Day 91 (Aug 15) – Fort Mandan

After all of yesterday’s excitement, we slept in this morning.  Our first order of business was a 2:00 appointment at the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center with  David Borlaug, the president of the Lewis and Clark/Fort Mandan Foundation.  Long story…Brad (and I sometimes) listens to the Thomas Jefferson Hour.  This is an NPR broadcast (and wildly popular podcast) with Clay Jenkinson who is an award winning humanities scholar (Rhodes Scholar) and author.  Specifically, on the TJ Hour, he discusses issues ‘as’ Thomas Jefferson for the first 30 minutes, then speaks to the same issue as himself (with very Jeffersonian perspectives) for the last 30 minutes.  It is a fascinating concept and very relevant.  He speaks around the country (and world?) as Thomas Jefferson and also as himself.  I am not introducing him very well – Google him!  He has definitely earned Brad’s respect and admiration, as well as many others!

So over the past year or so, Brad has had some correspondence with members of the radio show, Nancy (the producer), David Swenson (the co-host) and Clay.  Recently, he mentioned our trip on the Jefferson Hour Forum. Nancy responded to him saying that Clay and David had seen our blog and were intrigued by our trip and wanted to meet us.  They wanted to invite us to attend a taping of the show.  What??  She discussed dates with us and decided that this Friday the 17^th would work for them.  (This is the whole reason we ended up going to Mt. Rushmore and Badlands NP.  We had cut SD out of our itinerary, but then had some extra time on our hands waiting for the taping in Bismarck.  I’m glad for it!)

In the meantime, Brad asked Nancy about the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center/Ft. Mandan and what all we should see in the area.  He very quickly got a response from David Borlaug offering to meet us and take us through the Interpretive Center and the Fort.  So we had a personal tour!  They have been so kind and helpful - genuinely interested in our trip and appreciative of our interest in history.

The icing on the cake is that tomorrow night, Brad is having dinner with Clay and David (B).  This would be like a basketball fan having dinner with Michael Jordan.  He is seriously thrilled and honored to have this opportunity.

P.S.  On a slightly different note, Carmen got a Sacagawea doll at the gift shop for 99 cents and the girls set up a mini Indian village for her at our campsite, complete with a rabbit skin (from Cody) Tipi.  Carmen also caught a toad tonight and had it doing frog (toad) Olympics before the night was over.  She was sad to let it go.  I insisted.  No toads in the camper!

Fort Mandan