Pictures: Ant ‘hill’ with dried grass stems as camouflage?
Kevin and Sylvia riding
Aerial photo of village ruins
Outside Indian dwelling replica
Inside Indian dwelling replica
Totten Trail’s Proprietor, Kirk, told us that on Sunday we wouldn’t have any luck finding anything to eat till Riverdale about 25 miles away. So we slept in and met Kirk at 8:15 for breakfast then cruised over to the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge. It was closed but we still spent an hour walking around the mile long nature trail. We saw some birds but had just as much fun spotting wildflowers and ant hills (harvester ants that had piles of grass stems around there entrance, much harder to spot than the red granular hills in Oklahoma). The most amazing town, Riverdale, was the next wide spot in the road. It is near the Garrison Dam that created Lake Sakakawea and headquarters to the Corps of Engineers. It seems the perfect small town. Like a Norman Rockwell painting. Curvy roads, well kept homes, large greenspaces and parks, everything in mint condition, and awesome small town except it is much more just a community. No old downtown, no café, more a lakeside retreat. After fixing a flat we crossed the dam and ate lunch in Pick City. While in the dinner we say a passerby checking out Kevin’s bike and rig. Giving it a thorough looking over then shaking his head as if to assure himself we were clearly crazy and walking away. On the road to Stanton we saw 5 antelope which surprised me being out in farmland then several hawks were having a melee overhead. Then we pulled over briefly to celebrate our 1500 mile mark. On the way into Stanton we stopped by to see the ruins of several old Indian villages one of which was occupied and visited by Lewis and Clark. The inhabitants lived in round lodges made of vertical split wood covered with earth. The ruins of the homes look like round depressions; so the village looks similar to a golf course. Camping at the park in Stanton was great, beautiful area and good showers.
what a great historically ride!
ReplyDelete"We were intrigued by the "evolution" of Sakakawea's name and relevance over the years. As a grade school student of history, we were introduced to her as "Sacajawea" and she was mostly a sideline to the main storyline of Lewis and Clark. Thanks to the thorough coverage of her importance to the success of the expedition as chronicled in "Undaunted Courage", we now know and appreciate just how important a player she was. It was a thrill to find her homeland and see it recreated in the many exhibits along the Lewis and Clark trail.
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