Lots Of Fun Things We Did This Week (ND)

Continuing to follow the Lewis & Clark Trail, our Travel Day took us from Riverdale, North Dakota to Williston, North Dakota. I read out loud our new book that we bought after being at Fort Mandan last week. It is Waheenee, an Indian girl’s story told by herself to Gilbert L Wilson back in 1920s. We are enjoying hearing her words and describing the tribal life. Lots of wheat along here. We often think of “amber waves of grain.” We started seeing oil and gas pumps. What, here? More and more. Then we saw 4-6 pumps right next to each other. We knew there was some oil and gas along I-94 that we saw around Dickinson last fall but didn’t know there are so many pumps up here. 

Later in the day, after we got set up, there was a knock at the door. It was our new friends that we had met last week at Downstream Campground. How did we met? We gave them a loaf of Sourdough Italian Herb Bread. That started a sweet friendship. It turns out they were coming to this campground the same day as us so we were excited about more visits with them. Sweet couple.

Sourdough Starter: today I made Sourdough Best Burger Buns by Charlene Yoder, again. I use the spring red hard wheat for the wheat portion in the recipe. They rose great and were delicious. It is funny – last week I made out my menu. Chicken Noodle Soup and Chicken Club sandwiches. I had no idea it would be so cold out this day and we would be glad for hot soup. HAHA

Today (Aug 5) I made my August yard flag. Oops, a little late! HA I had started one pattern for it a little while ago and didn’t like how it turned out. This one I was able to do in just a few hours and turned out cute. It is the fabric we got at Sioux City, IA and the pattern is a big flower.

After work (the next day) we went to Williston to their Summer Nights on Main. This is held every Thursday in the summer. The street is blocked off and all the “vendors” are food trucks. A lot of them. Plus a huge stage set up. It was very windy with red flag warnings so we decided not to eat outside. We listened/watched a band for a few songs. Kevin said they were very good. (I am deaf so only can watch and observe.) We decided to eat at a Mexican place. We stopped at Don Pedro’s Family Mexican Restaurant and what a find! The flavors were bold and just on the edge of spicy, for me. Rated: Come Again And Enjoy The Bold And Delicious Flavors! Reminds Us Of Arizona…But We Are In North Dakota!

I texted Dad and asked what food he would like for when they are camping with us in Montana. He reply, “Well, I guess for starters we could have the first night that cinnamon thing that Kevin was holding (he saw the picture of the cinnamon rolls we gave to the campground office ladies) then the next night we could have those biscuits and gravy then the next night we could have some more of that cinnamon and by then we’d have to have something something Sourdough after that. I hope we don’t explode with all the Sourdough in us.” HAHAHAHA

Around 4:30 p.m. we went to Guns & Hoses Softball Game. This was the 57th year of Police and Fire playing against each other. What a blast it was! It was one of my most favorite baseball games to watch. The stadium is small, smaller than what we would think of at a high school; this is a city stadium. Cost $5.00 per person. One guy we sat next to travels from Texas to Alaska in his RV. He stopped here to see his grandson, Police team, play. There was a small place to buy peanuts and candy, which we did. You could buy burgers and stuff, too, but we already ate big. The game was good and at the bottom of the 9th inning was tied at 4. Then the police got a run and won the game. Very enjoyable and so happy to support these great departments.

Yellowstone River Joins Missouri River, Missouri-Yellowstone Interpretive Center, Williston, ND 08/26

This day we did a ton of things! Missouri-Yellowstone Confluence Interpretive Center this is the only thing around this entire area that has something to do with Lewis & Clark but only about 2 signs talked about them. There isn’t a Lewis & Clark historical society place like the other places we have been. We wonder why. This is where Lewis & Clark had to decided which river was the Missouri River. They picked the right one and then came back on the return trip down the Yellowstone River. But we knew that from the book already. Anyway, this place had a lot of good displays about Sitting Bull. The thing we didn’t know, or remember, was he was arrested just down the road here at Fort Buford. 

In putting together my Exploring Cards for this area, I saw on the city’s website (one of the best websites for events and info that I have seen and I let them know!) This Center has a 60 minute guided tour called, “Where Rivers Meet: walk through history and nature” on Saturdays at 10:00 a.m. We were the only ones on the walk (we were the only visitors there) and a young guy gave the talk and walk. He pointed out through the trees were the Yellowstone River came into the Missouri River. He told us about Oxbow Lake and how those are formed. That was something neat to remember. The tour only lasted about 15 minutes since it was just the two of us. I asked about the grass so dry, if that was normal. He said they are in a drought. Next we drove just down the road to Fort Buford. We saw there was a cemetery there and drove down a small road to it. The display sign said that all but 8 of the 30-something here had been moved to other places.  I looked up Find A Grave and saw a few requests but they had died a long time ago so probably didn’t have a marker left. The fort didn’t look like much to us, just a few buildings, so we continued on down the road. At one point we were stopped for construction and a one-way road. Kevin decided to take a detour. Soon our iPhones and Apple Watches notified us of time zone change. We didn’t know we were in Montana! HA 

Our 3rd stop today was back in Williston Chokecherry Festival. I didn’t remember hearing of Chokecherries before. This event was at the park next to the ball field we were at last night. Our first attention was on a large slides with walls and a foam pit. Instead of water fountains and such it was all foam. Kids were having a blast. It looked like they had been through the wash cycle of laundry. HA Cute. We walked around looking at the booths. I wanted a sample of chokecherry and would maybe buy some. Only one booth had it with jams and jellies but she seemed overwhelmed and actually put away the samples in a cooler. We didn’t ask to try it. There was a huge stage set up for live music with a lot of food trucks around. Kevin chuckled that we had seen all those food trucks at the Summers On Main on Thursday. We grabbed our chairs and our new cooler from Costco (it is a backpack) and sat in front of the stage with some other people. I had made tortellini salad for our lunch and it worked great. 

I saw a booth set up next to the stage and saw they were giving samples. Kevin got in line and it was vanilla ice cream scoop, caramel topping and you could add chokecherries on the side. We tasted the chokecherries and knew why “choke” is in the name! LOL They were so sour that it was good to have sweet ice cream to swallow. The weather was very nice and we weren’t too hot even sitting on the asphalt in the sun. As we took our chairs back to the truck we saw we were parked right by the city library and decided to go in. A nice modern building. I looked through two Sourdough books. I found information about the 1847 Carl Griffith’s Oregon Trail Sourdough Starter. I want some! I guess they will mail some to you. What a fun, full, and relaxing day.

*The blog posts are taken from my daily travel journal. Would you believe – it takes me a 1/2 day every week to whittle down a week’s worth of journal so it won’t be too long for the post each week. HAHA Thank you for reading!