Badlands Goodlands

Again yesterday Kadizzle and Winky headed to the Badlands.  Little by little we are doing the whole Ma De Hey Trail.  Although we have lived in North Dakota and visited the Badlands many times Kadizzle only recently realized how magnificent they are.  It hit Kadizzle like bird droppings on the head yesterday that the only way anyone would ever know how amazing this part of North Dakota is would be to get back into the Badlands.  The reality is there is no way except walking, riding a horse, or bicycle that you can get back into the wilderness. The Kadizzles have intensely covered about every inch of the western United States in a span of twenty years. The Badlands compares with the best of what we have seen. 

Two old people in their 70's buzzing through the Badlands on ebikes hitting speeds of close to twenty miles per hour.  The trails are no do da ride.  More than once we had minor crashes.  There are plenty of places you could make a mistake and end up over a cliff hurt or dead, but it is worth it.  So far we probably have knocked out somewhere in the range of thirty miles.

Now a little tourism rant.  The trails in the Badlands are a great accomplishment for North Dakota.  However, without the push from private people it would never have happened.  North Dakota has some wonderful opportunities for outdoor recreation, but getting the money for recreation from farmers is impossible.  Farmers drive tractors for fun, they do not hike, bike, or do anything that does not result in an ear of corn.

A thousand years ago Kadizzle moved to North Dakota with Winky.  We lived on a farmstead and got to know the farmer and his kids.  One summer the Dad bought an RV.  The family  was going to go on the first vacation ever.  Kadizzle and Winky were assigned to watch the farm.  The farm kids had never really been anywhere and Kadizzle could not wait to find out what their reaction to seeing mountains would be.  Dwight was the older boy.  On the return Kadizzle asked Dwight " Well what did you think of the Rocky Mountains?".  Dwight said " They were big, but they would be very hard to farm".   So back on the tractor.

Imagine running a restaurant.  Imagine budgeting 95% of your resources to advertise and 5% of your funds to fix up the restaurant.  That is North Dakota. North Dakota will spend a fortune for advertising, but will not actually put a cent into any recreation project.  If you could use the big lake, the Badlands or the Little Missouri people would love it.  The cost of trails is nothing, a little money spent on Lake Sakakawea could do miracles, but no, no, no we just want to farm.  What does North Dakota do? The state puts up fiberglass cows, fish, and metal pheasants along the highway.  Kadizzle is always amazed when he talks to people about Lake Sakakawea.  It is a man made wonder.  It is the third largest man made lake in the United States, but guess what?  Most of the people in the state know nothing about it or have never been there. Why?  There are no decent facilities there.  The lake cannot be utilized by anyone but fishermen.  The lake could have trails around the shore, it could have decent places to eat, some marinas, golf courses, and cabins, but no, we don't do that sort of thing, we just chase cows around.