Minot, ND - Norsk Hostfest

 After leaving Sean's place, we drove in constant rain from Fargo to Bismarck, ND where we spent one night.  By Friday, the weather cleared and we drove the last 110 miles to Minot, ND where we will attend the Norsk Hostfest later this week. 

Entrance to the Minot Fairgrounds where we are parked for the week.

Yesterday (Saturday), we hooked up with Ron and Pinky (brother and sister-in-law) and members of their family who live in Minot.  We all attended the homecoming game of Minot State College vs. Valley City.  (MSC won 31-3.)  Well, let's say that we stayed for almost the end of the first quarter.  It was sooooo HOT and we were sitting directly in the sun, but had dressed for a colder day. 

Minot State College vs. Valley City

This morning, we got an unexpected visit from our nephew and his family (Terry, Lynn and Alex) who drove up here from Minnesota to see their son, Kyle, play in the game yesterday.

Lynn, Alex and Terry

This evening we are going over to Ron and Pinky's for dinner and visiting with more family, including Dan (grandson) who we saw briefly yesterday. 

The Norsk Hostfest doesn't start until Wednesday, but the RVs are arriving all around us.  We were told that they have overbooked and are expecting 1,500 RVs.  Will write more next week after the Hostfest is over.

Rapid City, SD to Fargo, ND

Haven't updated this blog for so long, I forgot where we have been in the last 10 days. On that Sunday afternoon in Deadwood, we took a three-hour walk around the place, including up Boot Hill (Mount Mariah) to see the old cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamidy Jane are buried.  When I was there 40 years ago, Boot Hill was merely a gravel road leading up to the cemetary. Now, everything is paved, upgraded with concrete walls around certain structures, statues, and plaques.  They also now charge $1 to see it and have daily bus tours up the hill.  

Wild Bill Hickok Statute on Gravesite (taken with cell phone)

Deadwood as seen from Boot Hill (taken with cell phone)

Deadwood has seen its share of hard times, too.  The famous saloon where Wild Bill was shot is closed up, as is the place that had the train station set up in its basement that we saw two years ago.

This saloon was closed down (taken with cell phone)

Deadwood main street (lots of businesses closed down) (taken with cell phone)

On Monday, we drove to a lab in Rapid City to get our blood work done.  We discovered this lab a couple of years ago when we were here.  It is relatively cheap to get any blood work we want done here as long as we don't include our medical insurances, and they give the results directly to us.

We planned on staying at the Hart Ranch RV Resort in Rapid City for a few days.  Weather was nice. We put out all of our slides and set up everything -- including the grill where Jerry grilled chicken that first night.  But, the next morning, there was a knock on our door.  It was the camp host.  Seems that they inadvertently put us in the "no dog" area, and asked us to move to another area of the park.  At that point, we decided to pack up everything and move along down the road.  

We spent one night in Dickenson, ND, one night in Bismarck, ND (where I went back to see the physician who did my cataract surgery two years ago), and then drove to Fargo, ND.  We have been staying out at the farm where Sean (my son) lives since Friday, September 17.  

We have a couple of nice dinners with Sean and Rachelle. 

Sean has been putting in a lot of time at work, so we are basically alone here on the farm. Being on the farm is very peaceful and it is fun to listen to the farm talk (the hens, geese, bull, cows and goats talking to each other). Jerry builds a bon fire every night. 

On Saturday, we spent the day with Angela (our 8 year old granddaughter) and also some time with her mother, Audray.  Angela gave us an updated tour all around the place, including the new hen house.

Geese coming to greet us.

Jerry and Angela on our tour

The goats

The horses

Jerry, Chanti, Angela and me in the RV

We plan on leaving Fargo later this week.

Park City, Utah - Buffalo, Wyoming - Deadwood, South Dakota

Pat and Bill joined us in Park City for one night, and it was great catching up with them.  Pat and I spent a little time in the hot tub at the RV Park. 

The next day, they took off for Grants Pass, Oregon, while we made our way to Buffalo, Wyoming (stopping one night along the way at a Flying J truck stop). 

Here are some pictures taken on the drive over to Buffalo, Wyoming.

Parked in front of Dick and Casey's house Friday night and enjoyed catching up them, too. Casey and I were classmates in nursing school some 50 years ago. They will be celebrating their 49th wedding anniversary in a week and I was in their wedding party. Still can't believe we are all in this stage of our lives.

Today, we drove to Deadwood, South Dakota where we will spend a couple of days.  We are parked in the 76 RV Camp Ground, which is right down town.  So, tomorrow we plan on biking around the place.  Here we are parked in Deadwood.

Park City, Utah

Park City, Utah is beautiful.  We have been here a week and a half, and were planning on leaving tomorrow until we found out that Pat and Bill are traveling this way.  It's a small world afterall! They have been to Mississippi and Memphis, and are on their way to Oregon.  They should be here tomorrow, so we are staying here a bit longer to meet up with them.

Here we are parked at the Park City RV Park, a very nice place.

Here are some other pictures of this park.

Creek behind the RV Park

Waterfall, pond and Koi fish at the Park

Cloud over hill in front of the check-in office at the Park

Last week, we biked into Park City (6 miles from the RV Park on I-80, but a 17 mile round trip by the time we finished riding the bike path).  The ride was great.  We rode over 5 or 6 small bridges as we biked along a running creek going into the city.  The ride was mostly up hill into Park City, which we thought was hard, and we were really looking forward to the down hill ride back the the RV Park.  But, when we started back, we found that the wind was blowing real heavy uphill, and our downhill run was worse than going uphill, as we had to bike against the wind even though we were going downhill.

Part of the bike path into Park City from the RV Park.

Metal art signs located along the bike path

Jerry in front of the Park City sign

The Olympic Torch in Park City

The weather has been very unpredictable -- as high as in the 90s on somedays and down to 33 degrees at night.  Some days we feel as if we are in the middle of summer, and the very next day, it will be windy and cold.

Another thing for those of you in photography, I started taking my pictures in the RAW format, and then converting them to JPEG.  I think the colors are more vivid.  Hope you like them.

Also, I've downloaded on my Kindle Steven Hawking's new book (released today and already No. 1 on Amazon) called The Grand Design that he wrote with Leonard Mlodinow.  Can't wait to start reading it tonight.  Don't think any person should voice his or her opinion of the book unless he or she has read it.

Will write more after Pat and Bill get here tomorrow.