It was long overdue, but I’m not complaining. This weekend we finally got enough snow to frolic in, and that’s exactly what the truck, the camera, and I did yesterday. A few guys from church meet the last Saturday morning of each month for breakfast, so I met them at 6:45, and after that came several hours of driving and hiking in the white stuff! My first stop was the cross country ski trail on the northeast corner of Mandan. My footsteps there were not the first.

Next I decided to poke around along the Missouri River. The geese apparently had the same idea, because an enormous flock of them was tucked into the rocks along the shore. They didn’t care for a guy with a big backpack and monopod poking around (or was it the NDSU Bison hat?) so they swam outward and upstream. Thankfully I managed to avoid falling in.

There are a lot of wild turkeys in the Bismarck-Mandan area, and this is a portion of one of them. They were hanging out in a residential neighborhood in north Mandan, and even came toward me as I crouched to take their photo! The snow was coming down fast enough to accumulate on their backs, and they fluffed up to stay warm and shake the snow off every now and then.

With a fresh tank of gas, it was time to drive Around the World and see what kind of nice rural snow scenes awaited. It actually began to snow so heavily that the view was obscured. That didn’t stop me from taking a picture of this friendly scarecrow before moving on.

While out south of Fort Lincoln, I paused to capture this bridge and the high waters of the Missouri River on the other side. When I started to leave, the window on my truck wouldn’t roll up! The passenger side window worked, so I knew the fuse was good. I pounded on the door a bit, tugged on the window…nothing worked. I resigned myself to a cold, damp drive into town, but when I got back on the highway…it worked! The trip wasn’t over yet.

This bridge was sold to the Fort Lincoln Trolley folks many years ago, so it doesn’t see any traffic during the winter. It ought to. This was a very picturesque scene, although they’d have to bring hot chocolate along for the ride.

I took lots more photos, but it’s been such a busy weekend that I’m just posting the highlights. It’s time to wax the sleds for more frolicking!