American Avocet! - Day 220

  The big treat today was getting pictures of an American Avocet. They are bigger than I thought!

It might be a juvenile, since the rusty color on the head and neck is not very bright. The call is a piercing "wheep, wheep."

The real news was the heat. It got much hotter than they predicted, and the heat on the roadwalks is impressive. I guess I'm going to have to start hiking even earlier in the morning. This is a really unusual scene for North Dakota. Trees are casting a shadow across the road. Yes, I took one of my breaks here.

The lonely North Dakota picture is of the James River. Just seeing water almost made me feel cooler. Almost.

The heat just does me in. I mostly lay flat all afternoon and read a book.

BONUS SECTION: What we did last night. We went to the Dakota Prairie Center for the Arts in New Rockford and saw Little Shop of Horrors. This is a summer stock production, where the actors are college students all studying drama. They are paid- it's sort of like an internship. In other words, it's not enough to live on, but it's not completely amateur theater. This picture is the cast, minus Audrey (the girl). With the energy of the young, she ran off right after the play to do a night shift of work!

The production was wonderfully done, with a twist on the plant, Audrey II. The thin man in the green suit portrayed Audrey II. The director is a fan of "paranoid alien invasion thrillers." So he had the Audrey II character evolve as it ate more and more people to become more human-like, with the goal of world domination, eventually jumping out of the plant to sing Mean Green Mother from Outer Space.

No photos were allowed of the play itself. If you've never seen Little Shop of Horrors, it's a musical farce that's been evolving since 1960. The best known version is probably the 1986 movie with Rick Moranis, Steve Martin, and Ellen Greene. There are minor appearances by Jim Belushi, John Candy, Jack Nicholson, and Bill Murray. Caution for language, but hilarious. And it gives food for thought.

Miles today: 15.5. Total miles so far: 2654.7, and I'm half done with North Dakota.

See New Rockford Canal