Riding Mountain National Park

Riding Mountain National Park

August 25 & 26, 2006

The sunshine lifted our spirits. Steve called and said he was leaving Denton for Wichita Falls to ride in the Hotter Than Hell 100 tomorrow. It was 105 in Denton when he was talking, and the expected high in WF tomorrow was 106. Like most things in life (despite what the ultra right seems to think) sunshine is relative.

The Wasagaming Campground on Clear Lake has 578 sites. We are in 483 and no one is camped within 50 sites in any direction. We have the bathroom with flush toilets and hot showers to ourselves. Annie said there were a lot of trailers and RV’s lined up to get in when she returned from the village, but they will not come to the non-electric part of the CG.

We like this place so much that we have decided to stay an extra day and make it up somewhere else. Wasagaming Village is similar to Waskesiu Village; rentals, private houses, beach, tennis courts, bowling greens, golf courses; and they both have names that cannot be pronounced. We actually think that Wasagaming is prettier than Waskesiu.

We had trouble finding a place to have a beer after our ride/walk this afternoon. That difficulty made us realize why these villages seem so safe. There are no or few bars and no late night party spots featuring wet t-shirt and chugging contests. These are not party towns; people who need to party go elsewhere. These are family fun towns, a place to bring your kids and grandkids and play and feel close to family and close to nature. We need places like this. Actually they may exist; I just don’t know where they are.

Saturday we drove to the bison range and watched a herd of buffalo follow instructions from the boss woman. We got a great close up look at the herd. The guy at the comp fire talk said that at one time in the late 1800’s there were only 100 bison left in North America; that was down from an estimated 30,000,000 before the Europeans came here. That is difficult to imagine. There were about 50 in the herd we were watching.

We also drove the other direction, out of the park, to the little town of Onanole looking for a grocery to buy something for dinner. We never got to the grocery. A Saturday market was open in a gravel parking lot next to the road. We shopped the tables and trailers and found everything we needed for dinner and more. Eat locally we did. We had sausage stuffed by the guy under the tarp next to the big white trailer, who looked like he may have been eating a little too much of his product; fresh corn and fresh tomatoes, onions; and a homemade spicy relish from the lady who cans everything. She said she was up late last night putting up the cranberry ketchup. She let me taste it. We didn’t buy it, but did buy her “hot” salsa (it wasn’t, but it did have a great flavor), what she called antipasti, and bread and butter pickles. We bought Canola Honey from the Mennonite lady; it is white; can’t wait to try it. We also got a loaf of homemade bread. Dinner was fantastic, and the only thing that was not from the area around Onanole, was the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

OK, I am having a contest. If you can figure out how to make a comment or how to email me, please suggest a name of the Toyota Highlander. All entries must be submitted by September 20, and Annie and Elmo will select the winner. The winner will receive a stapled copy of Travels with Annie and Elmo, autographed by both Annie and Elmo.