Day 76: Tuesday, August 17th – Wolf Point, Montana to Jamestown, North Dakota

  • Aug 17, 2010
post-thumb

Cody is slowly working his way back to his five am wake up call.  He was up by 6:15.  Today we finished a state and lost another time zone.  As of 10:30 we were only 998 miles from home! It is hard knowing that we could be home tomorrow if only the kids could handle more driving time, but I know that they are having a hard time dealing with all of the time they are sitting as it is.

Cody playing with a foam number puzzle Heather and Carla put in their goody bags for the kids.  He played with this puzzle for more than an hour.

Once again we came across an  extraordinary park by accident.  We were looking for one park, couldn’t find it, and wound up at the Swedish Heritage Park in Minot, North Dakota.  If you ever happen to be in Minot you should stop by.  We would have taken more pictures, but the camera battery died right in church.

Super Cody trying to eat all of the chips that blew off of the table on this very windy but absolutely sunny and gorgeous day.

Dala Horse

This is the Dala Horse.  It is the National Symbol of Sweden. The buildings in this park were either replicas made in Sweden and brought over here, or originals.

replica of an old Swedish church

This is a replica of an old Swedish church.  Although, they still perform several hundred weddings here a year.  They had a covered walkway around the outside of the church for those with Leprosy and other communicable diseases to hear the sermon and there was a little side door off of the altar for them to receive communion.  There were twelve smiley faces up at the top of the pillars in the church.  The church docent said that they could be for the twelve apostles, but that there are also twelve Norse Gods as well.

 

I found this info on the lovely placard outside the storehouse:

This storehouse is a replica of the original built in Torvetjonn, a farm near Mosvann in Telemark, Norway, which is considered a major work in Norwegian folk architecture. The original was built in 1750 by an excellent craftsman, Jon from Vinje.

The replica was designed and built in Norway and then the designer and crew disassembled it, came here with it, and reassembled it.  We were fortunate enough to speak with the wife of the late project chairman, Reuben Forsberg.  This was the first building in the park and it was dedicated in 1990.  Her family hosted the designer and crew while they were here in the US putting the replica back together. She said there is a large week long Swedish festival in Minot every year that draws people from all over the world.  I knew Minnesota had a large Swedish population, but I never realized North Dakota did as well.

On a somewhat related note, notice the middle sack in the last picture of the storehouse.  Havre is the name of a town we stopped at in Montana. We need to look up what it means when we get a chance.

There were some incredible fountains and other buildings at the Swedish Park, but as I mentioned we ran out of battery power and the spare was up at the van.  We could have stayed even longer, but the road was calling.

Four hundred miles from Wolf Point, Montana we found a campground in Scott’s GPS. We were going to call and make sure it was still in existence once we had cell reception.  Before we ever had reception we stumbled upon a state recreation campground along a lake.  It was a very breath taking and peaceful site in the middle of endless farmland.  Although, I do have to say I have never seen quite so many fields of sunflowers growing.  I don’t think we could have put in so many miles if Cody didn’t get a two and a half hour nap.  We woke Brooke up after a two hour nap.  Yeah for long naps!

  

Scott actually purchased firewood this night.  He acted like it wasn’t a big deal, but I knew every fiber of his being was probably itching to say, “No Way!”  (I’m not sure if I have ever seen him purchase wood in the fourteen years I have known him.) There wasn’t any firewood laying around and it was a perfect night for a fire.  We made s’mores again and enjoyed the sound of the waves crashing on the shore while we watched the dragonflies dive for mosquitoes and the daylight fade away into a star-filled sky.

<< Prev Next >>
comments powered by Disqus
LATEST POST
  • Post By April and Scott
  • Jan 29, 2022
Kubota SVL-90 Track Replacement
  • Post By April and Scott
  • Jul 17, 2021
Oak Alley Plantation
  • Post By April and Scott
  • Jul 17, 2021
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice
TAG