We left Fernandina Beach on April 29, 2009 on a five month adventure that will have us spending a month in the Northwestern Corner of North Dakota, two months in Southern Idaho, and then back to Virginia for about a month. We won’t be home again until early October. Our first stop is Arlington, VA, where we’ll spend a few days visiting with our son, John, his wife Kemper, and two of our wonderful grandchildren Mary and Robert. We had a great visit. The highlights were the elementary school fair, Robert’s baseball game, Mary’s soccer game, and a nice visit with [View Full Entry]

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Obfuscator writes: We departed Graham’s Island after drying our stuff out for a bit again. On our way out of the park, we stopped to look at a strange bird. The next time we saw such a bird, things would be very different indeed. Our first destination was Maddock, ND, a small (and I mean very small) town not too far from Devil’s Lake. At Maddock, following our Uncle’s directions, we found the grave of our Great Great Grandfather (on our mother’s side) (approx. 47° 56.896N, 099° 31.946W). His North Dakota wife lived to be 97, which I found rather surprising. [View Full Entry]

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search of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan. The interpretive center is an impressive log structure with many artifacts, and a history of the Clark Family, as well as artwork. The Corp of Discovery constructed Fort Mandan as a winter home during their stay here in 1804-05. Built entirely of cottonwood trees, seven rooms housed the men of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was interesting to see the rooms, the buffalo blankets, fireplaces and clothing. (I didn’t realize they had uniforms to wear, but they were military.) Our home for tonight was Sakakawea State [View Full Entry]

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Needed to go try out my new camera so went out exploring! Decided to head up to Garrison Dam since I had never actually seen the Dam before. I've been to Lake Sakakawea before but never Garrison Dam. Lake Sakakawea is one of the largest man-made lakes in the US. According to the Lake Sakakawea State Park site, it's about 368,000 acres and is 178 miles long. The Lake or resevoir happened when Garrison Dam was completed in the 1950s. The Lake and Park are named after the Native American woman who was the guide of Lewis & Clark. Lewis & [View Full Entry]

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