August 11, 2009

August 11, 2009

The Indian mounds we saw last night are not unusual for this area. We saw a couple several years ago in Devils Lake State Park in central Wisconsin. We are going to see a lot more today as we visit Effigy Mounds National Monument ten miles north of us. What we learn is that the central US had literally tens of thousands of Indian mounds. Many still exist but the majority over the years have been built on or leveled by farm plows. Plus without periodic grooming and mowing nature reclaims its share. The majority of the circular mounds have been found to contain multiple burials. Apparently when working with stone tools it is easier to pile dirt up in a mound versus digging a hole.

What is unique about this area is that some of the mounds are in the shape of animals. In Effigy National Monument the predominant shape is that of a bear. And not a small bear. The largest is almost the length of a football field. Since they could only be appreciated from the air, it makes you wonder whom they were built for. Hmmm, maybe “Chariot of the Gods” was right about those ancient astronauts!!

After checking out the Visitor Center, we head out on the trail. We listen to a ranger halfway and then continue on our own. Most of the mounds here atop the river bluff are in good condition because this rolling heavily wooded area had little commercial value. Still we have a hard time getting excited about them. The round ones are just mounds of dirt a couple feet high. And without a helicopter it is hard to appreciate the animal-shaped mounds.

It could be we are just getting tired of these Indian historical sites. Thinking we need a vacation to revive our energy level, we spend the next several hours driving to the outskirts of Chicago and the home of Aimee’s mother.

August 10, 2009

August 10, 2009

We read that Winnebago gives tours of their assembly line twice daily during the week. So we roll into the town of Forest City, IA in time for the 9am tour. We start with a movie that promotes the benefits of Winnebago’s product. From there we load onto a converted motorhome for a ride to three of the dozens of factory buildings. The manufacture of a motorhome starts with an empty chassis upon which a home is built. There is so much customization these days that the manufacturing is pretty complicated and labor intensive. Like the rest of the economy the RV business is in a slump and the local community is bearing the brunt. Production this year for Winnebago is 60 units per week, a third of last years rate. Employment is down to 1500, half of last year.

Back in the Visitor Center we learn a little about Winnebago’s history. Winnebago got started building trailers. In 1966 it introduced its motorhome and by the end of the year, Winnebago was the largest manufacturer. Sales skyrocketed in the next several years making millionaires out of many of the local citizenry. It was the Microsoft of Iowa. In the lobby is a mint condition 1967 motorhome. It looks surprisingly like our baby and I am amazed at how little has changed in motorhomes in the last forty years. All it lacks is a TV.

On our way out of Winnebago County we make a brief stop in Clear Lake. Clear Lake is where the music died in 1959. After playing his last gig at the Surf Ballroom, Buddy Holly died on takeoff along with Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper. Waylon Jennings luckily traded seats with Valens.

Continuing east we drive to the Mississippi River where we find a campsite at Pikes Peak State Park. After dinner we take a walk around this heavily wooded and hilly park. Stumbling upon a trailhead we take a short hike to the bluff’s edge where we get a good view of the River and a handful of Indian burial mounds. We linger a little too long and have to make our way back home in the dark. We must have been living with Alaska’s midnight sun too long. This setting sun is going to take some getting used to.

August 8-9, 2009

August 8-9, 2009

Yesterday we spent the entire day driving across North Dakota and down the east side of South Dakota. This morning we drive for an hour crossing into Minnesota to visit Pipestone National Monument. Pipestone is exactly what it sounds like. It is a soft high-quality mudstone that was valued for its ability to be easily carved with stone tools. Indians primarily made the bowl of ceremonial pipes from the material. The Visitor Center has some history and examples of elaborate pipe carvings. The gift shop area has two Indians carving pipes and offers a variety for sale.

From the Visitor Center we walk a trail that takes us past a couple quarries. In this area the rock strata is near the surface. The pipestone seam is only a foot thick and is sandwiched between hard quartzite layers. The prime quarrying sites have been exhausted and new slabs require removing a large quantity of quartzite overburden. Apparently Congress gave Indians the exclusive right to mine the pipestone. To me it seems an anachronistic rule. There is little demand for it anymore except for making trinkets and despite its “sacredness”, it can be mined with modern tools and sold for cash to whites.

While walking the quarry trail we hear Indian chanting in the background. When the trail doesn’t pass that area, I ask a ranger where the chanting is coming from. He tells me it is from an Indian “Sundance” ceremony in a remote part of the park. With directions in hand we drive down a muddy rutted dirt road to a “security” booth. The “white” Indian lady and her blond daughter tell us this ceremony is sacred and gives us a list of rules for watching. We can’t wear shoes, have any exposed metal and Aimee needs a dress to hide her pretty legs. And of course no cameras or cellphones. Once we arrive we find the dancers are on break and nobody is following these rules. There are about two-dozen people and only half look like they are full blooded. From what we can see the ceremony looks like a couple males dancing around a Maypole (a denuded cottonwood tree.) I think the whole thing seems pretty silly but I am not a good judge. I am pretty cynical. For some reason I don’t have an overwhelming urge to relive the practices of my Stone Age ancestors.

We have a nice talk with this elderly Indian security guard who tells us about “Indian Time”. Apparently he knows what he is talking about because after an hour still no dancing. So we take off. We drive for several hours and stop for the night at Pilot Knob State park in Forest City, IA. Along the way we spot this huge statue. We have to stop and see who this jolly green giant is. I take a photo while Aimee checks to see if the guy is wearing anything under his leafy skirt.

August 7, 2009

August 7, 2009

Our friendly camp host last night gave us a rundown of the tourist sites in the area. One not on our radar was his former employer, the Great Plains Synfuels plant. When he said they give tours every weekday, I was hooked. That is our destination this morning and luckily we don’t have to backtrack west too far. This chemical plant takes local lignite coal and converts it to synthetic natural gas. The only other commercial coal gasification plant in the world is in South Africa. Born in the years following the oil embargo, the plant went bankrupt soon after opening when oil and natural gas prices plummeted. With DOE help, this plant hung on. There is no tour of the actual plant. It all occurs around a room-size scale model of the plant. Most of the tour of the complicated chemical process was given by a flip-flop wearing young girl who was surprisingly knowledgeable. Fortunately a retiree was also on the tour with some friends and was able to fill in some answers. Disappointingly no photography was allowed since the process details are secret. Apparently they haven’t got the message that nobody has any desire to build another one of these white elephants.

After the hour tour, we drive east a short distance to the Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site. When Lewis and Clark paddled past this area, the Missouri River here was lined with Indian Villages of the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes. At that time the Indians lived in large earthlodge clusters. Nothing remains of the villages except open fields crowded with depressions where the lodges stood. The Indians were wiped out with the small pox epidemic of 1837. The site turns out to be a big disappointment. The morning tour was cancelled because a ranger failed to show for work. Apparently the other rangers can’t fill in. The film and interpretative center were also weak, not providing a lot of history. Most of what we learned came from our next stop. The one highlight was learning that Sacagawea lived in the village we walked atop.

Downriver a short way is the Lewis and Clark Interpretative Center. The Corps of Discovery spent their first winter here living among the Mandan and Hidatsas. It is a good follow-up to the National Park site. The Mandan and Hidatsas, a hunting and agricultural people, lived here because of a local flint quarry. With their monopoly of the flint source, they were able to trade with other tribes for a broad range of goods. Also included in the admission is a tour of Lewis and Clark’s recreated Fort Mandan. It is also well done and gives a good glimpse into their winter quarters.

August 6, 2009

August 6, 2009

Before leaving Theodore Roosevelt National Park, we make a last stop at the Visitor Center and watch the park film while waiting for a ranger tour of TR’s Maltese Cross cabin. It was well worth the wait. The ranger was great. Another fine example of a NPS ranger bringing history to life. In 1883 a young 24-year old Roosevelt came out here on a buffalo-hunting trip. He fell in love with the area, invested in a local cattle operation and had this two-room cabin built for himself. Expecting to find millions of buffalo, he was disappointed to find the buffalo almost extinct. It was the beginning of his reputation as an ardent conservationist and National Park advocate. During his presidential term he started the Forest Service and set aside 283 million acres under federal protection.

Leaving the park, we head east but not before stopping to use the Internet and restocking the RV with supplies. We were really low on most things after over a month in the northern wilderness. We spend the night in an RV park in Hazen, ND. Our timing is good. We arrive just in time for a BBQ sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce.

August 5, 2009

August 5, 2009

There are two parts to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. From the north unit we drive ninety minutes to the more popular South unit. There we stopped at the Visitor Center to get organized and gather info. We then make a reservation for a horse ride in the park. Riding is one of Aimee’s favorite things to do. She picked a great spot. The trip was outstanding. One of the best places we have ridden horses. The horses moved on command; they weren’t just trail horses following the horsetail ahead of them. The owner rode parallel to us and gave us riding tips on the way. And the scenery was great, with us riding up and down the badlands and across streams. We thought we were in the Old West. And it was a bargain price. I now know why Teddy Roosevelt fell in love with this area. If my butt weren’t so saddle sore, we would have signed up for an afternoon ride.

After lunch we drive the 32-mile tourist loop, stopping at several spots to observe the wildlife and do a few short hikes. We see more buffalo, a couple wild horses in the distance, and loads of prairie dog towns. While watching one prairie dog town Aimee points at this large buzzard taking off. Or at least we thought it was a buzzard until Aimee noticed a hapless Prairie Dog in its talons. That isn’t a vulture, it is a Golden Eagle. I guess the prairie dog town spotters need to look upward for danger too.

We spend the night at the parks campground where we listen to a very boring ranger talk. This is definitely not the norm.

August 4, 2009

August 4, 2009

From Montana we cross the line into North Dakota, the last state on our list. Apparently we aren’t the only tourists to leave North Dakota to the end. North Dakota is the least visited of all fifty states. We aim to see why. Our first stop is Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site. Fort Union sits at the confluence of two major rivers, the Missouri and Yellowstone. John Jacob Astor of the American Fur Company had a fort built here in 1828 to enhance his fur trading operation. He brought manufactured items here, which he traded with the Indians for beaver pelts and later buffalo hides. It was a mutually beneficial relationship. Both sides thought they got the better of the trade. On entering the wooden stockade we see the manager's big house and we are welcomed by a re-enactor who offers us a cup of fire-brewed coffee. Aimee immediately loves any place, even historical ones, that offer her coffee. Fort Union is actually quite interesting with its display of goods the Indians wanted for barter. The myth of the Native American wanting to retain his traditional stone-age lifestyle is just that, a myth. They wanted the finer things in life like everybody else.

This area is also Lewis and Clark country. We keep crossing the trail as we zigzag across the country. On their return journey, Lewis and Clark split up with Lewis following the Missouri and Clark the Yellowstone. Amazingly they managed to meet back here at the confluence successfully.

From Fort Union we drive to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The park is a preserve of the Badland area of North Dakota. The North Dakota versions are similar to the more famous ones in South Dakota but seem greener. These Badlands are formed by the erosive power of the Little Missouri River flowing thru this region. After making the prerequisite stop at the Visitor Center we start the 14-mile scenic road. Unfortunately the road is under construction and we wait some twenty minutes for an escort car. The road is mostly dirt. This is the second time we have hit a rough patch of road since reaching the lower 48. So far we have had more bumpy roads here then all of the Alaska Highway!!

Despite the roadwork the views are beautiful. There is a variety of odd scenery. We also pass a herd of buffalo along the road. At one point we stop and do a four-mile loop hike thru the badlands. It is quite nice but a little buggy. No mosquitoes but lots of very tiny insects that are impossible to swat. We spend the night in the park’s campground. It is as nice as any NP campground we have camped in.

August 1-3, 2009

August 1-3, 2009

After another long driving day we completed the Alaska Highway in record time. Our Canadian journey however is far from over. It takes us another two long days of driving thru Alberta and Saskatchewan before we cross the border into Montana. For the most part Alberta and Saskatchewan are flat endless farm fields. If they grew corn, we would feel at home. The scenery is a patchwork of fields alternating between haystacks and fields of canola. The canola flower is a bright yellow that glows iridescent when hit with rays of sunshine. For variety a few fields of green grass and blue rapeseed are thrown in for color contrast. Interestingly all the wildlife we have seen has been road kill, including two dead moose and a half dozen porcupines.

To make the drive seem quicker we are listening to CDs of a couple Great Courses classes. My favorite has been the History of Language. It is interesting to learn how all languages change over time. Witness how different English was when Shakespeare wrote his plays just a few hundred years ago. Juliet’s “Wherefore art thou Romeo” doesn’t mean what you think it does. Going back even farther, at one time English had a word that sounded like “bow” that meant “many times”. The remnant can be seen in the word endings of “dribble” (that meant “drip many times”), and nibble (nip) and dabble (dab).

July 31, 2009

July 31, 2009
Day two of the Alaska Highway eastbound. It was a long driving day with only a stop to watch a Black bear and two very small playful cubs on the side of the road. They disappeared after crossing the road in front of us. In the late afternoon we arrived at Liard River Hot Springs Provincial Park in British Columbia. Once we found a camp site, we wandered over to the Springs. After a long dusty day in the RV, we need a bath. The water is super hot. The spring would feel great if the weather wasn’t so steamy. Plus the water has a strong sulfur odor. The second of the two pools is closed because of a bear sighting. No big deal. Bears don’t scare Aimee anymore.

July 30, 2009

July 30, 2009

Today we start the long drive back on the Alaska Highway. We actually tried to sell the RV while here in Alaska. Partly to avoid this long drive and partly since we thought (more like hoped) that the market for RV’s in Alaska was stronger than back home. Unfortunately it was a half-hearted effort and our asking price was too high. We only got one real nibble.

The drive started out smoky but by late afternoon when we pulled into Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, it was warm and beautiful. A big difference compared to our first visit. The drive actually seemed easier this time. Partly because the Alaska Highway is no longer a mysterious journey. With the warmer temps, we saw little wildlife except for a momentary glimpse of a wolf and grizzly in the distance.

On the way we stopped at Kluane National Park. Kluane is just east of Wrangell-St Elias and is an extension of the Wrangell scenery. Kluane contains North America’s second highest mountain, Mt. Logan, just a little shorter than McKinley but ten times more inaccessible.

July 29, 2009

July 29, 2009

In the morning for exercise we do a hike to the top of the nearby ridge for a view of the local glacier. With that under our belt we continue on to Glen Allen. The route is thick with the smoke of forest fires. I forgot that this is the penalty for going to the drier warmer parts of Alaska. Nearby is the Visitor Center for Wrangell-St Elias National Park. Wrangell is the largest National Park in the US, the size of Vermont and New Hampshire combined. Although we can drive to the edge of the park; that is as far as we can go. Most of the park consists of mountains and glaciers, huge ones. The park contains a glacier the size of Rhode Island and has nine of North Americas highest sixteen peaks.

We watch the park film and peruse the exhibits and then continue driving north. The road suffers from severe frost heaves. Eventually we make it to Tok, Alaska. We have now completed our circle of Alaska. It is time to head back to the lower 48. We liked Alaska but we are in need of some warmer weather. Plus our finances need a boost. Alaska is an expensive place to live and even more expensive place to visit. Based on the prices, we get the impression that many of the locals only work during the summer tourist season and as a result need to make all their profit during these three short months.