{"id":1755,"date":"2013-06-15T13:29:34","date_gmt":"2013-06-15T13:29:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bucksurdu.com\/blog\/?p=1755"},"modified":"2013-06-15T13:29:34","modified_gmt":"2013-06-15T13:29:34","slug":"on-the-road-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/2013\/06\/15\/on-the-road-again\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Road Again…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Outside<\/a>
Outside the Lego store in the Mall of the Americas, Minneapolis, MN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two weeks after moving into a new house, the Surdus began their annual multi-state romp. \u00a0I was on a business trip to the left coast the early part of the week, but instead of flying home, I flew to Minneapolis and met Candy and the kids there. \u00a0 After linking up and getting the rental car, we went to the Mall of the Americas to nose around and have dinner. \u00a0While many of the stores and restaurants are the same as those found in other malls, they did have some things that seem to have disappeared, like GOOD game stores and stores with interesting “stuff.” \u00a0We enjoyed the huge Lego store. \u00a0The picture (above) is of Tommy looking at a “pointillist” picture made of Legos. \u00a0We played miniature golf in the mall and found the indoor amusement park interesting, though we didn’t go on any of the rides.<\/p>\n

\"Itasca<\/a>
Itasca State Park, MN<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\"Getting<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day we headed northward to Lake Itasca state park. \u00a0The Mississippi River flows some 2500+ miles, but you can wade across the Mississippi at Lake Itasca, where the river begins.<\/p>\n

\"Marker<\/a>
Marker at the headwaters of the Mississippi River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Within the park we took a several-mile hike to an old fire watch tower, which provided a terrific view of the area.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The fire tower at Lake Itasca<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We were attacked by mosquitos and ticks during this trek. \u00a0The next day I had over forty mosquito bites on my legs. \u00a0Despite staying on the marked trails, we each had six or seven ticks on us, and we were still finding ticks in the car the next day. \u00a0We also hiked to the headwaters and waded across the river.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom and Sam step across the rocks that mark the headwaters of the Mississippi River<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The water was cool and clear — quite different than at its other end in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

\"Pizza<\/a>
Pizza Ranch<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After several hours at Lake Itasca, we began a LONG car ride to Bismark, ND, to position ourselves for the next day’s activities. \u00a0Towns were few and far between, but when the GPS noted something called “Pizza Ranch,” Tommy decided that we couldn’t resist checking this out. \u00a0We got off the highway in the small town of Casselton, ND. \u00a0Pizza Ranch turns out to be a small chain with a pizza buffet, a nice salad bar, “famous” chicken, and other food items. \u00a0The price even included an ice cream \u00a0bar from a freezer. \u00a0On a big sign in the restaurant, they list their vision statement as: “To glorify God by positively impacting the world we live in,” so they appear to be like Chic-Fil-A in their management style. \u00a0We try to avoid a lot of chains on these trips, but this was an unexpected gem.<\/p>\n

\"Park<\/a>
Park entrance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The next day we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND. \u00a0In a previous trip we’d visited the Bad Lands of South Dakota. \u00a0This park includes the Bad Lands of North Dakota. \u00a0While none of the “mountains” are particularly tall, the views are amazing.<\/p>\n

\"Wow!\"<\/a>
Wow!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We went on four hikes during our visit. \u00a0Each hike had a brochure at the trail head with descriptions of points of interest that corresponded to marked points on the trail. \u00a0None of the hikes were too strenuous, but they were fun and interesting.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/a>
Sam and Tom during one of our hikes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I expected North Dakota to be pretty flat, but most of the state that we drove through was very hilly. \u00a0Of course, the Bad Lands are very hilly, but most of the state seemed to consist of rolling, grass-covered hills that looked more like pictures of parts of China than the “great plains.”<\/p>\n

\"During<\/a>
During our last hike we walked out to this "peak" for a terrific view of Theodore Roosevelt National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was one of the shorter hikes, out to a point where you could look down into the Bad Lands almost 360 degrees.<\/p>\n

\"Tom<\/a>
Tom and me in front of the North Dakota Bad Lands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After being nearly eaten alive by mosquitos the previous day, the higher, dryer terrain near Theodore Roosevelt National Park seemed cool and windy, which made the day nearly insect free.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A scene of the North Dakota Bad Lands<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The hikes tried to limit hikers to the marked paths in order to control erosion. \u00a0Along many of the paths, we could see numerous animal tracks and signs of Bison, but we saw no animals during our hikes.<\/p>\n

One of the interesting hikes took us through an area were a close-to-the-surface vein of coal had burned for nearly 30 years, beginning in the 60s. \u00a0It was interesting to see how the underground fire had changed the landscape. \u00a0These underground coal vein fires are started by lightning, brush fires, or spontaneous combustion.<\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>
One of the many spectacular peaks in Theodore Roosevelt National Park<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After several hours in the park, we ate at the Cowboy Cafe in Medora (shockingly overpriced and underwhelming food) and got on the road for Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana.<\/p>\n

\"Sam<\/a>
Sam puts her hand next to a bison hoof mark for scale.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It’s hard to see in this picture, particularly after I down-sampled it to upload it to the blog, but the bison hoof mark is almost 10 inches across.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A lone buffalo comes close to our car<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We saw herds of buffalo along the road leading to the park, but we only saw five or six buffalo inside the park. \u00a0The first few we saw appeared to be sleeping in the tall grass. \u00a0This one was actively grazing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This is a panoramic shot taken with an app on Candy’s phone, which proves that I can<\/strong><\/em> be in multiple places at once.<\/p>\n

Next stop Glacier National Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weeks after moving into a new house, the Surdus began their annual multi-state romp. \u00a0I was on a business trip to the left coast the early part of the week, but instead of flying home, I flew to Minneapolis and met Candy and the kids there. \u00a0 After linking up and getting the rental … Continue reading On the Road Again…<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bucksurdu.com\/bucksblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}