Minot, North Dakota and the Scandinavian Heritage Park

5 August 2016.  Beautiful day here at the Blue Lake RV Resort in Naples, Idaho, and we're making it an R&R day...at least till later this afternoon when we'll drive into Sandpoint for a sunset cruise of Lake Pend Oreille -- complete with complimentary wine and an assortment of desserts!  What a great way to end the day!  But I'm getting ahead of myself.  Even though this is a R&R day, I thought I'd try and do some more catching up with my blog entries.  For this entry we're going back to July 27-28, our two days in Minot, North Dakota.  Why Minot you ask?  Good question.  When I was in Air Force basic training, back in the fall of '67, our TI (training instructor) used to try and scare us with tales of a couple really bad (subjective, I know) first assignments.  The two he always used were Tulle, Greenland, and, yep, you guessed it -- Minot AFB, ND.  Now, I'd never been to Minot AFB before (in spite of numerous TDY's around the globe), so when I saw US Highway 2 took us right through Minot, I thought here was my chance.  Lynette was able to find us a pretty nice campground just outside Minot on US 2 for a couple days.

We searched for some interesting things-to-do in Minot (pop. ~35,000), and came up with the Scandinavian Heritage Park.  Since Lynette's family tree runs deep with Swedish roots, this was right up her alley -- so off we went.  A tour of the Scandinavian Heritage Park provides remembrances and replicas from each of the five Scandinavian countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland.  There's a real grass roof Stabbur (traditional storehouse), a replica Stave Church (from Gol, Norway), and a 25-ft Swedish Dala horse -- plus a waterfall and beautiful landscaping and grounds. In fact, the day we visited we saw signs for "Reserved Parking" for a wedding party later that day. What an awesome setting for a wedding!   Hope you enjoy the following pics as much as we enjoyed touring the park.

 View of the Gol Stave Church, a full-size replica of the finest-designed Stave Churches built in Norway. To say it was stunningly beautiful would be a vast understatement.

 Lynette posing at entrance to the Park, with Gol Stave Church in background.

 These close-up shots of the wood carving do NOT begin to describe the intricacy of the woodwork.  Simply amazing, both inside and out.  All done with traditional tools.

 Another view of the carved woodwork...

 Me posing at a side entrance into the church...

A different view of the church...

 The alter inside the church.  Just stunningly beautiful.  Hard to put into words.  That small closet looking cabinet was used by the priest to provide communion to lepers, who were not allowed inside the church proper.  Or so said the young lady staffer at the church.

 Wood carving of the Last Supper, just off to the side of the altar.

 View of the woodcarving inside the church.   The numerous faces (13 in all, I think, around the interior) represent various Nordic spirits.

 This pic doesn't do justice to the narrow, woodcarved door into the chapel area.  Quite ornate.

 Me and the traditional Dala Horse inside the Park.

 Me and some famous Nordic skier...

 Me and and an even more famous Scandinavian, Leif....Erikson, that is.

 Another famous Scandinavian.....

 ,,,,,and Lynette just had to shake hands with him!

 View of Gol Stave Church from across the Park.  Stunning sight, even from here.

 Obligatory visit to the Park's gift shop offered me an opportunity to meet the local gnome.  Nice guy, actually.  Reminded me a a friend of mine who goes by the initials of BH,

Lynette also met some "local" creatures at the gift shop!

After our tour of the Scandinavian Heritage Park, we headed out to Minot AFB, which is located about 11 miles north of Minot.  Originally opened in 1957, Minot AFB became a major SAC base in the early '60's, with both nuclear-tipped ICBMs and manned bombers, plus refueling aircraft.  Today the base has a population of about 5,500, down from 7,600 in 2000, and is home to two major Air Force wings: the 5th Bomb Wing (B-52 H-model) and the 91st Missile Wing, both part of the Global Strike Command.  The 91st Missile Wing has three operational Missile Squadron with some unique names:  Vulgar Vultures, Gravehaulers, and Wolf Pack.

I came away with a favorable impression of the base, regardless what my life-long impression was (remember my basic training TI?) prior to this visit.  I'm sure the winters are harsh (average high winter temperature is 15 degrees, with an average low of minus 2 degrees), but our weather was a balmy 75 degrees on this day.  We checked out the local BX and commissary, and while small, both seemed able to fill the needs of the base population.  All in all, glad we took the time to drive out to Minot AFB.

We topped off our day by dining at a local brew pub, Souris River Brewing.  A bit hard to find in the old downtown area, which went through a tremendous flood in 2011. That flood was greater than the so-called 100-year flooding of the Souris River.  The US Army Corps of engineers estimated that type of flood to have a recurrence interval between 200-500 years.  The 2011 flooding topped the levees in Minot causing the evacuation of about 11,000 residents; it was worse than both floods in 1881 and 1969.   But I digress.  Back to Souris River Brewing.  The food was good: I had an elk burger with a coconut-infused brown ale on-tap -- quite tasty and certainly quenched my thirst. Lynette drank a bottled dark stout with her spicy burger (too spicy for her with the jalapeno flavors and bleu cheese). All told, a nice choice for dinner!  Here's a couple pics of me enjoying my burger and brew in one of their wooden booths made from reclaimed church pews, believe it or not.  Pretty cool decorating for this brew pub.

Notice the trim detail on this reclaimed church pew...