Peace On The Road
48 Contiguous States
September 21, 2013
A little over nine years
ago we decided that it was time to start living full time in a motor
home and traveling as a life style. As I think back on it I cannot
say that we ever had a goal of traveling and visiting all of the
contiguous forty eight states. It really was not until some time
this last winter season that we decided that forty eight would be a
summer goal. North Dakota was the last state that we needed to
visit. A friend told me that a lot of people who visit all forty
eight states visit North Dakota last, so I guess that we are right on
schedule. Every state that we have been in has had beautiful places
to see and visit. People everywhere have been friendly and helpful.
Of course every state has had places that we would not desire to
visit again and there have been grouches, but very few. We live in a
very large and great nation. Where do we like best? I believe that
we would have to say “Wherever we are as long as we are together!”
Add wherever the weather is good for the season.
DAKOTA MIRACLE WITH SOME
OF HIS HERD MATES
North Dakota proved to be
a very interesting state. The farmers there produce more sunflowers
than any other state. I would have guessed Kansas, the sunflower
state. It has the worlds largest scrap metal sculpture, the worlds
largest Holstein cow and the worlds largest buffalo. It also has a
herd of buffalo that is supposed to have four white buffalo, of which
we saw two. White Cloud is a true albino cow that was born in a herd
in Michigan, ND in 1996. She is on loan to the National Buffalo
Museum in Jamestown, ND. After giving birth to several brown calves
she gave birth to a white bull calf which was named Dakota Miracle.
He is not an albino, but he is still magnificent. We considered
ourselves fortunate that the white buffalo spent as much time as they
did where we could get good photographs. Here in Jamestown, ND in
1959 the world's largest buffalo came into existence. It is 26 foot
tall and 46 foot in length. Its total weight is 60 tons, made of
iron and concrete. I have tried to imagine what a Native American
would have thought if he had seen this in 1850. I wonder what he
would have done if it was alive. Would he have considered it to be a
sacred animal or would he have attempted to provide food for every
tribe for a year as far as he could ride.
A hundred years after
America declared its independence another battle took place with
Native Americans defending their way of life. The Native Americans
called it the Battle of Greasy Grass and the white man called it
Custer's Last Stand or the Battle of Big Horn. There were about 260
Army soldiers, 20 scouts, and an unknown number of Native Americans
that died. Three days after the battle the fallen were buried where
they fell, sometimes with only rocks and a small amount of sod. It
was in 1881 that the fallen were exhumed and moved to a permanent
location. The locations were marked by a white marble stone for the
the white soldiers and a red granite marker for the Native Americans.
It is hard to believe that so much misery took place in such a
beautiful place in such a short time.
SOME OF THE MARKERS OF MEN
WHO DIED AT THE BATTLE OF BIG HORN SITE
We are currently in Sioux
Falls, South Dakota for a while. We came here a bit early so that we
could go to another fireworks show which was put on by the National
Fireworks Association. September of last year purely by accident we
were close to Joplin, Missouri and saw the annual show that they put
on there. Again by a simple coincidence I needed to be in Sioux
Falls to get my drivers license renewed just shortly after the NFA
show. We decided that we had enjoyed the show last year so much that
we would spend an extra two weeks in Sioux Fall and be able to see
the show again. The purpose of the show is to showcase the
pyrotechnical products to the wholesalers and retailers of fireworks.
We were able to see the show just as public watchers. Our stop here
worked out well for us for other reasons. Our Jeep tires needed to
be replaced, and it needed an oil change. The day after we got into
Sioux Falls the Jeep windshield developed a crack, so we have a new
windshield, and our plastic headlight covers were restored. Our Jeep
was recalled for a computer software update and we have gotten that
done. So our time here has been well utilized, even if it was
somewhat spontaneous.
THE BOW OF THE USS SOUTH DAKOTA
BATTLESHIP MEMORIAL IN SIOUX FALLS, SD
It would be rather
difficult to transport an entire battleship from either ocean to a
location half way across our nation to be used as a memorial, so
Sioux Falls did what they could. In WWII a battleship was launched
with the name USS South Dakota. It was the first of the South Dakota
type battleship that were produced in WWII. Since the Navy wanted to
hide sensitive operational information from the Japanese, who thought
they had sunk her, she was called “Battleship X” or “Old
Nameless” in American newspapers and radio broadcasts. She was
only commissioned for five years but in that time she received 13
battle stars, which is more than most ships will receive in thirty
years. In 1969 she was scrapped. But Sioux Falls was able to obtain
parts of the ship and they built a memorial to the states battleship
to honor the men who served on her. The outline of the ship is
created with concrete walls and the saved parts are located like they
would have been on the ship. When the deck of a ship looks like a
lawn it is surprising just how big these ships are. It is a very
impressive memorial.
We will be in effect
heading towards Mission, Texas when we leave here in a couple more
days. As always we will be traveling slowly so it will be late
October or so when we get there. There will be additional stops but
at this time we are doing our usual and do not have specific plans.
Till later this is Doug
of
Peace On The Road
