Vacation, Day 1: North Dakota

If you're a Facebook friend then you've probably seen quite a few of these, although without the commentary. I was too lazy to do a write up there. But here you can get some insight into why I took some of the strange photos I did. The whole set is out in my Vacation 2010 set on Flickr, but I'll try to cover highlights. We went to my grandmother's 95th birthday in Sidney, Montana, for vacation and, as icing on the cake, just kept traveling through Montana to Glacier, then to Idaho and the Hiawatha Bike Trail, and then back through Yellowstone and South Dakota. I can't remember the last time we went on a two week vacation, so it was very different.

This is a bit self explanatory. I asked her to stand there. It's funny. I bet they're using the term to refer to firewood or kindling.

Eryn was obsessed with Spiderman while on vacation. She spent a lot of time under a blanket shielding her portable DVD player from the sun. I didn't realize this was the primary intent behind burkas. We were watching for a copy of Spiderman 2 throughout most of the trip, but the lack of Targets and Best Buys west of Rapid City proved to be a problem. Kmarts and Walmarts weren't cutting it, although we did look. On the way back through Rapid City we finally found Spiderman 3 at the Best Buy and she switched to that for the rest of the ride.

We took our first real stop in Jamestown, North Dakota, to visit the giant buffalo, see the real white buffalo and visit Frontier Village, where I've been going since I was a kid.


Either I missed some exhibits before, or they've been adding. This is a pretty nice TRS-80, although it paled next to the calculator collection. They may not be part of the Old West frontier, but they're part of the computer frontier. I bet that was the logic involved.

I'm still valid to marry people in Minnesota, but I have no abilities to marry a mother and her daughter in North Dakota. I couldn't have even married the fugitive cousins who were headed to Canada via all our stops. My rights stop at the border. CAN I HEAR A YEA!

yea. sure.

DO YOU FEEL THE SPIRIT?!

sure dad. whatever hon.

ARE YOU MOVED TO REPENT!?

can you repent going on vacation with you? what's repent, dad?

I like bike art, even when it's sort of cheesy. I just won't buy it if it's cheesy.

I didn't remember the law office and doll house (a strong and) from the last time we were there in 2005. I could have taken this picture without ever leaving work. I was primarily interested in the remote possibility that Eliza Dushku was hidden down the boardwalk dressed in a sexy lawyer outfit.

But the dolls in the dollhouse looked nothing like Eliza Dushku. Boo! BOO!

Can you hear it singing to you?

Dolly dolly rocking lightly

Dolly dolly rocking nightly

Dolly dolly softly sweet

Dolly dolly kill you really dead.

I don't know what the hell was going on with these two. I considered that it might be racist, but that didn't seem to make any sense. Despite flat head infants being on the rise, it just occurred to me that maybe he'd once had a colored cap that's since lost its shine. Or, maybe he's Basketcase. What's in the basket little dude with sort of normal head.

my brother...

Part of the Old West Frontier was the fact that we had 50 states. And lesbian bartenders.

Eryn and I took this picture five years ago and it was great. Pooteewheet and her took it this time and it's great. Big smiles. What's that hand?

Eryn was a little big for the horse. What Pooteewheet failed to capture was when the horse had to relieve itself and, because Eryn was heavy, spread its back legs very slowly, staggering into the splits until it was almost whang to ground, and then let loose a nice stream.

This horse thought Eryn was very funny.

Mrs. Klund, what is this dentist doing? Do the dentists of Jamestown practice good dentistry? Will you do this if I come to you to get my teeth checked? Is it dangerous? Does it vibrate?

You'll have to click into this one if you want to see it. Way back there is the giant buffalo. Even further back is the white buffalo (live), but you can't see him. Pooteewheet managed to spot him when we were trying to pat the fake buffalo on the belly.

Holy buffalo balls, Batman! Pooteewheet is all GQ. If girls can be GQ. I wish I had thought to use c:geo to look for caches here, but that didn't occur to me until we were almost fully round trip and in Wyoming. There's probably one under a hoof.

After Jamestown, we hit Salem, North Dakota, to see a real cow, not a bison. This is me, milking Sue. Last time we visited Sue Eryn had a total screaming meltdown (she was two, it was late). She was better natured this time, although perhaps she'd have been a bit more ornery if she'd known the amount of exercise ahead of her in the next two weeks.

Eryn and Pooteewheet on Sue.

I particularly like this one as it looks like Sue is singing into an appropriately sized microphone.

I like cows
And they like me
I like cows
Just wait and see

When they go 'moo'
Hey, move over!
Oh yeah!
Uh uh uh

Well, I like cows
I like to watch them eat
I like cows
They don't move when they eat
And I'm a lone cowhand
From Rio Grande

I like cows
They've got skinny feet
Unlike their friends, the shaved sheep
They've got skinny feet (Cows, by the Suburbs)