux on horseback. Custer was able to keep up with them, but . . .  As we know, superior numbers ultimately prevailed.

General Custer's Headquarters

If you like birds, the next section of this blog chapter is for you. If not, skip to a new genealogy installment at the end, or just look at the pretty pictures.

After lunch at Fort Lincoln, we crossed the wide Missouri and headed to the area around Jamestown, North Dakota. Surrounding Jamestown are several national wildlife refuges. The area has countless  marshes, ponds and lakes that teem with migratory waterfowl in the spring and provide excellent breeding habitat in the summer as well. On Tuesday afternoon, our goal was Chase National Wildlife Refuge, which has the largest breeding population of American White Pelicans.

American White Pelican

We would like to tell you that Chase is an amazing place. We hear that it is, but we never actually got there. To reach Chase, you have to travel through a maze of both paved and unpaved roads, some of which are not always passable. What's more, we found so many small marshes and ponds, and so many birds along the way, it would have been nearly dark before we ever got there. It was not a place to get stuck, even if you had a cell phone with service. Anyway, Phil found 36 species, including the pelicans.

American Avocet

We saw far more ducks than expected: Blue-winged Teal, Mallard, Gadwall, Lesser Scaup, Redhead, Common Goldeneye, Ruddy Duck. There also were American Avocets, Black Terns, Franklin's Gulls and the hawk pictured below; all in breeding plumage, too. Phil is leaning toward Krider's Red-tailed, but is it a Ferruginous?

Krider's or Ferruginous?

Somehow we did navigate back to our motel safely. After some local brews, bison burger and a good night's rest, we headed out in the morning to Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge. We found lots more dirt roads, but the birding trail map was better and there is a nice auto tour drive through part of the refuge. Far fewer ducks were here, but Phil added a new bird to his life list (Clay-colored Sparrow). Sedge and Marsh Wrens were singing, and Mary especially enjoyed watching the colorful Bobolinks, Eastern Kingbirds and Yellow-headed Blackbirds in a spectacular setting. North Dakota is a beautiful state at least in summer.

Sedge Wren

 Yellow-headed Blackbird

Earlier, we stopped at the western North Dakota town of Amidon, which was named after Mary's great-great uncle Charles Fremont Amidon. On Wednesday afternoon, a visit to his gravesite in Fargo on the eastern border provided a good bookend for our time in the state.

 Mary Pays Respects to Judge Amidon

Tonight we stop in Minnesota nearing an end to our month long journey.

Days 26 and 27 - Bully for Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Mary and I spent yesterday and several hours today at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in western North Dakota. You undoubtedly have heard of the Badlands of South Dakota. Well, these are the Badlands North. You sail along on the interstate through grassy plains (with scattered well rigs) for miles, and then all of a sudden there are these multi-colored holes in the ground. They are not as deep as the Grand Canyon but still impressive.

South Unit, Theodore Roosevelt National Park

President Theodore Roosevelt was a champion of national parks, but he did not create this one. The area received federal protection only after his death. It is named for him, though, because he spent time in the area as a cattle rancher in the early 1880's. After an initial visit, he returned to recoup after his wife and mother died the same day in 1884. However, two years of harsh winters killed most of his stock and ruined the ranching plans. The park has a South Unit, a North Unit and a small isolated section where Teddy had built his Elkhorn Ranch.

History Lecturer and Birder

On Sunday morning, we woke to cloudy, dripping skies but headed out to the South Unit, anyway. Early into the 36-mile circuit drive through the park, the rain got intermittently heavier, and finally not so intermittent. We chalked the drive up to a scouting visit and headed back to town, but not before saying hello to this elderly gentleman.

Wet Bison

Back in Dickinson, we drove around downtown. That took five minutes. Then we decided to check out a local dinosaur museum. It was a bit overpriced at $8 and padded with a mineral collection, but they did have some real Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops bones from local digs. Skies were clearing by the time we finished, so we headed back out to the park.

This Skull Is the Real Deal

This time, we really were able to enjoy the colors of the stratified rock at the overlooks and during a couple of short hikes. We learned that the soft gray rock is called Bentonite and is easily eroded by the rain. It actually can create a dangerous soup for walking in when wet, but it did not really rain all that much on Sunday. Orange-colored rocks are called Scoria and have iron deposits that make then harder. Dark gray strata are coal beds, and these sometimes catch fire from lightning and burn for years, forming depressions in the terrain. So enough of the geology, enjoy a couple of pics.

Rock Strata at South Unit

Painted Canyon

The Lazuli Bunting was quite colorful, too, and we did encounter some road hazards on our way out.

Lazuli Bunting

Road Hazards

Monday dawned clear and warm. We traveled up U.S. 85 with several tanker trucks for 50 miles to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt. This unit is more isolated and apparently visited by few people, but we thought it was the more awesome of the two main sections. It is a badlands canyon formed by the Little Missouri River, so you have beautiful rock formations combined with more extensive riparian habitat. Also, things are pretty lush due to a wetter-than-normal spring.

Mary and Bentonite

The varied habitat of the North Unit, which also includes some prairie grasslands as the west end, made for more birds. Numerous Lark Sparrows and Field Sparrows sang throughout the park, and we saw some eastern birds like American Kestrel, Bobolink, Baltimore Oriole and Yellow-breasted Chat. The Rock Wren below offered a spirited singing performance, too. We enjoyed the drive through the prairie habitat, especially since we were too fried to explore the interior of the Little Missouri National Grasslands next door.

Little Missouri River Vista

Rock Wren Serenader

Let us just say that our visit to Theodore Roosevelt National Park was, in a word, "Bully!"

Days 23 - 25 - East of the Mountains

First, we interrupt our journey to bring you this important and very happy announcement: Liam Carlos Dickinson was born early this evening, July 6, in Austin, Texas. After 68 years of life, Mary and I are new grandparents. Liam and mom Liza are doing well, and we are sure new papa Andy is, too. What a wonderful day! Though sorry we aren't there to be with the new family, we are very glad that Liza and Andy's son has arrived and all are well. We will see them in two weeks. Let the spoiling begin!!!

Meanwhile, July 6 finds us in Dickinson, North Dakota, which is not named after any relatives. We departed Seattle, and Melissa and David, on the Fourth of July and headed east, making only two quick stops in Washington at Snowqualmie Falls in the Cascades and the Columbia River gorge east of the mountains. Then it was onto Idaho.

Snoqualmie Falls

Columbia River

We reached Coeur d'Alene in the Idaho panhandle in time for the "largest Fourth of July celebration in North Idaho. Maybe that is a small piece of the country, but the celebration is impressive. The city is on a beautiful lake of the same name, and thousands of people were enjoying the city beach while waiting for the rockets. What fun to swim and watch fireworks at the same time. Of course, these  two geezers are too old to stay up for 10 p.m. fireworks after a long day on the road.

Idaho Fourth of July

Early to bed and early to rise to go birding in the Coeur d'Alene area. Hayden Lake, north of town is a loop drive around the water and much longer than we anticipated. However, it was nice to see fishing Ospreys, Pygmy Nuthatches and numerous Bank Swallows during the circuit. Kilkenny Lake Road was our second stop, and this marshy area must have amazing birding during spring migration. There was not so much in July, but a Cinnamon Teal, Black Tern and more Ospreys made it a fairly successful visit, although Phil was kind of bummed at not getting a life Lewis's Woodpecker. Northern Idaho is a beautiful place, no doubt.

 Bank Swallow

Soon we crossed the border into Montana, basically following the return path of Lewis and Clark. We stopped for the night in Bozeman, which is a college town in a valley surrounded by beautiful hills. The Bacchus Pub also had Harp on draft and excellent hamburgers. In the morning, a birding stop surprisingly yielded several eastern species, including Gray Catbird, Yellow Warbler, Eastern Kingbird and Willow Flycatcher, along with Black-billed Magpies.

Black-billed Magpie

After Bozeman, we headed to the truly Big Sky part of Montana east of Billings. Montana sure takes a long time to drive across - about 11 hours not counting stops. However, the interstate mostly follows a scenic route along the Yellowstone River. Phil spied three American White Pelicans in the water (Trumpeter Swans would have been better) and, just a couple of minutes later, a Northern Goshawk eating a meal on a fence post.

Yellowstone River

A check of the map led us to take a break at Pompey's Pillar National Monument. Where, you ask? It seems that William Clark stopped at this sandstone outcropping along the Yellowstone on his way home in 1806. Setting a bad precedent, he paused to etch his name on the rock - right next to some ancient petroglyphs that now mostly have been eroded and etched over, although you can still see a little. Pompey was Clark's nickname for Sacajawea's son.

William Clark Etched Here

After several more hours, we finally made it to North Dakota and almost immediately were greeted by the sight of oil and gas wells on otherwise lush farms and ranches - also bridge reconstruction to accommodate the large equipment. The woman at the welcome center said it is far worse further north and lamented local price gouging at motels, etc.

As mentioned, we are staying in Dickinson but first we had to drive a few miles south to Amidon, North Dakota. Amidon is named after Mary's great uncle, Charles Fremont Amidon, who was a federal judge in the state around 1900 and a friend of Teddy Roosevelt's. Amidon also is the smallest county seat in America with a population of less than 30. It also is the only town in Slope County and well-known for its dummy-occupied sheriff's car positioned to slow down those passing through. Were those doughnuts in the back seat? On the way back from this detour, several Lark Buntings along the road added to Phil's life bird list.

Mary Amidon at Amidon

Slope County Sheriff

For the next couple of days, Dickinson will be our base as we explore Theodore Roosevelt National  Park and some other local scenery, and hopefully not too many gas-burning oil wells.

Days 19 - 22 - Hot Time in Seattle Town

Sunday and Monday saw record high temperatures of 92 and 89 in a city where most houses and many small businesses lack air conditioning. For all but perhaps three or four days a year, it really isn't missed, but shady outside tables and park areas were popular the past few days, and children were flocking to water spray areas around town. Fortunately, it still cooled off once the sun set, so we did not go sleepless in Seattle. And, on clear days Mt. Rainier always looms not far away.

Mt. Rainier Sunset

We are at a charming B & B in the Capitol Hill area of the city, a block from Melissa's and David's condo and their fluffball cats. Our host John has kept us well supplied with fresh Washington fruit for breakfast and turned up the fans in our rooms. It is fruit season in the Pacific Northwest with a wide choice of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, bing and Mt. Rainier cherries, peaches and more.

Seattle Fruit Selection

Sunday was a day of rest after our road travels. Chef David treated some close friends and his in-laws to a tasty brunch that left us too full to try anything very strenuous, especially in the heat. So we fled to an air-conditioned movie theater. "Now You See It" was a lot of fun despite its flaws, and the real magic maybe that they did it without killing people and blowing everything up. After the movie, we wandered around one of Seattle's beautiful large parks until the sun got lower in the sky. A fly-by Anna's Hummingbird and the summer flowers made for a pleasant stroll.

Our Monday strategy to beat the heat was to flee the middle of the city. We headed out to the Lake Washington waterfront in Kirkland for a lunch with a view, followed by a tour and wine tasting at the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville. The grapes are grown in the Columbia River Valley, but the production, bottling and tourism are all done near where the people are in the Seattle area.

Chateau Ste. Michelle Chardonnay

White Wine at the Chateau

After the winery, we hit another park - this time Discovery Park along the water on Seattle's north side. West Bank Lighthouse, harbor seals and a Cassin's Vireo offered a fine supporting cast to the cooling sound air. We topped off the day with outstanding fresh salmon and halibut at the landmark Ivar's Restaurant on the Lake Union waterfront in Fremont.

Tableside View at Ivar's

The thermometer hit only 85 in Seattle on Tuesday, but we wanted something still cooler. We took a ferry over to the Olympic Peninsula, drove to Sequim (pronounced Squim) on the north shore and navigated 15 miles of unpaved National Forest roads to the upper reaches of the wild Dungeness River. We walked along the river through an Olympic rain forest, checking out a variety of Washington wildflowers and, of course, looking for birds. A pair of dragonfly-catching American Dippers made Phil's, and everyone else's, day. But the flowers, water and butterflies were pretty spectacular, too.

American Dipper and Dragonfly

Dungeness River

After the hike, we drove over to Melissa's and David's peninsula property in Port Hadlock, where Mary and I offered free landscaping advice. Our kids have been working hard to develop this piece of land. One of the reasons they had joined us in Oregon was to finalize construction and delivery of a modular home for the site for David's parents. The home should be in place later this year, and we share their excitement in seeing things start to fall in place.

Mt. Baker from Melissa's and David's Place

Much cooler in Seattle on Wednesday with a light breeze, so there was no problem walking 20 blocks downhill to enjoy the sights and smells of Seattle's Pike Street Market on the waterfront. We stopped at a small French restaurant for lunch before heading over to the Museum of History and Industry. The museum traces the development of the area from Chief Seattle through its rapid growth during the 1897 Klondike Gold Rush, the height of the union era during World War 1 and the 1962 World
s Fair to Microsoft and Nirvana. We highly recommend it to Seattle visitors.

Museum of History and Industry

Tomorrow is Fourth of July, but we will depart Seattle, let Melissa and David recover from our visit, and start back east. See you next time in Idaho and Montana.

Days 15 - 18 - It's Willamette, Dammit!

The "a" in Willamette is flat, making it easy for this Jersey boy to remember. Ar-y-gun is a bit more difficult, but we have been trying. We arrived in Salem and checked into the downtown Grand Hotel, which offers so much more for the same price as the typical highway motel. Our first morning, we walked around the city for awhile, noting in particular how unlike North Carolina there were no demonstrations going on at the State Capitol and that the legislature was working together on a "grand bargain" budget deal.

Oregon State Capitol in Salem

Our daughter Melissa and son-in-law David drove down from Seattle to join us for a tour of the Willamette Valley. With record heat out here hitting 90, we made it a point to get in some early birding at a wetlands on the edge of Corvallis. Several Wrentits added to Phil's life list, and the Marsh Wrens put on a show.

Marsh Wren

Corvallis is a university town and probably the "greenest" city in America. The city's rose garden was in full bloom, too. This is pinot noir country, and we stopped for some tasting and a relaxed lunch at Left Coast Cellars north of Corvallis. Most of the wineries create only small batches for local distribution, so we don't see these labels back home. The winery grounds also provided nice views of a Bullock's Oriole and an Acorn Woodpecker. Phil was happy.

Acorn Woodpecker

Left Coast Wine Tasters

Further north, we stopped at the small, bustling community of McMinnville to sample some more wine and gather fresh fruit at the farmer's market. Berries are in season! Yum.

It was interesting to compare Salem and Winston-Salem. Salem has about 150,000 people, thousands fewer than Winston. The downtown area is much larger, not even counting the Capitol grounds, and there is more vehicular traffic. We also noticed there were downtown department stores - Nordstrom, Penney's, Kohl's, Ross's - with free public parking garages. Could there be a connection, city council members? Lots of wide bikeways, greenways, parks, too. And, Christo's offered some of the best pizza we've tasted in a long time.

On Saturday morning, it was time to head to Seattle where we will spend some more time with the kids. However, we detoured to see the Pacific Ocean at the town of Seaside. Lewis and Clark ended their western journey here, so we had finally completed the Oregon Trail.

Lewis and Clark 2013

It was a crystal clear day, and the beach at low-tide was about a quarter-mile out to the surf. We walked in the sand as Phil tried to identify gulls - Westerns? Glaucous-winged? California?

Seaside Beach

Western Gull

We then headed north, crossing the Columbia River near its mouth at Astoria and taking a scenic route through southern Washington. Lots of birds in the Columbia River area, including several Bald Eagles. After a stop for a dockside lunch in Olympia, we passed a sunlit Mt. Rainier and reached hot Seattle by late afternoon.

Columbia River at Astoria

We will be in Seattle for five days, and it looks like lots of heat in a city with few air conditioners.