Thursday, July 30, 2009

An EZ day in mid-America.

We drove west to east today from central North Dakota to halfway across Minnesota. Through Fargo? Yah, you betcha, eh?

They have this strange phenomena here where water seems to simply fall from the sky! So much so that grass, trees, and fields are green, not brown as we have become accustomed to. More water falls from the sky than is actually needed by the plants, and the remainder settles into low spots in the earth providing numerous spots for water fowl, other small animals, and reeds. What a concept! I wish we could export it to South Texas!

The lush, rolling land provides habitat for a great variety of wildlife, and we did see a LOT of wildlife in North Dakota: dead deer, dead skunks, dead raccoons, dead rabbits - enough roadkill to stock many a freezer!

Clouds do funny things here, too. While it was mostly sunny where we were at today, we were ringed about by clouds. They were the most varied collection of clouds I've ever seen, and ran the gamut from high, wispy cirrus clouds through towering billowy cumulus to near-black thunder-heads. All mixed together in a swirling horizontal to vertical and back mix--seemingly in the same place at the same time. A sign, I guess, of very unsettled weather, certainly more Spring-like than late summer in my experience.

Nothing at all to report on the drivers and driving styles today -- very mid-American and normal.

This drive follows two days at Minot, ND, taking in the State Fair with two grandsons. What a great event! The fair was fun, and reminded me of the county fairs that I attended each year, as a youth, with my parents. There were displays of everything to do with livestock, agriculture, equipment, and the farm-home, as well as living history and nature displays. There was, of course, a carnival and midway and more fair-food booths than I could count. Glenda and the grandsons drove go-karts and we played putt-putt-golf (2 under par, thank you!--on the front nine that is--the back nine more than made up for my low score.)

We also saw Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. It was a half-good movie, but the grandsons enjoyed it.

Dinner tonight at Sawatadee Thai in St. Cloud. A bit above average, I'd say, and a fitting end to the day in central Minnesota, as they had a Thai-spiced Walleye filet on the menu. Seems kinda' local, to me, eh? All in all, today was pretty EZ.

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