Day Six ND2

I'm tired of rain. "This isn't normal" is what I keep hearing. According to weather apps, I will leave the rain behind tomorrow. This is very good, partly cuz my rental car needs new windshield wipers and their answer is to give me a whole new car, which just sounds like a lot of trouble. 

Anyway...

Drove over the river and south a little to Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. Back in the day, this was Fort McKeen which was Custer's last command before he went off to his last stand. I realized very quickly that I did NOT know anything about Custer except that he had a last stand over in Montana. I was the only person on my tour of his home and I learned a lot. I also bought a book that I will read eventually. My tour guide, Joshua, was incredibly knowledgeable - a history teacher in the real world. 

Custer's House (tour guide Joshua on the porch in full dress)

Mrs Custer's rocking chair - one of the only things saved from the fire in the original house

view of barracks from the house

old stove in the barracks

barracks

Also in the state park is the Old Slant Village, replicas of the earth lodges lived in by the Mandan tribe.

Inside the meeting room lodge

From there I went up to the infantry post. It was cold and wet but it was cool. There were a couple of blockhouses that you could inside. 

from the 2nd level

from the roof

the door back into the blockhouse from the roof

the ladder I had to go back down. I'm very proud of myself for doing it!

views from the roof

Bismarck?

Missouri River

From Fort Lincoln, I drove north to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center. A completely different time in history! The Center was basically just a museum. But down the road and related (as in my ticket worked for both) is Fort Mandan. This is a replica of the fort that Lewis and Clark's group built to hang out in the winter of 1804 before moving on in their journey. It's a replica because the original was destroyed and is probably under water based on how the river has changed over the years. It was really quite cool, and again the tour guide was very knowledgeable. There were 6-8 of us on this tour. And I learned that Merriweather Lewis had a pet dog on the trip with him. Seaman the Newfoundland! Seaman had his own tribute. 

tour guide in the captain's quarters

Captain's desk

captain's desk

me with the "blunder bus" gun
it was very heavy and thus usually used from the boat,
not held like a rifle would be.

replicas of veggies - i took this to remind myself to try drying a squash

the fort

SEAMAN!

if you can enlarge it and read it, its fun

the missouri from a trail by the fort

Then I drove further north to Minot and had dinner with a buddy from high school. Aaron was in the Air Force, got stationed there and never left. 

It did finally stop raining and most of the drive back to Bismarck was dry. Supposed to be sunny tomorrow in Bismarck AND Medora which is where I'm headed.