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 17th 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!
Oh my goodness...I LOVE this!!! Are you home schooling or is this just a "fun" trip you are going on?? We need to talk! I bet you would have some great ideas for some of the things I'm doing and want to do in Dallas. Want to move there so we can hang out?? :)
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