Thursday, September 1, 2016

DAY 2 – ON ROUTE TO BISMARCK, NORTH DAKOTA – OUR 36th STATE.

Wil says:

Minneapolis has a cosmopolitan feel, although not a big city by any standards. It feels sort of condensed, it is arty but business-like and downtown has quite a nightlife: the whole spectrum.

I did notice somebody was cultivating a little veggie garden on what I perceived as a traffic island. I was told that a lot of Mong and African immigrants living in communals were farming these “public” gardens and it was commonplace and widely accepted.

Our 400-mile drive took us out of the city into the Rural area. We crossed the 45-degree latitude line meaning we were twice the distance from the equator than the “Steenbok Keerkring” aka Tropic of Capricorn. The 31 degree Celsius [82F] temperature made this seem insignificant. 

The rolling prairie, green bushes and lots of water gradually gave way to drier open planes. Moving into North Dakota the land became very flat.

Bismarck is the capitol of North Dakota. Situated on the banks of the Missouri river, it is a big town rather than a small city. It feels very rural. The Missouri is impressive, bigger than any South African river I have seen and it is literally thousands of miles from the ocean.



That’s it for today.

Anita Says:

Willem and I are both strong willed and butting heads are common. Well, our Lord with His sense of humor find it appropriate this morning to remind us of 1 Corinthians 13 in our morning Bible Study! A reminder to be kind and loveable to each other especially on a long road trip in North Dakota with open flat fields similar to the Freestate. This trip feels like a preparation for retirement – 24 hours a day in each other’s company.

We are so blessed with the weather taking into consideration Hermine hitting the East Coast tonight. We experience great sunshine, but not too hot.

Eating breakfast looking out on a busy street in downtown Minneapolis this morning, reminded me of a Beautiful South song – “It could have been Rotterdam, Amsterdam, ..” On that street corner all kinds of life collided. I softly whispered a prayer for the pimp accompanied by one of his workers, a business man in a suit with his little boy of 5 years old clutching his soft toy, another man signing with his middle finger to a driver that nearly run him over, a woman being pushed in a wheelchair by her son and another lady neatly dressed in business clothes seemingly on her way to work.

We left town during “mid-morning rush” but not a patch on OC traffic. The drive was long today. I witnessed the neat farm steads and all kinds of agriculture – feed crops, corn, sunflowers.

The small silos built with CMU blocks reminded me of the animation movie “The Good Dinosaur” where the critter had a party enjoying the stored crop of the Dinosaur family.

As we continued on our way to Bismarck we left the luscious green fields behind for a flatter drier area similar to the Vrystaat vlaktes.


In Bismarck we explored some parks close to the Missouri river, before we headed to our dinner place and hotel for the night grateful that we arrived safe and sound.



No comments:

Post a Comment