Fourth of July in Mandan, ND

We spent last week on our second trip of the summer. We left Saturday morning and went as far as Shoreview, MN, where our friends Diane and Tom live. We toured Diane’s raised beds and native flowers with their golden retriever, Chloe. We had shrimp on the barby for supper. The day had been hot, but the deck was on the east side of the house and was a pleasant setting for our meal. Diane and Tom live on a shallow lake populated with ducks and egrets. Thus, the bird watching was quite entertaining while we ate. We had ice cream and red raspberries that Terry and Tom had picked while Diane and I were cleaning the shrimp before dinner.

The next day, we all piled in the car (except for the dog) and went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum.

A wire and rock sculpture welcomed us in front of the visitor center. We had seen sculptures like this for the first time on our trip out west at one of the reservation gas stations in the middle of nowhere. Must be a new thing.

Sculpture of an ant on top of an anthill

For an arboretum, there were lots and lots of floral gardens. It was beautiful! We walked through the hostas, lilies and daylilies, annuals, perennials, roses, home demo gardens, and Japanese gardens.

Japanese garden



Lily garden

We retreated to the air conditioned visitor center for lunch at a high-end cafeteria. It was nice to cool off and get rehydrated.

After lunch we braved the heat again to do a longer walk called the Green Heron Trail. It wound around a boggy lake and was partly a board walk. I took quite a lot of pictures for my classes. Our most notable finding was the lesser purple fringed orchid, which we were surprised to see so late in the season. Diane said the trail has many different kinds of orchids in the spring.

Lesser purple fringed orchid

We took a driving tour of the rest of the arboretum in air conditioned comfort. I was spent by the hot weather and had a little nap on the way home.

Diane grilled again for supper, this time Cornish game hens split in half and marinated in wine, vinegar, and herbs. She made a salad of cherries, quinoa, goat cheese, and wild rice. It was an unusual and delicious combination of tastes and textures.

Monday morning we left for Bismarck, arriving about 2:30. On our way, Terry’s sister Kathy called (really, what did we do before cell phones?) to invite us to dinner that night. I was most grateful, since any home-cooked meal is better than going out when on the road.

Kathy served grilled pork tenderloin (Jim did the grilling), wild rice pilaf, carrots, and cucumbers in sour cream (a Schmidt family favorite).

The next morning, we met Kathy, Jim, Elaine, and Dewayne in downtown Mandan at Art in the Park. I didn't take my camera on these busy days because I didn't want to lug it around. We spent the morning looking at the vendors. Terry got a wind sock with apples on it for possible use when he had apples to sell. I didn’t buy anything. Because of our recent move, I was well aware of how little I needed any more stuff.

We spent the afternoon with Terry’s friends. The evening found us at the Moose Lodge catching up with more of Terry’s friends.

Wednesday, being the holiday, was busy. It was also cloudy and almost chilly! We had breakfast at the hotel, then headed to Mandan, parked at Elaine and Dewayne’s house, and walked to Main Street for the parade. The parade was a disappointment. There were only two or three floats that showed any effort at all. Most were just flatbeds with our without straw bales for people to sit on. There were troops and hummers and giant tractors and lots of politicians. There was also, as Terry put it, “more candy then Halloween.” Nearly everyone in the parade tossed candy to the kids. Elaine and Dewayne’s grandchildren filled bags of the stuff. Kathy and I talked them out of their Tootsie Rolls, which we love but none of the kids liked anyway.

We hung out at Elaine’s for the remainder of the afternoon. Dewayne cooked up his homemade bratwurst for supper. Iris made baked beans with jalapenos. Elaine made German potato salad (why don’t I ever make that?); Kathy furnished the cole slaw. Everything was excellent.

We went to the rodeo that evening. The Mandan Fourth of July Rodeo is one of the oldest in the nation, celebrating 133 years. It is a sport in decline, however. There were only six to ten contestants in each event. As a consequence, it clipped right along. We weren’t on any one thing long enough to get bored. They added two carriage races around the track to stretch things out. Still, everything was done at 10:30, and it was still too light out to start the fireworks. The fireworks started at 11:00 and went on for about 30 minutes. We had to wait quite awhile to get out of the rodeo grounds, getting back to the hotel at 12:45.

Thursday was our day to relax. I wanted some prairie pictures, so Terry took me to a couple of spots. I didn’t get the unbroken vista of grasslands that I most wanted, but we did see some native plants.

Prairie rose

We drove along the river in the afternoon, visiting the full-size replica of Lewis and Clark’s boat. It’s amazing to me that they went on an expedition with 33 people and that tiny boat. Of course, most of them walked, hauling the boat upstream behind them. The boat was more for carrying their supplies, gifts for Native American nations, and specimens of plants and animals than for transporting people.

Terry in the replica of the Lewis and Clark boat

 We had dinner with four of Terry’s sisters, and that was the end of the trip except for the long drive back on Friday. We started in heavy rain, which was a pleasant change from the hot dry weather. I tried to pull the clouds along behind the car but was not successful.