At Last - North Dakota

North Dakota - Prairie Walk

We enter North Dakota without any fanfare.  Driving down a main street in Breckenridge, Minnesota there is an abrupt end of the business district and we are in open prairie land.  No sign welcomes us to North Dakota, just open land.  Looking out the window more open fields and farms, but flat, oh so flat.  I can imagine that if Columbus had lived here he’d have set off on a land schooner to prove that the earth was not flat after all.  An occasional swell in the belly of a field lets us know that it’s not entirely flat.  I think it’s only because we know that there is a curve to the earth that we can see it.  As far as the eye can see that the land is flat, clear to the horizon.  Whether it ends in a cornfield or a line of trees, the horizon seems to just drop off.  We detour to Ft. Ransom State Park and take a small walk.  It’s a prairie and they’ve simply mowed a wide swath through the grass and along the crest of the hillside.  The sun is at our back and there’s a slight breeze.  As we walk and talk the only sound is the brushing of our jackets or the tread of our feet on the path.  A bench sits conveniently at a viewpoint over the small valley.  The trees are silhouetted against the ridgeline.  We pause and sit.  Quiet envelopes us and the only sound is the slight whispering rustle of the wind through the dry grass.