What is "Rapeseed"? July 25 - part 1

Rolling out of Carrington up Rte 200 W. We turned onto Rte 1804 which is the trail Lewis & Clark took when President Jefferson sent them to explore the Pacific Northwest. President Jefferson told US Army Captain Meriwether Lewis

The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri River, and principal streams to determine if the waters of the Pacific Ocean and the waters of the Columbia, Oregon, Colorado or any other river may offer the most direct and practicable water to allow the crossing of the continent for the purposes of commerce.

Lewis chose William Clark as his partner and they began preparations in 1803-1804. There's a lot of history on this trail and we hope to visit many of the historical sites.

We are definitely in the "Heartland"! There are hay fields as far as the eye can see. Tons of bugs are making a pretty big mess on the windshield. We saw a woman standing on the hood of her truck with a mop cleaning her windshield! Ours isn't much better...

Talking to local folks we found out what the yellow flowered crop was that we have been seeing. It is "rapeseed". I thought they were teasing us, but it's true. We know it better as Canola. In agriculture, canola are certain varieties of oilseed rape, or the oil produced from those varieties. Canola is a trademarked hybrid of rape initially bred in Canada. Rape Seed Oil was produced in the 19th century as a source of a lubricant for steam engines, and the oil has a bitter taste due to high levels of acids. Canola has been bred to reduce the amount of acid, yielding a palatable oil. Canola was derived from Canadian Oilseed Low Acid.

Later this morning we came across fields of golden grain and "Flax". From the road Flax looks like a lake of periwinkle blue. These fields are absolutely magnificent!

We passed through McCluskey, ND which is the geographic center of North Dakota. Every day gets more spectacular and has something new to make us realize how beautiful this country is!

The landscape started to change this afternoon. A lot of hills, more cattle, rocks in the fields. We have a new game now... we "honk" at the cattle and they raise their heads and look at us (to say HI)! All of a sudden there is a herd of about 15 steers coming down the side of the road toward us (escaped from some where). We passed through Underwood ND which as a large coal mining operation.