A Woodsdale Kid in North Dakota

Never in the ancient world of Woodsdale did I think I would end up in North Dakota. In fact the place probably went through my brain once a year in geography class. Since both West Virginia and North Dakota have coal, here I am. As a kid I remember standing on the back porch and seeing the Northern Lights. The Northern Lights never amounted to much from Woodsdale. In North Dakota if you look closely you can see them on many nights, it is a faint green glow in the sky. However, early in our life in North Dakota I saw such a magnificent show of the Northern lights I almost repented. It was the most spectacular natural sight ever seen in the sky. The whole sky was awash in multiple colors. It looked like someone pouring color down a curtain
that was blowing in the wind.

Western North Dakota is just about as opposite from West Virginia as a place could be. I have lived in wide open spaces so long the Woodsdale has shrunk so badly it feels like a shirt I outgrew a long time ago. As a Kid I remember thinking there was space around the houses, and the streets were wide. Now, a trip to the hills feel like everyone is squeezed into little gutters. When I first came to North Dakota everyone said " I get claustrophobic when I am in the East". At the time it made no sense to me, but now I understand.

I always tell people you have to learn to live in North Dakota. After you have lived here a few years the land seems to fit. You can almost always see for miles here. If you get on a slight rise you can easily see twenty or thirty miles. More than anything the lack of people here is an asset. There are never any lines for anything. Traveling long distances becomes routine.

When I first moved her with my wife Cissie, Cissie said "You get us out of here as fast as you can". Now, I could not get here to move East if I had to. The weather in North Dakota is very misunderstood by anyone who has not lived here year round. The summers are wonderful. The days are much longer than in Woodsdale in the summer. The sun is up by 4. A.M. and doesn't set until 10 A.M. The days are long when you want them long, and short when you want them short. Winter is not as bad here as portrayed. With low humidity the cold is not that bad, unless the wind blows. If it does you are in big trouble, but I have been cross country skiing at ten below with just a heavy sweater. Most people would find it hard to believe, but snow affects travel in North Dakota far less than West Virgina. West Virginia probably gets more snow, and it is a heavy snow. Here the snow almost always blows off the roads by itself.

The two main things that have kept us here are pheasant hunting, and sailing. As a kid never did I even think about sailing. In the summer for the last twenty years my life has been consumed with sailing. Our kids grew up on our sailboat, and during the summer we spend about three nights a week on the boat. North Dakota is not thought of for large bodies of water, but Lake Sakakawea where we sail backs up into the North Dakota Badlands. Lake Sakakawea is the Missouri River dammed up. The lake it the third largest man made lake in the United States. The lake is many miles wide and 179 miles long. The real beauty of the lake it that it has hundreds of bays and is used by very few people. The best part of the lake is where is backs up into the Badlands.

Woodsdale is place far away in another land. Yesterday, I went on Google Earth and used the feature where you can drive down Bethany Pike at eye level. The shrinkage of Woodsdale still amazes me. As a kid Bethany Pike seemed big an wide. Looking at the Google pictures it looks like two cars can hardly pass. The homes that seemed to have big yard, now appear to be right up against the sidewalk. If Woodsdale shrinks any more you can just put it in a box and mail it to me. Don't leave it in the dryer so long.