TOUR AMERICA 2022, INTERNATIONAL PEACE GARDENS, DUNSEITH, ND

Friday, June 17, 2022

Temperature 79 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine, Clear Blue Sky

International Peace Gardens, American & Canadian Border

Yes, we’ve found a new home for the next few nights. We are now as far north as we are going to go on this tour.

Our new home is the campground within the International Peace Garden. The Peace Garden sits on the border of Canada and the United States. Depending on what side of the garden you walk down will determine what country you are in.

The garden began in 1928 with the vision of Dr. Henry J Moore of Ontario who conceived the idea of a formal garden on the border of America and Canada where peace could be celebrated. He wanted it to be a living monument to the ideals of friendship and cooperation among nations. A year later he proposed the plan to the National Association of Gardeners who approved his plan for the International Peace Garden. In 1932 50,000 people gathered to witness the groundbreaking and dedication ceremony.

Manitoba donated 1451 acres and North Dakota donated 888 acres. By 1934 work was well underway and the Civilian Conservation Corp descended upon the area to perform the physical work of transforming the existing prairie and forest into a garden to celebrate peace.

Within the garden, on the American side is the campground. But before we get there I want to share something interesting we saw on the way here.

This is one giant turtle! The turtle is made up of 2,000 steel wheel rims welded together. The head alone weights a ton, and is mounted on a pivot so if you’ve been working out you can even pull it up and down. Nope, didn’t even try!

Back to the Campground. I came here solely on the recommendation of a friend who had been here last year. Unfortunately, I failed to ask a few crucial questions, such as: were the sites big rig friendly? Did they have a dirt or gravel base? What happens when it rains?

OK, it is big rig friendly. OK, the sites are dirt. As to what happens when it rains?

Well, to make a long story short, due to the rains here over the last several weeks most of the campground has become a swamp. And you know what grows in the swamp? Lots and lots of mosquitoes! When you walk out of your rig you can hear them saying Here comes another meal!

Fortunately, our site – #6 – is dry. Sort of. Each site is dirt with a short concrete pad. You can’t see it in this picture but our back wheels are on the pad and the front are just off of it. The site is level so no problem there. We only have water and electric which is fine for a few days. We also have Albert on his table and doing his thing.

But the really best part of being here is that our good friends Isaac and Sheila who we first met in Florida this past winter are in a site adjacent to us. We actually consider ourselves one big, happy family. We have been so looking forward to seeing them again, enjoying their company and getting caught up on what’s been going on in their lives. They make it so worth being here, no matter how bad it is.

Toward that end last night we all gathered together in our rig for some wine and cheese and a time to catch up. Well, we quickly lost track of time – which is not hard to do when it doesn’t get dark until around 10:30 pm – and before we knew it we were all yawning and ready to call it a night. We had a great evening and decided the following day we would get out and do some sightseeing together.

Now, we both were supposed to stay here until Tuesday. But oh those mosquitoes have sure forced a change in plans. We’ve decided that we’ll both be leaving on Monday. We’ll be going east and they’ll be going west.

So that is where we are on The Road of Retirement. We’ll be touring the gardens in the next day or two. We’ve already done some sightseeing in the area. All in all, life is really good.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest.

Our continuing mission remains the same: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before.