King School to Kingbird - Day 230

  This morning, I was hiking at the earliest possible time I thought it was safe to be doing a roadwalk, 5:45.

Almost immediately I came to King School. The building had been operating as a gift shop with unique hand-crafted items. I think Covid shut it down, but I hope only temporarily. It was in use as a school until 1967, the last of the prairie schoolhouses in Barnes County.

It's a pretty interesting building, but although I was disappointed that I couldn't go inside on this trip, I was glad to see it again. This building (sort of mashed up with a smaller version of the Kistler's Corner school in Mason County) was the inspiration for the school in my children's mysteries.

I think this picture is older than when Cora, Jimmie, George, Ruby and Laszlo were growing up, but can't you just picture them here?

The most interesting part of today's walk was on some private property where the trail winds through a side valley of the main Sheyenne River Valley. I think these scenes were ripped from old western movies.

Finally, near the end of the day, I nearly stepped on a fledgling kingbird in the grass. S/he wasn't having a lot of luck with the flying at this point.

However, one of its nestmates had found wings a handy feature, and it was taking short flappy flights from shrub to shrub. Kingbirds are tyrants, and not my favorite aves, but babies are always cute. Mama was hovering nearby and screaming at me.

And I learned something new today. I thought if the humidity hit 100% that meant it was raining. Nope. I knew it was hard to breathe, and my weather app said the humidity was 100%. And then it warmed up. I finished at 1:00, and the temperature was 96 degrees. Ugh. But I got in the miles. Tomorrow is supposed to be cooler.

I also got to walk two more miles of unmowed grass. This is not on my list of favorite activities. And I walked way around a mudhole in a field.

Miles today: 16.5. Total miles so far: 2777.9

See Valley City