If you find yourself in the northeastern part of the state and need to suds your duds, consider stopping by this quaint little display along Highway 1 north of Lakota. Better wear skeeter repellent though!
Which reminds me of my preferred method of dealing with mosquitoes, a la 1990s:
Here’s a panoramic photo of Planes and Pancakes, the aerial version of Buggies ‘n’ Blues. If you follow my blog’s Facebook page you saw a pinned post with a copy of their poster listing all the various attractions during the day. One of the highlights of this event for me, though, is the breakfast. The breakfast consists of scrambled eggs, country style sausage, and fresh pancakes. Yum. It’s free with a request for donation, which I think benefits the local EAA club.
What’s cool about this is that Dave from A&B Pizza, an aviator himself, puts on the breakfast as a way of supporting the aircraft organization and helping assure the event’s success. I wanted to issue a public “thank you” last year and never got around to it, but this year I’m giving props where they’re deserved.
This weekend I finished the last thing on my list as far as my Cold War Mancation series. I’d visited many military and historic sites around North Dakota, but one was missing: Cavalier Air Force Station. I’d actually had one opportunity to visit, four years ago, then one of my kids took a tumble and had to go in for a possible concussion. I was twenty miles down the road when my wife called, and I had to do an abrupt u-turn and abort the trip. No such interruption this weekend.
Cavalier AFS had an open house with a bunch of cool stuff and activities, but I didn’t take many photos of that. I arrived later than I’d hoped but with plenty of time to look around. The point of the trip: tour the building above. It’s an enormous Phased Array Radar (PAR), the most powerful space radar in the nation’s arsenal and capable of spotting a softball or smaller object (depending on who you ask) coming over the North Pole.
No electronics are allowed in the building, so naturally photography was out of the question. In fact, that’s kind of the point. I had lots of egghead questions for the various people who presented on what they do, and it was absolute geek heaven. Everything I’d hoped it would be.
Of course I had to stop in by the giant pyramid in Nekoma, part of a decommissioned system that worked with the PAR during its original configuration to launch and guide nuclear-tipped missiles to intercept ICBMs inbound from the north.
There is so much fascinating history about these two sites that my head starts spinning when I begin to think about regurgitating what I’ve learned about them. Instead I think I’ll simply but emphatically suggest that you do your own research. They are very fascinating places, and the Cavalier Air Force Station site still performs extremely valuable service to our nation.
This should get you started: www.srmsc.org. Have fun!
I had an equine audience for a second as I roamed my favorite area of rural Morton County – let’s face it, most of it is rural – last weekend with a friend who was in town from Philly. I only had a second or two to try to get this shot, because they obviously figured I had food. Right after I took this photo they began working their way down the long hill toward the truck, obviously hoping for some goodies. Maybe I’ll have to take a bag of apples with me next time!
This critter stands next to an interesting feature, a mangled windmill on a farmstead just west of Harmon Lake. In its heyday I bet this was an amazing homestead; it looks out over a beautiful valley to the north and gets a beautiful view of the eastern and western horizons at sunrise and sunset. Now it’s just the cattle that get to appreciate the view.
This windmill took a real beating. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one this mangled, which of course made it immediately catch my eye. It looks as though it caught some interference while spinning. I had a similar experience when working at the ski resort in Big Sky one year. The winds at 10,000 feet can be pretty nasty, as Monty Python would say, and one of the chairs on the Challenger lift swung outside the safety cage on the big pulley at the top of the lift. Naturally things started getting all mangly as the lift wheel turned, and we were without our double black diamond run for a little while.
Sadly, I don’t think anyone’s coming out to fix this windmill any time soon.
As you probably know, I have a soft spot for rural North Dakota, particularly around Bismarck-Mandan. I love roaming the back roads and section lines, trying to find picturesque views and document remnants from the pioneer past (which, in many areas, isn’t all that long ago). I’m a “city kid” who actually spent his childhood in the Rocky Mountains despite being a native NoDak, so I feel like somewhat an interloper in that regard…but I love the natural beauty of North Dakota and the spirit of the people here.
That’s one reason why I love taking photos like this one from Saturday. There is no other side of this gate; the adjacent quarter is open where this approach enters. The open fields of brilliant green were offset by a lovely morning blue sky, devoid of clouds for a change. The drab, colorless post was a perfect contrast to the beautiful natural hues in the background.
I discovered something which I feel is very sad nearby…but I have to get ready for work now, so that’s going to have to be in another post in a day or two.
This sign has since been fixed, but as I stopped near the Trolley Bridge on my motorcycle a while ago I noticed it and thought it was slightly funny. Opinions may vary. It looks like the sign is indicating a Faceplant Zone, newly paved for your comfort!
What happens in Mandan stays in Mandan…
Folks are known to faceplant in Mandan, after all…why not have a zone just for them? The only problem is the traffic. Maybe that’s why they reconsidered and fixed the sign. 🙂
I’ve been meaning to get a shot of this old car for quite some time. It sits on my friend’s land, gazing over the prairie. It looks like some bushes have taken root and called it home. I’ve often wished it was facing north so I could do some sort of drive-in theater looking shot when the Northern Lights appear, but a sunset this weekend showed me that it’s in a perfect spot already.
One other good thing about this photo: no ticks, despite wading through the tall grass!
I took my kiddos to Bismarck’s 144th Birthday celebration at the Heritage Center’s State Museum last weekend. One our way out it occurred to me that I hadn’t really done any photography in the Northern Lights Atrium. This was my chance. After all, nearly every other time I’ve been there I’ve seen wedding parties getting ready for their photos. In fact, there were a few such people there when we first arrived.
I like geometry, so of course I snapped a couple of shots and looked around. This space is so busy with portrait photography that they had to start taking appointments and setting forth some common sense rules.
For some reason I really expected this to actually…do something. But if you’ve driven by at night, you can see the disappointingly faint glow of someone’s homage to Northern Lights. I’m not looking for a Pink Floyd concert, but some lights that moved or changed in some way would have been nice…and a far better tribute to the real thing.
Again…it’s all about the angles. The beautiful skies last Saturday helped a lot.
If you’re looking to use the atrium for photography, here is a link to the finalized rules of conduct you should adhere to in order to help keep the building an enjoyable place for everyone as you share the space.
As I hinted a while back, I got to go out chasing auroras last weekend. While I was a zombie Sunday afternoon between church services, I was glad I went. Without a concrete advance plan I defaulted to Double Ditch, which was also because a friend of mine was already there. We started off by hiking down to the river with the aid of abundant LED light. In fact, I was astonished at how much light I was carrying.
We took some time to venture out to, and even into (in my friend’s case). We caught a waft of skunk smell, so going back up top started to seem like a pretty decent idea.
We hiked out to the little stone hut, an attraction to which one used to be able to drive. There we camped out for a while as we worked various angles of the structure and the lights came and went. They started to settle down and we both started thinking about our responsibilities in church in a few short hours, so it was time to pack it in. I’m pleased to say we each got some pretty decent shots for our effort.
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