Watertower Festival

This weekend was Pipestone's annual Watertower Festival. It seems that every town in Minnesota has a festival - I'm convinced it's part of the MN constitution that before your city can be incorporated, you have to set aside some time each year for a big party. For instance, Rochester had RochesterFest this past week, which included lumberjack competitions and a SPAM vendor selling my new favorite fair food: deep fried SPAM curds. The festival that takes the cake and that I have yet to experience is Viola, MN's Gopher Count where they'll still pay you $1.25 per pair of gopher feet you turn in during the festival. I'm sorry, but does this remind anyone else of The Simpsons' Wacking Day episode?

Here in Pipestone, MN, no animals are harmed during the Watertower Festival. Named for the town's castle-like watertower, it seems appropriate that this year's festival theme was "Nursery Rhymes & Fairytales".

The Watertower that Makes it all Possible!

It technically started on Friday night with a street dance. I thought that sounded fun until, by the time Nathan got home from work at 10pm, our downstairs retirement-aged neighbor had declared that he was going down there to get "stone drunk" and the band had stopped playing songs like Black Hole Sun and moved on to imitating dying cats. Needless to say, we decided to sit out the street dance.

The next morning, a parade started at 10am. Glen, the park's superintendent, said they had so many entries that the parade was twice as long as normal - one whole hour. Actually, it reminded me a lot of the Brown Deer 4th of July parade - just with more men in drag. You had your normal community organization floats and high school bands, but Pipestone's parade went one step further to include, liteally, men in tights and giant farm equipment. This entry from Titan Machinery was pretty amazing - yes that is a normal, one-story building in the background!

Titan

Typical Themed Float

Not Everything Was For Kids

Nathan had been in charge of the Pipestone National Monument Float. This was the first time they'd ever entered one and true to its preservation theme his float was minimalist, recyclable and pulled with an electric truck, which topped out at around 27 mph during the parade.

Nathan's Green Float

The one thing I think they'll have to add next year is candy. EVERYONE throws candy at this parade - even the dentists.

Would you accept candy from a guy wearing a gas mask?

After the parade you could head over to the City Hall front lawn for some delicious grilled foods, a flea market, and a lucky spot under the big tent to listen to a teenage Kiss cover band. For lunch we got a pretty good seat watching the fire department's version of Tug O' War, using a barrel hoisted in the air.

Despite the festival, my favorite place in town is still the park. Saturday was the first time I got to see it when it wasn't raining. Even this snapping turtle took advantage of the sunny day.

Next year, I'll make sure we hit the festival rodeo too. Whoever said small towns are boring? They've obviously never been to Pipestone or Medora.

Pipestone Part II

While I've been in Rochester for the past two weeks, I left off a whole day from my Pipestone trip, so this is a make-up.

I got to do the Pipestone Loop again on Saturday under cloudcover, but in better light than Friday night. In the following pictures you can see the sign that greets you at the road, Winnewissa Falls (the highlight of the tail) and proof that Park Rangers are trustworthy since their vending machines in the back room are just boxes stuffed with food.

Winnewissa Falls

Something tells me the real Vikings weren't so trusting

Just inside the park, you will meet the "Three Maidens". Large stones where quarriers will make an offering of tobacco or other precious substance before taking Pipestone out of the park. Off limits to non-Natives there is a sweat lodge and sun dance area for sacred ceremonies. I also found out that the Pipestone owl necklace I bought can mean anything from death to change is coming depending on what tribe you're affiliated with. The folks that actually made the necklace think the latter, so I am free to wear it without fear of death.


On Sunday, I decided to check out the two nearby State Parks. Split Rock Creek was the closest, but an unfortunate sewage spill upstream kept me from staying long. A group of ten of our friends will be camping there in August, so I'll have plenty of time to explore it later.

Twenty miles down the road is Blue Mounds State Park. I still yearn for my Rocky Mountain hiking, but Blue Mounds has 15 miles of hiking trails, beautiful quartzite cliffs, bison, a swimming beach, and rock climbing. I had to kick myself for not coming prepared to hike. With no water, I only got to do a two-mile loop - a very pretty one starting in a prairie along the base of the cliff, climbing steeply through the trees to the top of the cliff and back to the parking lot. I'm excited to strap on my pack and go back. The entire 15 miles will at least keep me busy hiking for one day...


I'm headed back to the park next weekend for its Watertower Festival. Nathan is now in charge of the Pipestone National Monument float, which I hear will include a giant caterpillar.

As promised last time, here are some photos of our loft in Pipestone. They demonstrate why I could never be a real estate agent.

Living Room

Bedroom

Bathroom

Kitchen

Getting Stoned

I'm visiting Pipestone, MN this weekend and, although it's a small town of 4600 people, that is 46 times more people than Medora had in the winter and I expected there to be a lot to see and do here. I'm not disappointed.

I left work at 1:30pm Friday to start my trip to the other side of the state. The scenery was a little disappointing as there were too many farms and not enough signs for Wall Drug, but the amount of windmills in the area was impressive and only driving 3.5 hours instead of 10 or 24 to get to one of Nathan's parks is a treat. I did get a chance to stop in Blue Earth to see the Jolly Green Giant, who I kind of feel sorry for. Poor guy has to live outside in Minnesota without any pants, plus there is a little platform right between his legs were you can stand an impressive 6 extra feet off the ground and look at the parking lot or...um....up...what's that about?

On the way to Pipestone, MN, you take Hwy 75 through Luverne and past two state parks: Blue Mounds State Park and Split Rock Creek State Park. I hope to visit those tomorrow if it's not too soggy.

Nathan lives in the loft of a cute little house-turned-apartment near downtown Pipestone (pictures to come in an upcoming blog). The main strip, appropriately named Main Street, is only two blocks from his house. Just like any historic downtown, Pipestone has historic buildings and shops, except that here, they are all made out of the native, brilliantly purple/pink quartzite rock found everywhere around here. Downtown has a couple of clothing stores, a card shop, hardware shop, appliance store, a pub, and several restaurants including Pizza Ranch, where we headed for dinner Friday night.

Downtown Pipestone

Pub/Restaurant

Pipestone County Courthouse (1902)

Despite its Western theme, Pizza Ranch is located no farther West than North Dakota. It did, however, have a very nice small-town feel to it, exhibited by the fact that the cashier asked us if there were any particular kinds of pizza we wanted them to make for the buffet. After seeing their vision statement displayed prominently on the wall which read: To glorify God by positively impacting the world we live in, I did expect the pizza to taste a little more, well, heavenly, than it actually did.

After dinner we headed to the monument to hike the 3/4 mile nature trail. Nathan and I had a hard time not comparing it to Glacier as we walked. The good news is it reminded us a lot of it - there were lots of familiar plants, including my favorite anticoagulant, yarrow and the rocks made us believe that pikas would come sheepishly crawling out if we sat quietly long enough. The trail bends from a green prairie oasis, dotted with periodic quarries, into enchanted forest with pink rock walls and the famous Winnewissa Falls. I only regret that it was getting dark and I couldn't hold the camera still enough to get great pictures on the trail, so you'll have to wait for those too.


I did get to see some Pipestone, which you can see in the picture below - the deeper purple stone making up the floor and the bottom layer of the wall in this picture is Pipestone. The pink stone above it is the quartzite.

We got to see the quarry that one of Nathan's friends at the monument has been working on for 27 years. You have to have a permit and be Native American to quarry in the park and it doesn't look easy!


This morning I woke up to a downpour. Not to be detered, I foraged in the Alero for an umbrella and set off to explore the town. I didn't get very far when I landed inside the Pipestone County Museum. Two very nice women worked there and told me all about the surrounding town festivals, including the Watertower Festival coming up in Pipestone on June 27th, which includes a dance, craft fair, parade, and, although not mentioned on the Pipestone Event Website, plenty of drinking.

I enjoyed the museum! It was well-narrated with signs mostly explaining the origins of common phrases, such as 'deadbeat', which comes from the fact that old, empty railway cars made a different noise as they ran over the tracks than the cars that were full. That was called a deadbeat as those were the cars that weren't pulling their own weight (i.e. making money). They also had many displays of household items from the late 1800's through around 1950. The top floor was the Minnesota Room where they had pictures and articles explaining all of the "Minnesota State ________" - both official (Lady Slipper is our state flower) to unofficial (luckily Wood Tick is not our official state insect). There was even an article on supercomputing in Minnesota, which, to my horror did not even mention IBM, whose Roadrunner project, partially worked on in Rochester, MN, broke the petaflop barrier last year.

A couple of other noteworthy items were the large, gorey mural that was displayed in the kids' play area of Native Americans harvesting bison:

It's important that kids know where their food comes from

There was also a wooden, transportable toilet (an early Port-O-Potty if you will) that I really understood the value of after being without even an object as crude that on our Kilimanjaro Trek last year! Ah, to have a wooden toilet seat....


All-in-all Pipestone has been great - can't wait to take another trip through the park this afternoon!

Four Years

What's your address? seems like a funny thing to ask your husband the day before your fourth anniversary, but that's exactly what I asked last night! Nathan started at Pipestone National Park on Wednesday and is busy learning all about sacred rocks.

Last Thursday I DID pass my PMP Certification exam, so I am officially a PMP! (I always pronounce that "PiMP" in my head, which makes me chuckle.)

Three weeks ago, I finished my Hiking Challenge strong with a hike along the Round-Up Horse trail, Jones Creek, and the Loop Road for about 6 miles.


I didn't see anything out of the ordinary: some horses, but no bison on the trail. When I finished, the entry above mine in the register said they saw a scorpion. When I got back to the Visitor Center, I found out a guy had brought in a picture of a Rattlesnake sunning itself from the day before. I was not quite as lucky to see such exciting things!


Nathan's brother, Justin, graduated on May 16th and we went to Madison, WI to partake in the festivities. Lucky for us, we didn't have to be crammed into the Kohl Center waiting for 2,000 names to be read off. Nope, the LaFollette School of Public Affairs has their own, intimate ceremony in the Assembly Chamber of the Wisconsin Capital. We were in and out in an hour - now that's what I call a graduation!

Justin and his Wizard Sleeves

It also gave me a chance to marvel at how amazing their capital is (take note, North Dakota!) - a fact that I just don't think I appreciated as much on our 4th grade trip to visit it. Now that I've been a few places and have seen works of art like St. Peter's Basilica in Rome and Chichen Itza in Mexico, I agree that Wisconsin's capital really is something special. And to think - you can walk in any time from the Farmer's Market on Saturday just to use the bathroom!


It was really good to see all of Nathan's family. We almost didn't, save the last-minute trip to Milwaukee to see Nathan's mom. We even got the chance to stop into Buraka for some delicious East African food.

Which reminds me! I had a chat with one of my African Wildlife Foundation buddies and found out that they have not only secured funding for the Eco-Lodge I worked on, but they plan to start construction in June. Who wants to come with me to the Grand Opening?!

Munchies

I owe everyone who reads this blog some great pictures from my final hike (yes, I DID complete the hiking challenge last weekend) and Madison (my brother-in-law's graduation), but you won't get those until next week.

This week, I'm studying for my Project Management Professional Certification (a.k.a my PMP credentials). This is something I've been working on since last December. In order to even apply you need a full 4500 hours of Project Management experience and some education. I got that taken care of and my application was accepted without audit (phew!). Now comes the fun part - I have to take a 4-hour, 200 question test with laughably ambiguous questions based on 100's of Project Management, Management, and other resources. Ok, so it won't be that hard - 80% of the test is based on the Project Management Bible (Project Management Body of Knowledge - PMBOK) and there are a lot of books out there that help you prepare for the exam without reading every last reference resource. I started studying for this in February and am finally taking the exam on Thursday.

I have Monday-Thursday off and, although, I visited my alma mater this weekend, I forgot rule number one about exams - you need snacks. Exams were always my favorite part of the semester (wait, don't leave - hear me out!) - you got to sleep in most days, no more classes, you ONLY had to worry about a handful of exams, the dining halls served delicious hot breakfasts for $1.09, and once you finished each exam - YOU WERE DONE FOR GOOD! Nothing hanging over your head - free to move on to another painful semester - or worse - the real world. Ahhh, those were the days!

The Big City

Although I haven't been blogging, I have kept up with my hiking regimen. Tuesday, I went into the park to do the Jones Creek Trail, but instead ran into a bison on the trail and decided to go bluff-climbing instead. Wednesday & Friday I had to walk around town due to events later those nights, and Thursday you're about to hear about.


Thursday Nathan had to go to Bismarck, which is 2 hours away, to test out on CPR and First Aid, so I decided to take the day off and go with him. On a whim, we decided to stop and take a closer look at Salem Sue, the world's largest Holstein cow. We found out from a friend at the park that New Salem had a choice between building a Recreation Center and erecting this gigantic, fiberglass cow - they chose the cow and those rumors I've heard of the veins are all true.

Even though I've only been here for two weeks, it was kind of fun to drive around Bismarck looking at the giant footprint of corporate America once again. We mourned the loss of cute little shops everywhere and then stopped at Kohl's to buy shoes and were excited to see a Coldstone across the street.

Before lunch, we decided to check out the North Dakota capital building, whose nickname is the "Skyscraper on the Plains". Maybe I've been spoiled by Madison's outstanding capital, but this is not a capital building. It did have a nice mall leading up to it, but you had to have the courage to take your eyes off the giant, evil scar plastered against the beautiful blue sky in the middle of North Dakota.

Across the street was the North Dakota Heritage Center. It was free, so we decided to try it out. Unlike the capital, the Heritage Center was packed full of some interesting things - a dinosaur & bird section, sections for each type of people living in North Dakota, and, Nathan's favorite, the special Cold War exhibit where we found out that Medora was pretty safe as far as Soviet targets go - those were all in the middle and Eastern parts of North Dakota. We also learned that a desk and a few bricks will keep you safe in the event of a nuclear holocost. (Really! Just ask the government!)


For lunch, I was forced to go to Famous Dave's despite a restaurant called Space Aliens being right down the street.

On our way home, we decided to take the scenic route North and visit the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. Of all of the native cultures I've ever learned about, the Knife River Mandan Indians have got to have the most ingenuity. They made Earth Lodges, which were constructed of a layer of timber, then straw, then mud on the outside - far more sturdy than many of the houses in East Africa today. These lodges were usually about 40 feet in diameter and could fit giant families. They also made something I'd never seen before: bull boats. Made out of one buffalo hide, these round boats actually float!


We finished with a walk down their path to visit the actual village where Sakakawea lived, which is now just a field, but interesting to imagine yourself so close to the Lewis & Clark expedition. It's not New York or Paris, but this little trip to Bismarck, was enough excitement for me!

Town Hall Meeting

Yesterday was another fabulous day for hiking. Today was not so good as I was forced to have a short walk in the rain around Medora...again.


On Sunday, I hiked up a section of the Lower Talkington trail just off the Loop Road. Another perfect day bordering on hot. I actually didn't see any animals on the whole trail, unless you count the grasshoppers that were constantly making me think I heard rattlesnakes. The trail ended up on top of a small plateau covered in grass and surrounded by bluffs. I suspect I went between 4 & 5 miles.


On the way home, I found a band of 15 horses, among them four cute, little foals.


Medora had its yearly kick-off Townhall meeting tonight. To entice people to hear about what's new for the upcoming tourist season, the town buys everyone dinner and then sits you down to hear from the various business owners. Tonight we got BBQ sandwiches, chips, fruit, and macaroni salad, all served in the gym of the Medora Community Center.

At 6pm we filed into an auditorium large enough to seat all of Medora's 100 permanent residents and heard about everything that could possibly go on in Medora. From the brand new Medora Stampede Rodeo (still looking for actors for the shot-out if you're interested) to the fact that the Chateau de Mores just got some new patio furniture. Yee-haw! In reality, it was kind of nice to be in the loop. My only disappointment was that the duo introducing the pricing scheme for the Medora Musical didn't get up on stage to make their announcement in song. Would something like this performed with clog dancing really have been so hard?

So come to Medora
For fauna & flora
That ain't no fedora
That's a cowboy hat!

We've got a great show
With pitchfork in tow
Better'n watchin corn grow
You won't wanna miss that!

I have less than a week here and now that I know what I'll be missing, I'm starting to wish I weren't.