Old Fashioned Road Trip

This month my mom came to visit us in Colorado.  I always try to balance her visits with some down time to visit around the house along with some sort of trip to experience something new together.  Grammy had mentioned she only had one state left to say she had been to all fifty.  Any guess which state was left?  No- not Hawaii...North Dakota!  I checked google maps and saw it was less than ten hours to ND.  But I did not want to simply drive to the border and turn around.  We had to DO something there.  I googled and read up on the state and decided a very fitting finale for Grammy's 50th state would be a stay at an Abby.  So we had a destination for our mini-roadtrip:  Assumption Abby in Richardton, ND.  We broke up the drive by staying in Cluster, SD  both on the way there and the way home.

We really enjoyed seeing Custer State Park and all the buffalo on the Wilderness Loop, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.

As we drove to North Dakota I thought at first I had missed the "real" highway but turns out the two lane road in the middle of cow pastures really was the main way.  After we crossed into ND we took a slightly more scenic northern route on the Enchanted Highway, a road that also had large sculptures every few miles.

When we arrived at the Abby we followed the directions to locate our room.  I really did not know what to expect since I have never been to an Abby before but what a wonderful surprise.  We had two nice rooms at the end of the hall.  We went to morning prayer and ate the silent (and delicious) breakfast with the monks.  Then we walked around to enjoy the gardens and the prarie.  We visited with some of the monks and I really enjoyed their hospitality, friendliness and openness.  We also bought some soap made at the abby in the gift shop.  I went back for the prayer service before lunch.  Then we all gathered in the dining hall to say grace before a tasty lunch with quiche, salads and a ginger square dessert.  We would have liked to stay at the Abby the additional night as we had planned.  But after the drive up, I realized it was not realistic to drive straight home so we left after lunch so we could get to Custer and sleep before driving home the next morning.

Notice the nice t-shirts in the pictures?  Laurel designed them to commemorate the big day.  The front said "Grammy's 50th State" and the back had her photo inside an outline of North Dakota and it said "North Dakota or Bust!".

I continue to enjoy a good road trip- fun company, music, a cooler full of cold cuts and seltzer and the spirit to love whatever comes around the corner- be it a buffalo, a narrow bridge or a giant tin family.

We live in an amazing country and if you have not gotten out to enjoy it lately fill up the tank and get driving!