Inspiration for the rock


Earlier this month I stumbled upon this painted rock northeast of Bismarck with a patriotic message on it. Thanks to Mike G. for emailing me to let me know that this was likely inspired by another well-known painted rock near Greenfield, Iowa.

This rock is painted annually with a different patriotic theme by a young man named Ray “Bubba” Sorenson. More pictures of the rock and a brief description are given here.

In my opinion, both rocks are inspiring. It doesn’t matter if one resembles another, and I doubt Bubba would be offended. The bigger picture is that people are taking the time to put their patriotism out there for all to see and remind the rest of us as well.

“Bubba” has a website promoting his artwork at www.bubbazartwork.com if you’re interested. It doesn’t feature the rock as prominently as the other site, but it does showcase other work he does.

If anyone’s interested, I can post directions to the rock I found here in Bismarck. That is, if I can find it again. I don’t remember which road it’s on exactly, but its GPS coordinates are 46 degrees, 52.023 minutes north by 100 degrees, 42.242 minutes west.

What to do when there’s no snow

I’ve been in a mild funk due to the lack of snow this Christmas, but there’s one sure fire cure for that situation: get out and ride! Actually, that’s the cure for just about any state of bummitude. Besides, it’s a unique photo opportunity; it’s not often that I can take a picture in front of the Christmas capitol!

Having successfully performed an attitude adjustment, I burned tires back to the house, grabbed the family, and went out to look at Christmas lights. We were able to ignore the absence of snow, as were many others. Northview Lane was absolutely packed with constant traffic, as were other Christmas display hot spots. Bismarck-Mandan residents, including newly reminded ones like myself, don’t allow Christmas to be determined by precipitation totals; rather, by their good cheer.