This past summer was...what? I don't know what it was. It was good, some parts were bad, it was busy and at times slow. It was full of new things, firsts...and at the same time it was all familiar in a way. I guess when I stand back and look at it...it was just life. Our life.
Summer has turned to fall and now winter. My mind is so full of things I want to say, get down before I forget. I'm trying...
At this point, I am just going to go through my pictures and tell ya'll about some of our favorite things from the summer/fall. So here goes...
We got a library card in Williston. This was a big deal for us...we love to read and as full time travelers we have found that many places won't issue a card or lend books unless you are locals. I understand their reasoning, but it sure is nice when we find a library that will. We did have to provide an address to get it, but they accepted our camper lot address (and $20 per card).
Just across the street from the library is a nice little park. We have taken picnics there a few times and enjoyed the green grass, trees, and play equipment...
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| a pump jack see-saw, only in the oilfield... |
Speaking of things that grow, North Dakota's wide open fields are a sight to behold. The sunflowers, flax, canola...all the flowers are just beautiful...
Another thing that is pretty up here is the water. There are little lakes or ponds all over the place and they are the deepest shade of blue...
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| a little park at the Kota-Ray Dam |
I always slow down and stop if I can when I see a weathered old building standing in the middle of a field. They intrigue me. I wonder about the hands that built it, the lives that lived there. Where did they go? Why? There are quite a few of these places up here...
We visited the site of the first oil well in the state of North Dakota. The Clarence Iversion No. 1. There is only a marker there today, but the history is interesting...
Small town celebrations are the best. We went to the Ray Grain Palace Days in Ray, ND. Parade, Ice cream/pie social, burgers grilled up by the fire dept, rodeo...a full day of fun :)...
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| gathering candy...they made out like bandits :) |
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| when you are only an hour from the border, both the American and Canadian anthems are sung... |
We found a couple of great little thrift shops here in Williston. I love a good junkin trip, but I don't go often because I always find a treasure that has to come home with me. Always...
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| That quilt and those vintage trays? Less than $20 total! |
Home. What does that mean exactly? For us the physical-ness of it changes often. Home for the summer was our RV. We knew we didn't want to spend a Nodak winter in it though. No thank you. So we looked at apartments...and finally bit the bullet and rented one at the end of the summer. They are SO expensive here, it is ridiculous. Seriously, google it...you'll see what I mean. We didn't want to spend the money, but we wanted to be together as a family. Family outweighs cost.
Our apartment is cozy. It is 1200 square feet and there are 7 of us. Compared to our camper, it is huge...so I guess it's all perspective :). We like it ok. We've never lived in an apartment before, so it's something different. The kids say it's like a nice hotel and I guess really, it kind of is in a lot of ways. We are warm, safe, and together. Life is good.
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| the moon from our balcony <3 |
What about our camper? Welllll....we thought about putting it in storage. We even had reservations at a facility just over the line in Montana. When I was cleaning our stuff out of it to move to the apartment I decided to get everything out. Every last scrap. Then I told Dan he could sell it if he wanted to. Say whaaat? Uh huh. I did. And he did. He put it up for sale here in town and it sold. Very quickly. I was a bit surprised, I didn't really think it would sell hahaha!
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| the very last time we would pull this camper. our home. |
Do I regret it? Nope. Do I miss it? Maybe. The thing is, it's not the only camper in the world. We had already been looking at different models that would better suit our family but we didn't proceed because we had the Eagle. To trade it in would mean taking a pretty hard loss financially. We decided the only way to do it would be to sell ours and then buy a new one. Well, now ours is sold. We'll just have to wait and see if the buying a new one part is in our cards. Maybe...
Right now we are in an apartment in Williston, North Dakota. We won't be staying here forever by any means, just for a while. Change is already swirling around us, talk of the next adventure. Where do we go from here? Well, you'll just have to wait and see ;)...
