Day 34 - Grand Adventure - Part 2

... so we got up and headed north around Lake Sakakawea. I thought we'd actually get a glimpse of the lake, and oh wait, THERE it is - I see it, oh, it's gone. On until New Town when we passed through Burgers, Fries and Shakes for well, a burger. The across the bridge. Interesting to note that Bill froze up when we went up and onto it, remembering 35W. I told him to take deep breaths, and said that bridges are overall safe, and that I love them. A switch for me to be brave and assuring someone who's afraid, but I totally understand - stuff happens, and we can't always control it. But I knew we were coming to the Killdeer Mountains, and I do love them so. To think there's actually varying terrain in North Dakota. Bill didn't know they were here, so it was great fun to go winding, up and down, through the greenery. We'd come up to the crest of a hill and look out over an amazing vista of rocky striated rocks. "Isn't it beautiful?" I'd ask Bill, and he'd look up from his movie and say, "uh huh," then look down again. But sometimes I know he actually looked, and was impressed.

We drove right into the heart of Dickinson, the town I lived in right out of college. I've forgotten Dickinson, newly married and pretty clueless, but memories came back as we drove south. "This is where I used to run every night," I'd point out to Bill the street by the mall. "This is where I used to visit the nursing home, this is the clinic I used to go to." On and on. I know Bill didn't care. I hardly cared, but I was just glad I sort of remembered some things.

I picked up a pen at the Cenex gas station, a memento, and headed west the 40 miles to Medora. I love western North Dakota with its raw power. It just feels like you would be strong if you lived there. Theodore Roosevelt thought that, anyway. We'd kept the impending thunderstorm to our south, and I somehow knew that we'd totally miss it. I didn't really want to be driving through the "mountains" in a thunderstorm. Okay, I don't want to be ANYWHERE in a thunderstorm, much less a metal car (yeah, yeah, I know about rubber tires, but still ...), but we totally missed it as we pulled into Medora. It was misting and gray, but fine. We shopped around, got saltwater taffy and black licorice pipes, went to the playground and played two rounds of mini-golf. Bill got a hole in one on the first hole. I hit the deer's foot and it bounced to the back. Oh well. We hunkered down pretty early, after a steak dinner, and watched High School Musical One. Oh, can it get ANY better than this? Again, the night was QUIET, I mean STILL. I was expecting motorcycle whirs or doors slamming, but blissfully nothing until morning. We packed up and headed east to Richardton Abbey.

I'd been there twice before with Kari and Erik when they were younger, and we have pictures of them with Father David and the cats, but Bill had never had the honor, so we sent for Father when we got there. He shuffled in and looked surprised to see us. By now he's 80 (he was 65 when we first met him), but still had that twinkle in his eyes and that fabulous deep-throated chuckle. I took a picture of he and Bill ("he has good energy" Bill said later), then he showed us the garden where the cats hung out. Yes, pictures of Bill with the cats (I swear I'll post these pictures when I figure it out). The Assumption Abbey is just beautiful - I can almost feel God MORE when I'm in there, like God would be chilling in a pew, saying, "Well, now, THIS is more like it." We dipped our index fingers into the holy water and made crosses on our forehead. "Why do we do that?" Bill asked, and I stammered. Father David said it's a reminder of our original baptism and what that means to us. I nodded my head. I was raised Episcopalian. Close but no cigar.

We bought 12 resin sheep in a cardboard box and two bottles of wine for Donna's birthday, then headed to New Salem and the big cow. We kept climbing up the hill to the summit. It was an amazing view (yes, there were pictures), and I would've loved to have stayed there for a while longer, but Bismarck, my parents, and my birthday party awaited, so we climbed down and continued our grand adventure...

Next... the party and other sundry events