{"id":12523,"date":"2021-10-28T21:02:11","date_gmt":"2021-10-29T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12523"},"modified":"2021-10-28T21:04:38","modified_gmt":"2021-10-29T03:04:38","slug":"libation-for-the-mother-river","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12523","title":{"rendered":"A Libation for the Mother River"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Across the wide Missouri \u2014 and she is extra-wide here, backed up by the Big Bend Dam (completed 1963) downstream into a winding reservoir called Lake Sharpe.<\/p><\/div>\n

I wrote earlier about the hitchhiker whom I called Travis,<\/a> a post writen on the 19th of October, mostly at the Twenty Below coffeehouse<\/a> in Fargo, North Dakota, waiting to drive an old friend home to his tiny prairie town after he had been poked and prodded and MRI’d all day at the Sanford Medical Center<\/a>.((All to be told, “No change. The tumor is inoperable.”))<\/p>\n

We still had some good time outdoors, working the new dog1<\/a><\/sup> under the big skies, driving\u00a0 the long straight roads, and eating lunch at quirky small-town cafes. In one, I ordered a Reuben sandwich<\/a> for a change, bit into it, and realize that something was different. Rather than the usual corned beef, it was made with roast beef. But the menu had promised local<\/em> beef\u2014and that probably was the case, whereas corned beef would have come off the Sysco truck<\/a> or something like it. And it tasted good, so who cares?<\/p>\n

Then on the 22nd\u00a0 it was time to turn southwest again. When I cross the Missouri River on US 83 \u2014 the longest river in North America, actually<\/a> \u2014 it’s always a homecoming, leaving the intensely farmed Midwest for the tan rolling hills of western South Dakota, a change of ecosystems and time zones all at once.<\/p>\n

Once in Fort Pierre, South Dakota<\/a>, I wheeled into a riverside parking lot. I had meant to stop at a municipal park in Pierre, on the east bank (Central Time), but it was full of construction materials and blocked to visitors \u2014 a new highway bridge is being built.<\/p>\n

In thanksgiving for having returned to the West, I clambered down the rocky riprap with a plastic mug of Jim Bean whiskey and poured it (generously!) to Mother Missouri with a prayer of thanks.<\/p>\n

And then on south to Valentine, Nebraska, which has its own poetic bridges across Minnechaduza Creek <\/a>and the Niobrara River<\/a>, if you know to take the old highway over the “most beautiful” Bryan Bridge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

  1. The latest of his German wirehaired pointers [↩<\/a>]<\/span><\/li><\/ol>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I wrote earlier about the hitchhiker whom I called Travis, a post writen on the 19th of October, mostly at the Twenty Below coffeehouse in Fargo, North Dakota, waiting to drive an old friend home to his tiny prairie town after he had been poked and prodded and MRI’d all day at the Sanford Medical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,409,407,372,379,408,405,13],"class_list":["post-12523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-animism","tag-missouri-river","tag-nebraska","tag-north-dakota","tag-psychogeography","tag-rivers","tag-south-dakota","tag-travel"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6xQTg-3fZ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1062,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1062","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":0},"title":"Prairie Fog","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 14, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago: morning fog creeping west from the Missouri River, south of Fort Pierre, South Dakota.","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12509,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12509","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":1},"title":"The Hitchhiker","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 20, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The heart of western South Dakota: US Highway 212 near the town of Faith. Leaving Spearfish, South Dakota, on October 17th\u00a0en route to eastern North Dakota, I decided to skip the Green Bean coffeehouse, as much as I like it, and fueled up on motel-room coffee and a leftover partial\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"ancestors\"","block_context":{"text":"ancestors","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=ancestors"},"img":{"alt_text":"The heart of western South Dakota","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/US-212-1_5543-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3285,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=3285","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":2},"title":"Back at the PhD (Piled-high Desk)","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"October 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"It was good to disappear. I geocached along the Niobrara River, hunted ducks in North Dakota \u2014 where \"to combine\" is the verb of autumn, and you accent the first syllable \u2014 and ended up finally at the Black Hills Powwow in my old hometown of Rapid City. I ate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"Rose hips and bufflo berries on the North Dakota prairie","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/rosehipsbuffaloberries%E2%80%94sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11020,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11020","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":3},"title":"Playing Heathen Neo-folk on North Dakota Highways","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"November 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I was on my way to a little town in North Dakota where a friend lives about at the intersection of Norway and Washington streets \u2014 can you get any more perfect than that? And every little town is dominated by a Lutheran steeple. A friend in Poland and I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"music\"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=music"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/finley-lutheran-church.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1064,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1064","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":4},"title":"Crossing a Different Divide","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 19, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A typical prairie slough in the Sheyenne River drainage. Cookie, a German wirehaired pointer, is looking for sharp-tailed grouse.I left my hosts' home in North Dakota on Wednesday for the two-day drive home. On I-94 east of Jamestown, N.D., I saw a sign proclaiming the Continental Divide, elevation 1,400-something feet.\"What\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1209,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=1209","url_meta":{"origin":12523,"position":5},"title":"Fisher at Carhenge","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"September 20, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"On the way home from North Dakota, Fisher and I stopped at Carhenge. The Wikipedia article compares it to its inspiration in England.","rel":"","context":"In \"travel\"","block_context":{"text":"travel","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=travel"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12523"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12532,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12523\/revisions\/12532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}