Day At Camp

It's really hot today. We spent the morning looking at maps and planning. We weent for a hike down the grass trail around the lake and sat for a while on the beach. The rest of the day was spent hanging out at camp and working on the blog. The wind came up this afternoon and there were 2-3 foot waves on the lake! Ken tried to make friends with a 13 lined ground squirrel that was running around the site. The little guy didn't want to cooperate. After dinner we went for a bike ride around the park. Most everyone left yesterday so the park is really quiet, there is no one around us.

Wasn't a real exciting day but was nice. We are off tomorrow....

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.

Garrison Dam & Powerhouse - July 25 - part 2

About mid afternoon we pulled into Lake Sakakawea State Park. The state park is awesome and sits on the shore of Lake Sakakawea. The lake is a reservoir in the Missouri river basin in central North Dakota. Named for the Shoshone-Hidatsa woman Sakakawea, it is the third largest man-made lake in the US, after Lake Mead and Lake Powell. We have a great view of the lake from our site. There is a little Cantina in the park and we had lunch there. Homemade food! Baked Beans, ham,and real mashed potatoes which we split.

Off for a tour of the Garrison Dam Power Plant. The last tour for the week was at 3pm and we made it. We had never been through a power plant before. The Garrison plant began in 1947 and was completed in 1954 at a cost of about 300 million dollars. It is the 5th largest earthen dam structure in the US. First we saw the turbines (7 feet hight, 18 feet in diameter). Next came the generator room with the 5 generators and then the penstocks which carry water from the Intake Structure to the case around the turbine. The diameter is 24 feet and length is 1650 feet and you feel like a dwarf standing next to them. Garrison is a multi-purpose project providing for hydroelectric power production, irrigation, flood damage reduction, navigation, fish and wildlife, municipal and industrial water supply. It was really interesting.

Back to camp for dinner and then went for a bike ride around the park. We saw 2 mule deer feeding along the tree line. Riding up to a point overlooking the lake and boat ramp we sat at a picnic table and enjoyed the view. We hope to put our boat in on Monday. We rode back to camp and relaxed in our chairs watching the sun set over the lake.

We did a lot today so we broke it into two parts so we could also get more pictures in ....