Arrival at Ft. Abraham Lincoln State Park

Captains Log May 30 – Today was a short drive, 113 miles to Ft. Abraham Lincoln State Park

Bill with statue at Visitor Center

in  Mandan, ND.   The  weather  was  good  and  traffic  as well.   The drive  took us  through Bismarck, ND’s capitol and across the Missouri River.  The state park was 5 miles or so and is on the Missouri River.  Since we arrived pretty early and their check out time isn’t until 3, they let us park the RV at the visitor center lot.  We unhooked the truck and had some lunch. 

While we waited for the family to leave our site we visited the Mandan Slant Village,  which is a reconstruction of 4-5 native homes.  Then we drove up to the highest point here where a US Infantry fort was from the late

Mandan Lodge

1800’s.  They reconstructed the 3 corner 3 story buildings.  It overlooks the river so I imagine they ate a lot of fish! 

Custer House

The rest of the “fort” is on lower ground and a replica of George Custer’s quarters has been built along with several barracks with a flagpole in the parade grounds.  It’s a pretty big place.  The gift shop was in the “commissary” but it was a bit pricy.  The weather was turning a bit nippy out as well so we looped around the
campground and checked and our space was finally available.

I followed Bill to our spot and it is a semi circle that is shared by 2 RV’s.  We were in the back half and I had to back into the curve.  Good thing Bill was back there!  There was about 5 feet of space between us and we had room to park the truck in front. 

Infantry outpost along the Missouri

Bill got us hooked up to water and electric – no sewer here – and we were set!  We had decided early in the day to go into town for dinner.  We found a place that was excellent and not too far in Mandan.  I ordered a flatbread and Bill ordered a nice steak with salad when the meals arrived mine was a brat burger.  I told the lady that delivered it that I had ordered a flatbread.  She brought a menu for me to show her and said no problem.  I think she was a manager as when she brought it back she brought a container for the burger and told me she was comping both the burger and my flatbread.  On top of that, I only ate half of my meal so we brought home enough for a meal on the road! 

For the first time in days we were able to get satellite.  I guess we are in perfect positioning so we watched “Good Witch”, one of our favorites and tried to figure out who the new characters were.