Power lines stand fast
Or are those telephone wires?
Sun comes wand’ring past

Not only did I drop the title of a Stranglers song into the title of this post, but I also get to show you what happens when the power plant (is it Milton Young Station? I’m not sure) gets silhouetted by the setting sun! I got out to Double Ditch just in time to capture the sun dipping behind the power plant near Center. The power plant, that is…the sun wasn’t anywhere near Center. Except the center of our solar system!

We had a pretty golden evening tonight. Not just in the sky, either. I took little PJ to the park and went down the slide with him in my lap…over, and over, and over, and over. We climbed around the playground equipment, went to the mall to buy some targets and ammo for this weekend, then on our first daddy-son trip to McDonald’s. Man, what fun we had!

Here it is. New Year’s afternoon turned into a little bit of a hectic day for me, actually causing me to scrap my afternoon/evening plans, but I did get a chance to drive to high ground along the way and snap a quick sunset photo.

I’m about to wrap things up for the night and put my little boys to sleep, but here are some quick numbers from my last two years of blogging. I started this blog with a photo of the ND State Capitol Building lit up with “2006” in the windows, and that’s how I started 2008. In the two years in between:

This blog has served 984,138 invidual pages;

I’ve been visited by 459,070 individual readers;

The site’s busiest day was January 14, 2007, with 12,051 pages viewed;

The total hit count (includes images, pages, ratings, and messages sent to me via the Contact Me link: 119,415,870!

Yikes. For just some guy with a camera, I’m flabbergasted. Hopefully folks keep coming, hopefully you’re entertained when you get here, and hopefully I can sell a couple of banner ads to local businesses to pay for the cost of operating this thing. I’m looking forward to 2008 on BismarckMandanBlog.com, and I hope you are too!

The sun sets earlier than I do these days; most often it’s completed its trip past the horizon before I even get a chance to stagger out of work! Yet some nights I get a view like this one. The clouds make the shot, of course. I’m just glad I had the opportunity to see it.

Click here for a larger version of the panoramic photo.

I didn’t have time to scope out some new location with a stunning foreground, but I did get a chance to document one of the more distinctive North Dakota landmarks with a fantastic sunset behind it. This was Sunday night, and I’m glad I could share it with you. After all, that’s why I started this site: I love North Dakota, and want to share the view through my eyes (and camera) with as many people as possible!

I spent a good chunk of this weekend in the Fargo-Moorhead area, as I was the graphics operator for some good ol’ college football on TV. I had a blast despite feeling under the weather; I was a couch pilot Wednesday, Thursday, and Monday but had good days Friday through Sunday. I tend to get a sinus infection in the fall for some reason, and this weekend brought a really nasty one. I’m still fighting it, and I think all the stuff in the air is the reason why.

This sunset photo was taken from an anonymous overpass in eastern North Dakota…I don’t even remember where, but it was remote. I was hoping to get on the road in time to reach the Prairie Pothole lakes for the sunset, but sadly that didn’t happen. No worries, I was treated to an amazing sky nearly all the way home…and by the time it got dark, my windshield was so pasted with bugs that I couldn’t see much anyway! A quick stop at King Koin to pressure wash the truck took care of that once I reached Bismarck. Sometimes I take my Suzuki down to Fargo, park it in the KVLY garage, and drive one of their cars for the weekend. I’m sure glad I didn’t do that this time around! Cleaning bugs off my leathers and helmet is NOT fun.

Some nights you just can’t beat the cliffs of Double Ditch Indian Village for great shots of the river at sunset. This was one of them. I never tire of this view, but I really want to go to the bottom of the cliffs for a sunset. It seems I just can’t get myself out there in time, because the only foot path down to the river is on the south end of the park. By the time I get out there, I haven’t the time to hoof it to the water and thread my way north. Oh well, someday…

It’s been a grueling couple of days, as we mourn with our family over the loss of Alexis. Tonight, after some truly wonderful family time, my wife and I took a trip up River Road. The sun was already past the horizon, but I saw this lone straggler still out on the water and sensed an opportunity. After that it was back home to snuggle our boy and get some much needed rest.

26th Street in northeast Bismarck can take you to some pretty cool places if you’ll let it. Saturday night after the KTM Sportbike Night, I rode out to a friend’s place north of Bismarck. Along the way I was treated to another blazing red sun in the horizon, so I stopped to capture this image. The power line tower served to put things into perspective.

Here we are, all teed up! Now we just need the universe’s largest 9 iron to make it interesting. I tried a number of different things to try to make the tower visible where the sun is behind it, but without result. Perhaps I’ll need to get into specific filters or something like that, which I’d like to do. But for now I’ll just have to get by. In any case, I think it looks pretty nice just the way it is.

By the way, it’s almost September! Enjoy those warm evening sunsets while we’ve still got ’em!