North Dakota

Mile 4552 to 5070

Entering North Dakota (Mile 4552) turned out to be almost the exact 1/2-way point of the trip

The Capitol Building at Bismarck just looks like an office building! (Mile 4780)

North Dakota is one of the most remote states in the country. It's a little thin on points of interest and a little heavy on NOTHING, I mean, big doses of ABSOLUTELY NOTHING -- but I really appreciated the opportunity to see it.  This was a terribly exciting moment for me. If you ever think we are being totally choked by urban sprawl, that we are running out of room, if you ever feel claustrophobic and closed-in, if you ever feel that those damned developers have gotten their hands on every patch of real estate in the world... GO TO NORTH DAKOTA and you will be cured!!!

I drove into the sunset across I-94 West (a horribly maintained stretch of road, FYI) to the capital city, Bismarck. Besides being a little less German than I expected, I liked it fine. I visited the capitol building, and checked into the Motel 6.  This was my first Motel 6 of the trip, one of many to follow.  I ate at this bizarre but cool restaurant called "Space Aliens Barbeque", and turned in for an early bed.

Let me point out also, that since visiting my old local Starbucks around the corner from my old house at 2500 N. Lincoln Ave. in Chicago, I had not passed any Starbuckses and had been hurting to find any good local coffee.  As an incredibly pleasant surprise the next morning, I was able to get a giant 32-oz sized, wonderfully prepared iced Americano -- pictured below on the hood of my car -- at this gas station mini-mart on my way out of Bismarck.  God bless America!!!

Good Coffee in Bismarck, on the roof of car (Mile 4782)

 

I headed north on US 83 to Fort Mandan and the "Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center" museum.  After reading the fantastic book, "Undaunted Courage" by Stephen Ambrose, I had become a true bandwagon Lewis & Clark aficionado.  This was one of the first major L&C sights I'd visit on the trip.  So far, I'd been to Monticello, where Lewis discussed plans with Thomas Jefferson, and Harpers Ferry, where they got outfitted for the trip.  A few years ago, I also visited the St. Louis Arch and Expansion Museum, across the river from where they originated the trip across from St. Louis in Illinois.

Again, I won't give you a whole big history lesson, but L&C had an incredible amount of guts, fortitude, resolve, skill, and leadership, along with a lot of incredible good fortune, to pull off the truly amazing feat of traveling to the Pacific and back from 1804 to 1806.  Hey, the trip was draining enough by automobile, it is unfathomable how these guys did it.  If you don't know a lot about L&C, I think it's your patriotic duty to read up on them!

Up the Missouri River / Lewis & Clark Center / Fort Mandan

Fort Mandan -- named for the local Native American tribe -- is where they spent their first winter.  However, I must admit that the name "Mandan" made me think of Robert Mandan, who played "Chester" on "Soap" and later, Jack Tripper's father-in-law during the latter days of "Three's Company".  (That's what you call going off on a tangent.) That kind of ruined the "historic-ness" of the mood.  But anyway... basically, L&C went up the Missouri River from St. Louis, and their plan was to go as far as they could, then hop over the Continental Divide, and slide down the Columbia to the Pacific, making friends with all the Indians along the way to establish a trading empire with them.  As you'll see later, they made it, but found no easy way across.  Just a very few years later, the steam engine, the railroad, and of course planes & automobiles a while afterwards made the need for a water route across the USA obsolete.  But back in 1804, as the book pointed out, no one ever imagined that man could travel any further in a day than a horse could take someone.  Pretty mind-blowing to think about today.

The Shallow, Peaceful Missouri River near Fort Mandan (Mile 4820)

The Lewis & Clark Museum, where they let me try on a Buffalo Skin Robe!! (Mile 4831)

 

Fort Mandan, Where Lewis & Clark spent the winter of 1804-5

  

 

5,000 miles from Vero Beach, and this is what 
alot of North Dakota looked like! (Mile 5000)

 

 

After Fort Mandan and the L&C Museum, things got a little weird -- I got into the really, really, really remote parts of the state.  West on State Road 200, then South on US 85.  I am talking NOTHING!!!  Glad we had a full gas tank.  The picture at left kind of captures the feeling.  As I approached the South Dakota border, had some bad luck -- flash flood warnings to the South, sever thunderstorm warnings to the East, and tornado warnings to the West.  My safety was definitely in God's hands now.

I pulled over a number of times just to appreciate the ahem, "scenery" -- here, you see my car at "The Highest Point in North Dakota".  I can tell you, it was a high point only in the most literal sense!!!  White Butte, ND (Mile 5016)

 

And now, South Dakota!