At One with Nature (from Inside a Car)

One of the treats of our weekend trip to Minot was the drive itself. We left late enough in the afternoon Friday and stayed long enough at our supper stop along the way to end up driving in relative darkness most of the time. Thus, it wasn't until our drive back yesterday that we were able to take in the beauty of the scenic route we had chosen.

Driving south out of Minot, we could have gone to Bismarck and then driven west to Dickinson on I-94. Instead, we took the route Susan used to travel with her family when she was younger. We traveled on Highway 83 through Max and across the highway causeway that separates Lake Sakakawea from Lake Audubon. Just before Coleharbor, we turned south on County Road 19, then west on Highway 200 to Riverdale and on to Pick City.

I don't know what it is about bodies of water, but they do seem to have a humbling, awing effect on me. Just ask my family about our 2004 trip to Oregon to visit my sister Cathy. There wasn't a lake, river, waterfall, creek, babbling brook, or mighty ocean on the way there or back that I didn't point out to them with an excited "Lookit!" or a "Wow!" I like to imagine being out in the middle of the water--as a fish or a bird, perhaps--truly "experiencing" the water, getting a good sense for its true depth or expanse. That's all pretty ironic, too, since I can't swim and would surely die if dropped off, in human form, in the middle of a river and told to "experience" it.

But from the safety of our vehicle, I was able to enjoy the endless, frosty surfaces of Lakes Audubon and Sakakawea as we drove across them on Highway 83. I could see swirls of melted water running between the thin, cracking sheets of ice atop the lakes, each sheet dusted with highlights of snow like icing on a gingerbread house. To get from Riverdale to Pick City on Highway 200, one crosses the Garrison Dam. We pulled over, rolled down the windows, and snapped several photographs of the site (and sights). There's a kind of majesty to a gigantic construction like a dam--this mammoth, man-made monster sitting quietly amongst the hills and trees and rocks, overseeing the water like a lioness near her cubs--calm but attentive and dangerous. The placards posted around the "scenic view" area on the side of the road are modest about the size and scope of the dam-building project itself as well as of its current function. Check out these sites for interesting facts, photos, and videos about one of the world's largest earth-filled dams:

• A photographic journey up the Missouri River in North Dakota -- Garrison Dam and Lake Sakakawea
• The North Country Trail in North Dakota
• Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery
• Garrison Dam: The Unfinished Dream
• Live with Lewis and Clark from Garrison, ND
• A sightseer's guide to engineering: Garrison Dam

We got off Highway 200 temporarily to take the scenic route around the north side of Riverdale and noted the many beautiful red brick houses in a kind of colonial style that all line the roads--laid out in a curving fan shape--facing Lake Sakakawea. There must be a story behind that phenomenon; I think Riverdale was built to accommodate workers during the construction of the dam, so maybe the government duplicated a model house of one style, and many of them remain to this day.

It was just as beautiful to take in the views along the way from Pick City to Hazen (whose boys basketball team we had watched lose to the team from Susan's school Thursday night) to Beulah to where we got onto I-94 north of Glen Ullin. The terrain reminded me of driving around the country in the northwest corner of the state, where I grew up. There were lots of curves and dips in the road and plenty of gentle hills and valleys and creeks and fields and pastures and groves of trees to enjoy. (We took the business loop through Beulah and found similar hills and creeks in town, too.) The land isn't quite so rugged as the Badlands buttes and plateaux surrounding Dickinson, but the landforms are varied nevertheless.

My disposition may have been affected, too, by the ever-increasing temperatures as we made our way back home to Dickinson, where we ate our supper on the veranda while we wore T-shirts and shorts . . . on March 11 . . . in the winter . . . in North Dakota! Incredible. The girls played with sidewalk chalk on the driveway when we got home, and Susan and I opened all the windows while we unpacked from the trip. The evening had the feel of a late-spring night and had us eager to buy a barbecue grill and start enjoying our veranda and back yard fully. It was a peaceful end to a wonderful weekend.

P.S. Beulah's new motto: "Home of a Subway restaurant that still offers creamy Italian dressing and features employees who smile genuinely, initiate pleasant conversation, inquire about the customer's needs, and compliment the customer's children ['You have such beautiful daughters']." A little clunky for a motto, perhaps, but accurate.