Views from a Prairie Home

By Hege Herfindahl, Columnist

After all the commotion in this world, the need to get away is strong in most of us. Seeing new sights opens up our mind, sparks our curiosity and imagination. One of our grandsons, Ove, who has lived abroad for more than two years and travelled all over the world, noted that he had never been west of Benson. He had listened with interest when his younger cousin, Torsten, told about his trip to South Dakota and Wyoming with their grandpa last summer. It had been a healing trip of sorts since Torsten had lost his father two years ago.  To pick yourself up and go on living, enjoying new experiences with your beloved “morfar” had made both Torsten and his morfar stronger.

This year, it was to be another trip, a Wild West trip. To learn and to observe and to bond. They were to go all the way to Yellowstone. The end goal was quickly eliminated. Access to Yellowstone had become complicated, besides I thought morfar should consider his age. At 70, he no longer had the energy level he thought he had. So, with a somewhat shorter agenda, off they went, pickup full to the brim; first stop the Garrison Dam in North Dakota. Close to where Lewis and Clark had their winter camp. A fort had been constructed at the site to be similar to their winter headquarters.

The Garrison Dam is the largest man-made reservoir in the world. It was built for flood control, navigation, irrigation, electricity and recreation. The boys set up camp below the dam and went exploring. They visited the National Fish Hatchery, where the goal is to reintroduce sturgeon to the great dam. Their cozy camp site consisted of one sleeping tent, set up quickly and perfectly by the two boys and a screen tent, their kitchen, set up by their morfar/farfar. (A short explanation is in order: Grant is Torsten’s morfar…mother’s father and Ove’s farfar  …Father’s father.) Not complicated for the boys who grew up with it. Naturally, it rained that first night and Torsten who slept on a yoga mat on the ground, woke up in water. He quickly ran into the pickup and here he slept the rest of the night.

On the boys went west to Medora, only a few hours, but a whole time zone away. So that, when it had not been dark until closer to 10 at Garrison, here it got dark at 8. In Medora, they watched a Wild West Pageant, which they thought was really funny and the next day they went to a dinosaur museum. In fact, later, they found so many dinosaur museums that they could say, “been there, done that’ and cruise on by. 

The trip west continued into the great state of Montana where morfar/farfar had gotten a hotel with a water park. He also had ordered tickets to a baseball game, Ove’s favorite. He also went grocery shopping while the boys were having fun at the water park. He told me, he immediately felt uncomfortable in the store. It was filled with people, some wearing masks, many coughing; Grant wanted to run out of the store, but was already in a crowd of people. He had forgotten to wear a mask. Many days later, we both got Covid. Luckily, the boys did not. 

But, of course, we didn’t know it then. The boys went on their way, turning east into the Wyoming Mountains of Big Horn. Here they camped in the freezing cold, while deer and moose wandered through their camp site. The next day, they descended to the southern tip of the Black Hills and camped at Hot Springs, which was 99 degrees. Then, they got to see all the sites of the Black Hills with Torsten explaining everything to Ove, since he had seen it last year. Their last night of camping was another night with rain. This time, they all got soaked. But isn’t that all part of an adventure? 

The three came home. Tired. Dirty. But full of tales of the west. And Ove and Torsten, heads together as their chatting never stopped, proceeded to go to the Dodge County Fair, something they had talked about the whole way home. The trip had deepened a friendship between cousins and will be an adventure they will never forget.