I parked on an approach east of Bismarck and walked to the fence line to get this photo. I’m a big proponent of property owners’ rights, so I don’t go anyplace I’m not invited…that’s why most of my “Fallen Farm” photos are taken from a distance or at an angle. After I got this photo and some others with an old threshing machine in the background, I ran back to the truck…literally. Despite the mostly clear sky, it was sprinkling on me and my camera!

At that point there was southbound traffic stuck at the train crossing on 66th Street, waiting for a train to pass. I backed out of the approach onto 66th, drove up the road a ways, then stopped on the shoulder to get an even wider shot featuring the silhouettes of some Bismarck landmarks in the distance. I got back in the truck to continue to my destination: a friend’s house, where I was doing one of those “will fix computers for Mountain Dew” calls. I saw a couple of cars following me, but didn’t think much of it.

I was well into the computer when the sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door, asking who owned the truck in the driveway. They explained to me that someone had seen me off-roading on their property. I told them what really happened, and they explained that a dog belonging to someone on 66th Street had just been shot, and they thought I might be responsible! I showed them what I had been up to, and it was all cleared up right away…we figured that they’d been stuck on the other side of the train and didn’t see that I was only parked on the side of the road. All’s well that ends well, I guess.