Day Five: West Fargo to Osseo (WI)

Today we had an easy drive, from West Fargo to Osseo, Wisconsin. We only made one stop along the way - Minnehaha Falls. We'd wanted to see the Stevens House (Minneapolis's first wooden house) but it was closed.

I missed the 'welcome to Minnesota' sign.



Thanks, Kathie! - A stock footage shot actually at Fargo!



Prairie



A lake



Freeport, Minnesota has a sense of whimsy



As we approached Minneapolis it became apparent we were headed the right way





Off the interstate heading for Minnehaha Falls



John Stevens House:



A squirrel



A mask of Chief Little Crow



Minnehaha Falls



Into Wisconsin

Birds of Montana and North Dakota

Here are some of the birds I've seen so far. Not all by any means - seen but not photographed are red-tailed hawks, a big gray hawk (gyrfalcon maybe?), eagles, sparrows (song and English), gulls, doves, and great egrets.

First up is a very blurry panting crow.



More blurry photos, these two with better excuse: it's hard to focus on something when you're passing it at 75 mph! First, trees with cormorants, and then some pelicans, geese, and other waterfowl:





A juvenile grackle and his father:



Three from the Little Bighorn - a lark bunting, a pair of ring-necked pheasants, and a rather punk-looking robin:







A magpie:



An eastern kingbird (I know, but they range pretty far west in the summer):



And finally a raven (he might actually have been in Idaho, still):

Happy Birthday, John

Today John Gay was born in Barnstaple, England, in 1685 - he wrote The Beggar's Opera. Although its sequel, Polly, was banned by then Prime Minister Walpole from being performed, sales of it made Gay rich. Unfortunately he then lost everything in the South Seas Bubble. He died in 1732 and was buried in Westminster Abbey. His epitaph, written by Alexander Pope, is followed by two lines that Gay himself composed: "Life is a jest, and all things show it. I thought so once, and now I know it."

Against an elm a sheep was tied,
The butcher's knife in blood was dyed:
The patient flock in silent fright,
From far beheld the horrid sight.
A savage boar, who near them stood,
Thus mocked to scorn the fleecy brood.
"All cowards should be served like you.
See, see, your murderer is in view:
With purple hands and reeking knife,
He strips the skin yet warm with life;

Your quartered sires, your bleeding dams,
The dying bleat of harmless lambs,
Call for revenge. O stupid race!
The heart that wants revenge is base."
"I grant,"an ancient ram replies,
"We bear no terror in our eyes;
Yet think us not of soul so tame,
Which no repeated wrongs inflame;
Insensible of every ill,
Because we want thy tusks to kill.

Know, those who violence pursue,
Give to themselves the vengeance due;
For in these massacres we find
The two chief plagues that waste mankind:
Our skin supplies the wrangling bar,
It wakes their slumbering sons to war;
And well revenge may rest contented,
Since drums and parchment were invented."

Happy Birthday, Ray

Today is Ray Harryhausen's birthday.

His movies were technical marvels of storytelling wonder. It Came From Beneath the Sea, The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, Jason and the Argonauts, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, Clash of the Titans, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and even The Valley of Gwangi: maybe they didn't always make sense, but they made you watch and say "oooooo". What more can we ask?

A very happy birthday, Ray, and many returns of the day!

Day Four: Glendive to Fargo

A shorter day than yesterday - essentially a straight line across the state of North Dakota on I-94.



This town wasn't content with a one-letter rock sign:



Welcome to North Dakota!







Theodore Roosevelt National Park sign at the Painted Canyon:







A warning sign about bison. But like the Little Bighorn and its snakes, they promised a dangerous animal and didn't deliver!



There were plenty of these unnamed exits, whose 'No Services' sign means: Tourist, there's nothing for you here, not even gas. Just keep on driving...


I missed getting a shot of the giant buffalo bison, but here's a giant, unexplained cow (edit: this cow turns out to be called "Salem Sue"):



Just entering Mandan, we're passed by two cops (one of each kind) with sirens going. Five of them converged on this hay-hauler. Who knows what they think he's doing?



The Missouri river



North Dakota has very pretty (and very clean) rest stops:



Buffalo Bill's daughter?

Happy Birthday, Antoine

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry,

author of The Little Prince,

was born today in 1900

Little Bighorn Battlefield

A very few shots from the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument (it used to be called the Custer Battlefield National Monument; its name was changed under the first President Bush). One cool thing about this country: its bones are the same, and they're close to the surface. You can easily identify the terrain from the pictures and graphics, and you can see how things unfolded. The pictures show green grass and flowers, while this summer is hot and dry, but the land is the same. There used to be thorn bushes everywhere, but they burned off in the late 1980s, allowing archaeologists access to the land. That's how we know where the combatants fell...



Warning about snakes - we didn't see one.



The marker on Last Stand Hill, and the one where Custer fell





One of the markers for the warriors, and part of the big memorial for the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arickara, and Crow who fought here - the flowers were left last weekend at the anniversary. I really like the way you can see the land through the sculpture







This is looking down to the Little Bighorn, where the Sioux and Cheyenne camp was - Reno and his detachment's survivors scrambled up this coulee retreating from the first part of the battle



Much of the battlefield is privately owned - the owner permits you to drive on the paved road between the main site (Last Stand Hill) and the Reno site. Here are some horses grazing where the battle raged.






This is Medicine Trail coulee, where another part of the battle was fought, before Custer retreated to his last stand



And here's the graphic - compare it with the photo:



Part of the battlefield, with markers.


This quote adorns the walls of the visitor center. wowasake kin slolyapo wowahwala he e Hehaka Sapa - Know the power that is peace - Black Elk