Because there are many people who believe that North Dakota is a Canadian province, I thought perhaps a few instructions about how to get there would increase the number of visitors that might find their way to my home state, where the chokecherry is the state fruit, the people are friendly, the women are all beautiful, and the children are all above-average! (Do you listen to Prairie Home Companion?)
I loaded my car with the usual travel stuff (clothes, etc.) plus water, snacks, and enough opera CD's to take me the 1172 miles to the Flickertail State. The first trick is to map out, in your mind, the route out of Colorado, planning it carefully so you approach, enter, cross, and exit the Denver-Boulder-Ft. Collins-Greeley area in the middle of the day. This worked out for me as I spent the first night on the road with my good friend, Karen Timbrell, in Poncha Springs, CO. From there it is an easy drive to Denver and I was able to breeze through the mass of humanity on the Front Range will relative ease and confidence (this is quite a statement for a country lady who used to be white-knuckled the entire time I drove in Denver!).
Upon crossing the border into Wyoming the wind began to blow (I don't know of anyone who has ever been to Cheyenne when the wind wasn't blowing!), cities and towns virtually disappeared, and the scenery became quite bucolic, as below. This is the land that fostered the title of my favorite childhood book,
The Green Grass of Wyoming. The population seems to be primarily cattle and pronghorns plus a variety of oil tankers and trucks hauling drilling rigs, rushing too and fro. However, there didn't seem to be ANY other traffic...none, zippo...just me!
It is always an adventure to stop for lunch in a small town in Wyoming. Everyone in the cafe' checks your feet first, to see if you are wearing cowboy boots. If not, they know right away you are a stranger to the area...needless to say I wasn't wearing boots! They still have those roast beef sandwiches---you know the ones? (Roast beef on white bread covered with gravy?)
After a pleasant but uneventful overnight in Custer, South Dakota (unless you count an unexpected snowfall!), I ventured over the Needles Highway in the Black Hills, thinking it would be lovely to see some of the sights our family had always enjoyed during summer camping trips. Now, you need to know that our parents honey-mooned there in 1934 so my brother and I had to endure the typical "Honey, do you remember when we..." (I suspect we did not have the good grace to be decent about my parent's recall but probably groaned as each new story began!)
Anyway, on this trip I seemed to have the area to myself, making the first tracks through the new snow on the winding road and enjoying wild turkeys, deer, and the narrow tunnels...I realized with glee that I had chosen the right vehicle when I purchased Scarlet, my Dodge Durango, with the great tires, four-wheel drive, and easy handling on icy roads!
Mt. Rushmore always gives me a thrill and this time I saw a view that was new to me: this profile of George Washington. I believe I like it better than the full view of the four guys.
Next I arrived at Sylvan Lake, where I had my first-remembered boat ride as a small child. My dad rented a row boat and we went for a ride. The boat had water in the bottom (maybe it was leaking a bit or maybe it was just there) and in my small-child way, I panicked. Screaming and sobbing, fearing we were to drown in the "huge lake", I was deposited on the shore with my mother. You can imagine my surprise, when, upon returning to this lovely lake, to find it look so small! I actually wondered where the rest of the lake was! A copy of the photo below is going in my journal where I can look at it when problems seem huge---it will remind me that they are never as large as I once thought!
Finally, the road into North Dakota from South Dakota appeared---long, and straight, and good for singing along with the operas. Nothing else was on the road---just Scarlet and me--- headed back to my roots. Do you know that old cowboy song, "There's a Long, Long Trail Awinding..."?This trail does not wind....it just goes and goes and goes...
So---if you want to get to North Dakota from Silverton (or somewhere else), take parts of three days, and plan to enjoy the trip. It is amazing to be where there seem to be more animals than people, good roads with few people using them, clean air, and places with nifty names like Trotters, and Chugwater, and Rosebud...signing out for now...Penny
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