Confessions of a Dakotaholic

This was one wedding where both the Bride & the Groom got cold feet. On Wednesday, two of our friends who have been engaged for 10 months and wondering when they were ever going to get back to Massachusetts to allow their families to watch them get married, threw in the towel and decided to have an impromptu wedding in the park. I confess that it was by far the second best wedding I have ever been to.

We found out about it two weeks ago, no invitations were ever sent, and the morning of, the bride didn't even know what she was wearing. Rumor had it that the dress code was jeans and "something warm", so I pulled on some sweatpants under my jeans, threw on a button down shirt, a fleece, my coat, hat, gloves, and my hiking boots. A little afraid that Nathan had gotten the wrong message, I felt better when we pulled up to the visitor's center and there was an elated couple - also in jeans and jackets.


Not more than 15 of us - all of us related to park employees or local law enforcement - caravaned into the park for the ceremony, which started off feeling more like a funeral procession, but ended on a cute spot overlooking the Little Missouri River. The spectators grew by double right before the ceremony when a group of bison joined us on a parallel bluff. Thank goodness the Justice of the Peace kept it short, because it was FREEZING! Really, we have evidence. It was so fitting, though - for a pair that both loved & worked for the park, it started and ended with pictures at the visitors center.



Now, you know you're in North Dakota when:
1) At least one person at your wedding is in full cowboy get-up.
2) You are presented with this - a packet of recipes from the North Dakota Beef Commission and Cattlewomen!


That pretty much puts the booklet on safe pregnancies we got from Milwaukee County to shame.

The reception was the best part. It was, of course, in the top floor of the only restaurant/bar in Medora that is regularly open - The Iron Horse. They had all of the elements of a great reception - cake, appetizers, dinner, good fun, and the groom's brother, who couldn't make it out for the wedding, called and opened up the bar. The best part was, though, it was so easy and SO fun that it made me wonder why I ever thought my wedding had to go the whole nine yards? If I could marry Nathan all over again, I would definitely be taking some pointers from Dan & Jen!


Yes, by the way, that is beer in their champagne glasses. :)

In other news, Nathan drove to Bismarck today for an Elk Management public meeting. If you read his blog, you'll have already heard about the Elk Management plan in excruciating detail, so I won't get into it here. The funny thing is, I am one of about three people left in town today...which inspired me, at about 12:30pm, to get out of town too.

I'd already worked way too long and hard this week, so I thought it might be fun to go into town and see a movie! Just in luck, the Dickinson Carmike Theater had "Confessions of a Shopaholic" playing. Just the kind of brainless, hopefully entertaining theater I needed (and the best part is, matinee prices are $4)!



So, I drive the 30 minutes to Dickinson, get money, park the car, walk into the mall and.....yes, the theater is closed. What? Did I look at the right theater, day, time? Oh Well. I hung out in the mall, got some errands done, and came home. It just goes to show you that not everything is great about North Dakota and when it comes to going to an established, public event advertised on the internet, always call.

Reliving Kilimanjaro

Nathan is currently working on a video of our Tanzania vacation and it inspired me to go back and read some of my journal entries for the first time. I'm really glad I wrote everything down because details like what we had for dinner every night in our tent take me straight back there, but are details I'd since forgotten. I thought you might be interested in reading my entry from our summit day of Kilimanjaro. While no description can really prepare you for the agony of Summit Day, it captured some of the emotions pretty well - at least from what I remember. So, here it is uncensored and uncut:

Day 6 - Kilimanjaro (Summit Day) - September 27, 2008

I didn't get any sleep before our summit attempt. Because Nathan had been feeling sick, I gave him the down sleeping bag and was cold in his, which is by far inferior.

Timo [this was our porter/waiter] got us up @ 11pm to get ready for the trek. I ate my first and probably last Cliff bar - it didn't sit in my stomach well. Then I layered on the clothes in preparation for a cold ascent.

We had biscuits and tea, then Timo brought headlamps and we set off for the trail around midnight. We were VERY excited - little did we know this would be one of the most grueling days of our lives.

The stars were out in full force and you could see the lights of Moshi dancing around on the ground below. When we started out, the temperature was fine and I even thought about taking off one of the three pairs of pants I was wearing. It was fun to look back on the trail and see a string of headlamps from the camp. Lots of people were summiting that today. So, all was fine - we made it to 4800 meters and were feeling great.

All of a sudden, our guide Alex tells us that from a little over halfway up to a place called Stella's Point (from where you can walk to Uhuru Peak - the summit) the trail gets very steep and the weather very cold. Almost on-cue the wind picked up and those three pants I was wearing wasn't enough. I'm guessing the wind chill was negative 10 and the steepness of the trail along with the altitude completely changed the trail. For about four hours we were faced with this atmosphere and all we could do was concentrate on "one more step" and "one more breath". I think getting to the top of Kilimanjaro in these conditions is honestly the hardest thing I've ever done.

Once @ Stella's Point, there was another 30-minute walk to Uhuru Peak. At this point we have no energy and the summit is so cold that you can't take your hands out of your gloves for 2 pictures before losing feeling in them. So, under these conditions, the amazing Glacier, sunrise, and crater was kind of lost in the flurry of "yay we're here, I feel like crap, let's get out of here". Of course, we thought that would be the worst of it and, for the most part it was. However, the trek down was extremely long - about half the time it took to get to the summit (6hrs to summit). So, by the time I got back I had an altitude headache, a stomach ache from the Cliff bar, had to pee (too cold to do it on the trail), and legs, knees, and toes that were completely beaten up.

As if that wasn't enough, we got an hour to rest, a warm lunch of soup, noodles, watermelon, cucumbers, and sauce, and then had to hit the trail for another 2.5 hours to Mweka Camp to spend the night.

The trail over descended into the forest, so all of the pressure put on our knees for the summit descent was amplified on a rocky trail.

The forest on this side of the park, however, is very different from that of the other side. There are short trees and lots of birds here and lichens galore! The campsite is cute with actual campsites sectioned off and surrounded by short trees. The registration desk sells all kinds of things from "Just Done It - Kilimanjaro" T-shirts to Kili Beer. Today, Nathan and I broke down and bought a "Victory Coke" @ Barafu Camp on our way in. It cost 3000Tsh (or $3) up from the 1000 Tsh in most restaurants - extra charge for shipping it to the camp on the mountain!

We are both looking forward to a hot shower tomorrow and toilets with actual seats to sit on - ahh luxuries!



So you see, I'm not sure why Nathan thought I was nuts when I mentioned we should climb Denali this summer if he got the job in Alaska - 20,300 feet - that's only 1,000 feet higher than Kili! Ha. Only.

North Dakota Dreamin'

I'm in Rochester right now, but there's really nothing exciting to report. So instead, let me draw your attention to where Nathan and I ate last Saturday in Williston, ND: Trapper's Kettle.

You will need to watch the video on their website as the location in Belfield (15 miles from Medora) was in a show called "Extreme Truckstops" on the Travel Channel. We haven't been to that one, but I have a feeling we'll get there soon. I've actually made fun of this place before as the sign outside simply reads "Restaurant" and the usual vehicles in the parking lot indicate not only that our Alero would be out of place, but that if we didn't sport beards, cowboy boots, and a road-weary expression we wouldn't be seated. Luckily, Nathan is working on two of those and the Williston location was more family-oriented.

It was a great little place - fantastic tomato soup and my chicken fried steak came with some red thing that we still can't identify (Schrute Farms?). There weren't as many dead animals as the Belfield location too, just a nice set of traps and a cute buffet-filled canoe. All in all, I'm looking forward to visiting the location closer to home - there's really no end to the fun things you can find just around the corner in North Dakota!

Trains & Automobiles

On Thursday, I took a day off work to ride the train up to Williston, ND. Williston is about 2.5 hours North of Medora and, although dirt cheap gas prices make the train far from the most economical way to get here, I was getting sick of driving and wanted to give my car a break.

I love taking the train places. I've taken it round trip to Glacier National Park three times. Both Williston & East Glacier sit on the Empire Builder route, which starts in Chicago and ends up in Seattle and Portland - it comes through every stop once a day both directions. If I had enough time, I'd pick the train over an airline any day. The footroom is about four times larger than a plane's, you can get up and walk around, sit in the lounge car with giant windows, meet some interesting people over a sit-down meal in the dining car, and best of all, enjoy the view. They have sleeper cars for anyone that's willing to part with a lot of money, and coach for people like me who are ok with "roughing it" during the night.

One con for taking Amtrak is that the trains are always late. One hour is normal, but I have a friend who arrived at her destination over 18 hours late due to some unfortunate circumstances and the weather. It's never been that bad for me, but on Wednesday night I ended up leaving Winona, MN at 10:30pm instead of the scheduled 7:50pm, but arrived only 1.5 hours late - pretty good, I thought. When taking the train you have to be very flexible.

Being in Williston gave Nathan and I a chance to stop at Fort Union on our way home. An old Indian trading post on the Santa Fe trail, it was established in 1851 and lasted for about 40 years. The site, which is now run by the National Park Service, is supposedly very active in summer with living history and a chance to see what it was like in the 1800's. In winter, it is protected not only by its thin white walls, but a jetstream of the coldest wind you'll ever feel in your life. You have to really want to visit Fort Union in winter to make it to the gate. We did, and saw the small museum and defense tower.



Was it worth it? Probably not - wait until July, but the trip did allow us to see the wreckage of some derailed grain cars, which is always nice to see a week before you have to climb back on the Amtrak!

Smart Planet

Despite returning from Tanzania over three months ago, the world is still interested in the Corporate Services Corps. I was interviewed by our local TV news station on Tuesday about the CSC and they did a good job of tying it in with IBM & Obama's latest message of change and turning our planet into a "smart planet". Take a look and click on the camera icon to see the clip!

KTTC Story

New Year

This is my first post of the New Year and it's already January 18th. That should tell you how busy the year's been already!

I have mixed feelings about 2009. The promise of new beginnings is still there, just like any year, but this one is already tainted with media rumors of the worst recession since the Great Depression and massive jobs loss. At IBM, they're only predicting a 4% reduction of staff, but at a company of 386,000 employees, that's a whopping 16,000 people. The ax should drop sometime in the next two weeks. Lucky for us, that's no where near what some other tech companies are reporting. For instance, Microsoft may cut 17% and no one seems very excited about the new Windows 7.0.

On the good news front, since the year rolled over, my 401K losses don't seem as depressing. I've only lost 5% since the beginning of the year, instead of 37.94%. My bi-weekly commute to North Dakota now costs me $30-40 one way instead of the $60 it did last year. Best of all, people are not buying useless things like the one-click butter cutter or faux sky lights that seem to exist only to clutter our houses and hurt the environment.

As for me, I plan to tackle my pocketbook by living a little more sustainably. Nathan and I are ordering a vegetarian cook-book to reduce our meat consumption and I'm pondering buying this, which will turn my bike into exercise equipment and a small power generator. I think it's going to be a good year.

TR Mosaic

Yesterday, the temperatures here rose to near-tropic levels as the thermometer hit 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Because it felt like springtime, I was inspired to see if my car still worked and take a quick drive through the park. The late afternoon sun mixing with the snow-covered bluffs was gorgeous. I thought it might be nice to share some of the pictures I've taken in the park so far this winter. Here they are:

Big Bird: This guy could get into our bird feeder by climbing up the porch railing and across the screen. The day he knocked the bird feeder off the window and fell with it to the ground was the last day we saw the squirrel.


Keyhole: Nathan and I went hiking the day before Thanksgiving. It was a great idea and an awful idea. Great because the weather was beautiful and we were surely the only ones hiking the park that day. Awful because the trails were very, very muddy from all the snow...and I fell :)


Crystal Light: These feathery ice crystals appeared on our back door for Cowboy Christmas.


Sun dogs: Have you ever seen this happen? It's amazing - formed when the cirrus or cirrostratus clouds are made up of ice crystals according to wikipedia.


Snowy Trail to Heaven


A River Runs Through It


TR's Frozen TundRa


3:45pm: Sentinel Butte at Sunset