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Cooperstown, North Dakota
In the shadow of your first attack I was questioning and looking back, you said baby we don't speak of that like a real aristocrat
From 1965 until 1991, every single day, every single minute, US Air Force soldiers were on call, ready without question to bring about the end of the world as we know it, all from underneath a nondescript little building in the middle of nowhere in North Dakota. Today that building has been decommissioned and is now part of a North Dakota state historic park, one where you can walk around the old barracks and take the very, very slow elevator deep underground and see what is pictured- one of the actual consoles where an always changing code from the US President would cause two soldiers at different consoles to simultaneously turn keys and launch nuclear missiles. The underground bunker was behind a giant "War Games" type of blast door and then supported by massive shock absorbers, strong enough so that if the Russians attacked first the Americans could still survive to hit right back. No use in destroying half of the world when you could destroy the whole thing I guess.
The tour of the complex was absolutely fascinating and incredibly scary. What's scarier of course is that while the Oscar Zero site was decommissioned, there are many, many more active missile sites throughout North Dakota. I guess you never know when those pesky Soviets might still attack, Glasnost be damned.
Not only can you tour the launch control site but you can even see a missile silo, although only from above ground where it's interesting but not quite exciting.
I really do enjoy the randomness of work travel, and hopefully you are enjoying the resulting randomness of this slideshow. One weekend I'm in Houston, another I'm in Savannah, another I'm in Oregon, another I'm in Chicago, another I'm in North Dakota.
North Dakota is the least visited US state and in some ways that's understandable. First of all it's way out of the way, then you have to think about an unforgiving climate and most of all (and this is the big one) there's just not all that much to do there. It's not that they're not trying though- case in point is Salem Sue, the world's largest cow, high on a bluff overlooking I-94. You can even drive right up to her and, um, I don't know, I guess all there is to do is to take a picture of her hooves just like this one. Maybe they should try a little harder next time.
If a giant cow isn't enough for you, then maybe you should head right over to the well publicized (for North Dakota) Enchanted Highway, a collection of impossibly large metal sculptures every few miles along an otherwise unenchanted local road. The sculptures were all done by one guy and they're real hit or miss in terms of quality. Some of them I actually kind of liked, while others didn't even merit slowing down the rental car to take a second look.
Forget all of those unnecessary giant sculptures of cows or pheasants or creepy looking kids with lollipops. Out on the prairie there is still real magic. Actual herds of buffalo actually still roam, especially in protected places like Theodore Roosevelt National Park in the far western corner of North Dakota.
There are two sections of the park, the comparably popular South Unit (all badlands all the time) and the no-one-ever-visits North Unit, where on a Sunday morning I was literally the only visitor there. And while overall that is just wonderful, it of course like everything had some disadvantages. A big one happened as I got deep on the park road and herds of buffalo decided the road was theirs and not mine. And these weren't just friendly Yellowstone buffalo but actual angry buffalo, they were charging each other and literally butting heads right in front of me. So instead of easing on down the road I patiently waited and waited for them to pick a side of the road, only to finally go on past them and quickly come upon another herd and then another herd, all really intent on keeping me from seeing whatever was just a few miles up ahead.
The badlands (you got to live it everyday, let the broken hearts stand as the price you got to pay) of Theodore Roosevelt National Park aren't quite as bad as Badlands National Park in the more popular South Dakota or nearly as harsh as the really bad ones in the Colorado Plateau like at Petrified Forest. These badlands have some greenery, some life, maybe they're really more misunderstood than bad when you really start to think about it.
A case in point is this view of the Little Missouri River Valley at the North Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Here the badlands merge into the green valley, proving once and for all that all this time there was at least some good in all those bad, badlands.
