Beyond the Setting Sun

All Hallow's Eve

'Are you afraid of big spiders?'  A little boy held up his hand and looked expectantly my way.

'No.  I've seen some nasty-looking snakes, and some mean-looking dogs, but no spiders.  The worst animals were the mosquitoes, back here.'  I pointed to a map of America that hung on the schoolroom wall.  'This is 'Upper Michigan.  There are lots of trees, lakes and swampy ground... and they have lots of mosquitoes and blackfly in spring and autumn.  They suck your blood and leave nasty itchy red spots.'  The kids looked at each other and pulled faces.

I was in Grand Forks, North Dakota, talking to six year olds about my journey.  Television, radio, newspapers, volunteers and now schoolchildren: everyone seemed to like the stories, even if they weren't too sure what 'ho spice' was.

There were sixty kids sitting cross-legged before me.  I told them that there were groups of doctors and nurses called hospice that would help people who were in their own homes when they were ill.  The hospices had volunteers who would talk to sick people or do chores for them.  I also told the children that hospice needed more people to help... and money, too.  I asked them all to tell their parents that they'd seen a man who was walking across the country and that I'd be on television that evening.

Questions about what I ate, what was in my backpack, and where I slept, came thick and fast.  The kids seemed fascinated and liked to hear someone talking with a different accent.

The hospice of Grand Forks had arranged places for me to stay up to the Hospice of Minot in the middle of North Dakota.  The Hospice of Minot was fixing up places to stay through to Williston and after that it was a little hit and miss up to the end of Route 2, as I entered Montana and The Rockies.  On the open Plains there was very little cover and winter had come.

Route 2 followed the Burlington Northern Railway, as it headed west.  The towns were small, often just a gas station, a church, a few houses, a store and a diner... and they were visible from miles away because of water towers, planted trees and grain silos that stood close to the railroad.  Farmland was all around.  Irrigated from an underground aquifer and small rivers, and supplied with large doses of fertilizer, the land was one of the most productive regions of the world.  Little rain had fallen in the last few years though, and the soil was dusty and dry, for all the farmers' efforts.  Another drought year was forecast, so things didn't look good.

At Grand Forks I saw the other main employment option in North Dakota.  I sat outside the U.S. Air Force base, watching bombers take off and land.  I ate my lunch of peanut butter and bread, and then headed west.  The grass was yellow - like straw - and clear patches of soil that had once been shallow lakes, or slews, were dotted about, white with patches of alkali.

Every few miles there were signs numbering nuclear missile silos.  After Russia and the United States, North Dakota was the third greatest nuclear power, or so the local boast went.  I'd expected the nuclear bunkers would be well hidden, but they were clearly signposted and had tracks leading right up to them.

Larimore, Petersburg, Lakota, Devil's Lake, Church's Ferry, Leeds, Knox, Rugby, Towner, Granville, Minot, Berthold, Tagus, Stanley, Ray and Williston: my destinations were mapped out for the next 230 miles.

In Larimore I stayed with Hjordis and Arnold Olson.  The trees put up as windbreaks around town were bent at an angle to the south-east from the strong prevailing wind.  While staying at Larimore I spoke to the local Rotary Group, telling them about the services of the Grand Forks Hospice program.

The next day I made for Petersburg and the house of Myrtle and Olaf Iveson.  Olaf was seventy-nine, a retired farmer, and Myrtle was also in her seventies.  Their parents had come over from Norway and settled in Petersburg.  The Ivesons' first language was Norwegian and they had returned to visit relatives in Norway several times.  Dinner of hamburger and beans, with salad, bread and jello, and apple pie for dessert was wonderful... and there were plenty of second helpings.