Here is a hilariously accurate portrayal of the winter North Dakota I know, but it conveniently ignores the other 320 days of the year, when you CAN see the North Dakota Badlands and other super-cool places you really should want to visit.
There's no place like ND...I dare you to visit!
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
2009 Year In Review
If you read this blog all year long, you'll find nothing new here, but just in case you haven't caught all of them this year, here's the very condensed 2009 King Year In Review!
Happy Holidays to our Family & Friends!
2009 was another busy year for us! Our year started and ended in North Dakota where Nathan continues winter work with Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In between, we visited a combined eighteen states plus the District of Columbia.
Amber continues working for IBM, where she leads teams in the U.S. and China. She completed her Project Management Professional (PMP) training in May and filed her first patent the same month. Amber is taking her office on the road and is working remotely full-time as of November.
Nathan worked at Pipestone National Monument over the summer. The work was both challenging and enlightening. The site is used today as it was in generations past, for the collection of a sacred stone used for making smoking pipes. You can learn more about Pipestone and its significance on the web at www.nps.gov/pipe.
Amber spent a long 4th of July weekend in Colorado with her friend Sara, where they visited Rocky Mountain NP, Garden of the Gods, and saw the famous Greeley Stampede rodeo. Yee haw!
The most fun we had this year was going to the Eastern U.S. to attend Amber’s sister Samantha’s wedding in North Carolina in October. Along the way, we visited Chicago for a live taping of Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me and got to meet the cast, then headed to Gettysburg NMP, Washington D.C., Shenandoah NP, Blue Ridge Parkway, Appomattox Court House NHS, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, Moores Creek NB, Great Smoky Mountains NP, and Mammoth Cave NP. We hiked to the top of the two tallest mountains in Shenandoah, down into the longest cave in the world, and walked the hallowed grounds of Civil War battlefields. Our favorite hike was to Ramsey Cascades in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In July, Nathan’s mom passed away from complications of multiple myeloma. She was 53. Nathan misses her every day and thinks of her often. We are grateful for the continuing love and support of our friends and families.
Next year, we will be moving to Kansas for at least half of the year. Nathan was hired for a permanent status job at Fort Larned National Historic Site, a well-preserved fort along the Santa Fe Trail. We plan to sell our house in Minnesota in 2010.
We wish everyone a happy holiday season and a great 2010.
2009 was another busy year for us! Our year started and ended in North Dakota where Nathan continues winter work with Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In between, we visited a combined eighteen states plus the District of Columbia.
Amber continues working for IBM, where she leads teams in the U.S. and China. She completed her Project Management Professional (PMP) training in May and filed her first patent the same month. Amber is taking her office on the road and is working remotely full-time as of November.
Nathan worked at Pipestone National Monument over the summer. The work was both challenging and enlightening. The site is used today as it was in generations past, for the collection of a sacred stone used for making smoking pipes. You can learn more about Pipestone and its significance on the web at www.nps.gov/pipe.
Amber spent a long 4th of July weekend in Colorado with her friend Sara, where they visited Rocky Mountain NP, Garden of the Gods, and saw the famous Greeley Stampede rodeo. Yee haw!
The most fun we had this year was going to the Eastern U.S. to attend Amber’s sister Samantha’s wedding in North Carolina in October. Along the way, we visited Chicago for a live taping of Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me and got to meet the cast, then headed to Gettysburg NMP, Washington D.C., Shenandoah NP, Blue Ridge Parkway, Appomattox Court House NHS, Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania NMP, Moores Creek NB, Great Smoky Mountains NP, and Mammoth Cave NP. We hiked to the top of the two tallest mountains in Shenandoah, down into the longest cave in the world, and walked the hallowed grounds of Civil War battlefields. Our favorite hike was to Ramsey Cascades in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In July, Nathan’s mom passed away from complications of multiple myeloma. She was 53. Nathan misses her every day and thinks of her often. We are grateful for the continuing love and support of our friends and families.
Next year, we will be moving to Kansas for at least half of the year. Nathan was hired for a permanent status job at Fort Larned National Historic Site, a well-preserved fort along the Santa Fe Trail. We plan to sell our house in Minnesota in 2010.
We wish everyone a happy holiday season and a great 2010.
Amber and Nathan at Ramsey Cascades
Friday, December 25, 2009
Happy Holidays FSM-Style
On this Christmas day, while Nathan and I are completely shut in due to the blizzard (note how the ENTIRE length of I-94 is CLOSED), we were left to ponder the other religions besides Christianity that are celebrating holidays around this time.
One of the little-known, but best religions around was born in our soon-to-be home state of Kansas. Flying Spaghetti Monsterism by its founder's own estimate has "millions, if not thousands" of followers. If you have never seen its founding doctrines, take the time to read this Open Letter to the Kansas Board of Education - it explains a lot. FSM even offers an explanation for global warming where science as yet has failed us.
This time of year, Pastafarians, as FSM's followers are called, celebrate the entire holiday season, not just one day, in whatever way they choose. Many choose to wear His traditional garb, full pirate regalia, while others may just sit at home and bake cookies.
However you choose to celebrate this holiday season, I hope you have a wonderful one! May you be truly touched by His Noodly Appendage!
One of the little-known, but best religions around was born in our soon-to-be home state of Kansas. Flying Spaghetti Monsterism by its founder's own estimate has "millions, if not thousands" of followers. If you have never seen its founding doctrines, take the time to read this Open Letter to the Kansas Board of Education - it explains a lot. FSM even offers an explanation for global warming where science as yet has failed us.
Graph: Bobby Henderson, Concerned Citizen
This time of year, Pastafarians, as FSM's followers are called, celebrate the entire holiday season, not just one day, in whatever way they choose. Many choose to wear His traditional garb, full pirate regalia, while others may just sit at home and bake cookies.
Photo: http://www.venganza.org/
However you choose to celebrate this holiday season, I hope you have a wonderful one! May you be truly touched by His Noodly Appendage!
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Just In Time
I am the luckiest person on Earth. After driving an hour to get to the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, my mom and I got to view the entire park and on our way out were told we were the last people on the road, probably until spring. They'd closed it thanks to the steady snowfall pelting the park's meandering road that day.
Let me tell you, it's not like we rushed to get there either. Before entering the park, we actually drove another 16 miles North to go to what I truly believe is the hellhole of North Dakota: Watford City. Why so harsh? This is the closest town to the North Unit entrance and the only place for MILES around. Was it wrong for me to assume there would be someplace to eat there? Yes, apparently. Everything in that town was CLOSED or locked for inexplicable reasons, despite the glowing OPEN sign in the window. Add to that slippery roads and unhelpful people and you have what I refer to as the second worst tourist destination in the world. I usually love places that I go and that's why my list of horrible destinations is only two cities long:
Let me tell you, it's not like we rushed to get there either. Before entering the park, we actually drove another 16 miles North to go to what I truly believe is the hellhole of North Dakota: Watford City. Why so harsh? This is the closest town to the North Unit entrance and the only place for MILES around. Was it wrong for me to assume there would be someplace to eat there? Yes, apparently. Everything in that town was CLOSED or locked for inexplicable reasons, despite the glowing OPEN sign in the window. Add to that slippery roads and unhelpful people and you have what I refer to as the second worst tourist destination in the world. I usually love places that I go and that's why my list of horrible destinations is only two cities long:
- Myrtle Beach, SC - Let's take a beach and completely cover it with concrete, then put one of four giant discount beachwear shops every two feet and call it a fun place to go.
- Watford City, ND - I hate this town.
Cannonball Concretions
Riverbend Overlook
Oxbow Overlook
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Cowboy Christmas
December 4th & 5th was a special weekend in Medora. All winter we put up with frigid temperatures (-31 degrees at one point this week), wind, and the entire town of Medora being shut down except for the Boots Bar & Grill. Then, for one special weekend, the town wakes up, stores and restaurants open, and locals descend from the hills like locusts for Cowboy Christmas!!
Ok, it doesn't get that crowded, but it is probably the most exciting thing that happens all winter. Well, aside from the ice breaking on the river. To give you a flavor of the plethora of events, here's the Cowboy Christmas flyer:
Mom came to visit this weekend, so we took full advantage of the free attractions including the Chateau de Mores Interpretive Center, and the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame! While we shyed away from the freezing hay rides, we did walk 20 feet to the Cowboy Cafe for Oyster Stew and caught half of Bob Peterman's Cowboy Music show. Poor guy spent half the time complaining that there were no children to sing santa songs to, then proceeded to forget the words to the santa songs once the kids showed up. All-in-all, a pretty successful show.
Anyway, there are two things that make Cowboy Christmas really special. The first is "Eats on the Streets", a delicious, town-wide progressive dinner and culinary free-for-all in which you can visit every open shop and visitor center for two hours, stuffing yourself with delicious and largely homemade goodies. Delicacies include everything from Bison Chili and Red Eye at the Wooly Boys Saloon to Bacon-wrapped Scallops at the Rough Riders hotel. It's too good.
Second is the Christmas finale. It's a "Fire & Ice" fireworks show that happens to be lit from the bluff right next to our apartment. It's really something to hang out and watch fireworks in the snow right from your front porch. The whole weekend really brightens up December around here and I'm thankful I get to spend my Christmas with the cowboys.
Christmas in the Badlands
Ok, it doesn't get that crowded, but it is probably the most exciting thing that happens all winter. Well, aside from the ice breaking on the river. To give you a flavor of the plethora of events, here's the Cowboy Christmas flyer:
Mom came to visit this weekend, so we took full advantage of the free attractions including the Chateau de Mores Interpretive Center, and the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame! While we shyed away from the freezing hay rides, we did walk 20 feet to the Cowboy Cafe for Oyster Stew and caught half of Bob Peterman's Cowboy Music show. Poor guy spent half the time complaining that there were no children to sing santa songs to, then proceeded to forget the words to the santa songs once the kids showed up. All-in-all, a pretty successful show.
Anyway, there are two things that make Cowboy Christmas really special. The first is "Eats on the Streets", a delicious, town-wide progressive dinner and culinary free-for-all in which you can visit every open shop and visitor center for two hours, stuffing yourself with delicious and largely homemade goodies. Delicacies include everything from Bison Chili and Red Eye at the Wooly Boys Saloon to Bacon-wrapped Scallops at the Rough Riders hotel. It's too good.
Second is the Christmas finale. It's a "Fire & Ice" fireworks show that happens to be lit from the bluff right next to our apartment. It's really something to hang out and watch fireworks in the snow right from your front porch. The whole weekend really brightens up December around here and I'm thankful I get to spend my Christmas with the cowboys.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Dickinson - Theodore Roosevelt Interstate Airport
My mom arrived at the Dickinson - Theodore Roosevelt Airport this weekend to take in the Cowboy Christmas festivities. I felt kind of bad for old TR, what with some presidents like John F. Kennedy getting big, important, international airports and poor Theodore's is stuck out in Dickinson. I felt a little better for him briefly when I found out some people do consider Dickinson the "Crown Jewel" of Western North Dakota, but that all faded away when I saw the sheer magnitude of his airport in person. Prepare to be amazed, this is the Dickinson - Theodore Roosevelt Airport:
Amenities include several flights to and from Denver, Sidney, MT, and Williston, ND, a total of seven seats in the waiting area, and FREE PARKING. (Ok, free parking really is awesome.) Mom's flight from Denver had 5 whole people on it, but it was picking up eight more on its way to Sidney. However, the plane arrived without her bag, but since it was late and the next flight from Denver came 10 minutes later we waited to see if the lucky bag had made it on the next flight.
That gave me a chance to check out the bag retrieval process! True to what I would expect around here, the three bags on that flight were quickly loaded onto a pick-up truck, then shuttled about 50 feet to a garage door where we could pick them up inside. You have to be quick - the garage door is open for about one minute (the length of time it takes everyone to grab their bags).
But if you're worried about safety at a small airport like that, don't be! It's signs like this that keep us all safe.
I know I just blasted the airport, but in reality I love it. Culture shock? Yes! Charming airport and easy-to-access flights with a smile? You betcha! And you can't beat free airport parking!
Amenities include several flights to and from Denver, Sidney, MT, and Williston, ND, a total of seven seats in the waiting area, and FREE PARKING. (Ok, free parking really is awesome.) Mom's flight from Denver had 5 whole people on it, but it was picking up eight more on its way to Sidney. However, the plane arrived without her bag, but since it was late and the next flight from Denver came 10 minutes later we waited to see if the lucky bag had made it on the next flight.
That gave me a chance to check out the bag retrieval process! True to what I would expect around here, the three bags on that flight were quickly loaded onto a pick-up truck, then shuttled about 50 feet to a garage door where we could pick them up inside. You have to be quick - the garage door is open for about one minute (the length of time it takes everyone to grab their bags).
Cowboy Baggage Handling
But if you're worried about safety at a small airport like that, don't be! It's signs like this that keep us all safe.
What do you mean I can't take my gun on this plane?
I know I just blasted the airport, but in reality I love it. Culture shock? Yes! Charming airport and easy-to-access flights with a smile? You betcha! And you can't beat free airport parking!
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Upper Talkington
Fifty degrees in November feels like eighty degrees and sunny to us.
Last Friday was the best Black Friday ever. A morning of ONLINE shopping - same deals, no crowds - then out to the park for my first hike of the season. I chose a portion of the Upper Talkington trail in Eastern Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
Starting from the loop road, I went three miles to the East park fence, across a valley surrounded by multi-colored bluffs, through the largest prairie dog town in the park, to an expansive, golden prairie overlooking the beginning of the badlands. It's a fantastic, quick hike if you ever find yourself in the park for a day looking for some sunshine and beautiful, typically TRNP scenery.
Chillin' by the Road
This horse was not completely excited about me tromping by, so it ran in front of me and snorted.
Endless Prairie that leads too...
...this!
Ridge-top Elk
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