Along our often-traveled route through North Dakota we made many stops along the way just to take photos. Some were of places we had seen before, but never photographed. Some photos were taken to compare with old photographs. A few photos were of new things, since our last visit.
Quite a few of our stops involved my cousin, Kirsten, photographing run-down shacks and barns. Kirsten is going to take the photos to school to see how many of her Chicago suburban friends will believe that people still live in them. The funny thing is they probably will believe that many North Dakotans live in these old houses that literally could blow down tomorrow. In fact she has one slightly blurry photo she is going to try to pass off as the wind was blowing the house and her hands were still. She then took a picture of a field with a brown area to tell them that the house fell down after she took the first photograph. We had a blast making up stories such as some old wagons are how everyone gets around still.
Photographs that were taken to compare to old photographs, involve three giant statues. The last time Kirsten and I were photographed in front of these statues was when we brought our friend with to North Dakota almost a decade ago. The first statue was of the couple story tall Indian Chief that is in front of the Chieftain Hotel in Carrington, ND, along US 52. The second statue was the World’s Largest Buffalo statue, which is found on the north side of I-94 in Jamestown, ND. (You can find more info on the Buffalo and surrounding attractions in another entry in this journal.) The third statue was in Rothsay, MN. It is a giant chicken that can be found just off I-94 at Exit 38. For this one we had to trek through about a foot and a half-deep snow for about a quarter-mile, which for us added to the fun.
Another one of our photo stops was to photograph some energy gathering windmills, which I do not remember being there before. We also stopped to photograph an old church that was for sale. Kirsten decided that she is going to tell her friends that it is the church she is going to buy. Not sure if she means she is going to restore it as a Lutheran church or remodel it into a house; that is, if it is still for sale when she is ready to settle down and if she really wants to live in North Dakota.