North Dakota - Day 1 - driving to Bismarck

Bismarck KOA, Bismarck

Thursday, 1 July 2021

I can tell I'll have to spend a lot of time with the bird book in these next few months, because I'm not used to northern birds any more.  Early in today's drive I saw what I thought was a stint, but the bird book tells me I'm not likely to see any of those outside Alaska, because they're Old World species.  So I looked through all the other birds with longish legs and longish bills and came up with the Upland Sandpiper as being the most likely in this part of the country.

Upland Sandpiper

None of these bird photos, by the way, are mine of course; I took them off the internet.

I also saw quite a few grouse, and the bird book tells me that the only species I'm likely to see in the Dakotas is the Sharp-tailed Grouse (it's so nice not to have to guess which species).

female Sharp-tailed Grouse

What I saw was a female, which I know because the males are distinctly more colorful.  One of these grouse I saw was so dumb she stood right in the middle of the road until I almost had to come to a stop to keep from hitting her.

And while I'm doing birds, later in the drive I came to a bird that in Florida would have been an Anhinga, but they aren't in the Dakotas so I knew it was a cormorant.  And the Double-crested Cormorant is the only one found in this area.

Double-crested Cormorant

Such a distinctive pose, and that's what the bird I saw was doing - drying off its wings - though I didn't see a drop of water anywhere around.

I passed a herd of donkeys.  Really.  Must have been at least 15 of them.

Just north of the tiny town of Onida I came across an extensive marshy area that was alive with hundreds of ducks and geese and multiple species of birds.  And I can't find even a hint of such an area on any of the maps I've looked at.  Apparently the map-makers don't know it's there but the birds sure do, and they seemed real happy to find it.  So was I, actually, because it was a great sight to see.

And one more critter: this one was a chipmunk-sized little guy that ran across the road in front of me.  I wasn't quite close enough to see what it was, but I guess it could have been a chipmunk - they're known to be in the Dakotas.

Crops aren't as advanced up here as farther south, so I saw large fields of some beautiful golden grain growing, and the corn plants are much shorter here.

I saw one Trump flag today, this one in Selby (SD).

And then Welcome to North Dakota - Be Legendary.

North Dakota - my 30th state

Right now, the poor thing is hanging out all by itself, unattached to any other states.  It'll get hooked back up in September, when I go from South Dakota to Wyoming, which sits on top of Colorado.  I won't be able to fill in Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa until next year when I'll be on my way to those 4 southern states I missed 3 years ago.  Meanwhile, I get to explore what being legendary is all about.

Much of today's drive was across South Dakota, but here's the map for the portion in North Dakota.

today's route in North Dakota

I stopped for gas at Strasberg, which claims it's the Birthplace of Lawrence Welk, and has named US-83, which I was on, the Lawrence Welk Highway.

At the gas station was a sign saying, "Happy Fourth - Pray for Rain."  You could see from that drought map I linked to yesterday that every part of North Dakota is in some stage of drought - and at least half is in the extreme or exceptional stages.

After driving for a while, I noticed that ND drivers don't want to pass me on the roads - even when I slow down - even to a standstill - and signal and it's an utterly safe and legal place to pass.  I had no trouble at all getting folks in Nebraska and South Dakota to pass, but North Dakotans don't seem to know what's going on.  This may be a frustrating month for me.

For much of the drive today I was getting large bugs splattered on the windshield.  I don't know what they grow up here, but they're big and there's a lot of them.

I saw an enormous field of yellow in the distance.  Whatever it was wasn't tall enough to be sunflowers.  It was really pretty.

In Bismarck, I went first to a CVS to pick up refills on my prescriptions.  That's one thing that's worked out pretty well for me - using CVS, with its stores across the country and its connected computer system.

This KOA is quite large, with maybe 100 RV spots, plus a large area for tents and some cabins.  Only 1 dog park and 1 set of showers - both on the opposite side of the campground from my site, but otherwise not bad.  There're trees and bushes between the campsites, which are a decent distance apart.  The best part about the trees isn't protection from other campers but protection from the sun.  Temps are forecast to get up over 100° this weekend.

My reservation here is until next Wednesday, to give me time to get chores done as well as avoid fighting weekend warriors on holiday for the 4th.  This whole campground is expected to be filled over this long weekend.  I stopped at a rest area on the way into town and picked up some more tourist materials, and I'll need some time to look at those.  Plus, I'm not convinced I'll have a signal for my little hotspot in much of this state, so I want to make plans before I leave here.