Jamestown, Rosh Hashanah - Day 836 (Yr 3, Day 103)

Jamestown, ND

On Sunday, we left Bismarck at about 10:30 am, after packing and hitching.  It was hard to say goodbye to Kathy.  The plan was to drive to Jamestown - about 100 miles and 2 hours away, drop off the RV in a pull thru site (5 mins), have a quick lunch, and head to Fargo - another 100 miles/2 hours away - arrive at our hotel by 2, have a quick nap, change clothes and help the rabbi set up before Rosh Hashanah services.

Things started out as planned; we got to Jamestown around noon.  However, we did not have a pull through site and it took us - with help from neighbors - a little over AN HOUR to back into our site.  It is very narrow, with a lot of cars around and very little room to maneuver.  I will tell you now -- I HATE this place!  The only scenery to look at are either old, dilapidated trailers of long term residents or a truck junk yard. The fact that the few trees have no leaves (winter approaching) just makes the sites that much more depressing.  Usually I like to keep all my shades open to let in the light, but it's hard to look out the windows at the junkyards that surround me.  Oh well -- what I need to do is remind myself there's a reason G-d sent us here; we are blessed that we have jobs, and therefore it should be easy to ignore the material aspects of the looks of the campground.  Not to mention this is the ONLY campground in the area that's open past Sept. 30th.  Hopefully time will pass quickly and we'll be on our way to Raleigh (not that I'm looking forward to the drive).  Here is the view out of my window:

Anyway, we finally got settled into our spot around 2:00.  We had a quick bite to eat.  Didn't "set up house" at all - left everything on the bed and couches (in travel position) except for the kitchen, and hit the road by 2:30. We landed in Fargo at 4:00, checked into the hotel, changed our clothes and walked to the place where services were being held at 6:30 (1/4 mile away).  By that time, most of the set up had been done, although I was able to help set the tables.

As always, I find this time of year to be very spiritually uplifting, yet extremely grueling, as we sit in worship services for about 6-7 hours.  Services were very lovely and inspiring, as were the awesome meals which included some very interesting sermons & words of wisdom (I was also thrilled to eat some kosher meat after 5 months!)

There were 4 times over the 2 days where we went to services: Sunday evening, Monday morning, Monday evening and Tuesday morning.  We were supposed to return on Tuesday evening, but due to the long drive and the fact that Mitch had to get up at 5:30 and I expected a lot of work as well - not to mention we still needed to set up house - it was unreasonable to expect us to leave after services (which end around 8:00pm) and not get back until 10:00.  So we left after a lovely lunch and returned home close to 5:00 pm. (I did all the driving, which was entirely in the pouring rain).  We put everything away, I made a quick dinner of rice & beans, we watched a little "tv" and went to bed by 9.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was absolutely insane for me.  There were 75 emails in my inbox, at least 48 of them which required action and 15 which were urgent.  I didn't sleep very well (anxious about all the work) and landed up getting up and starting work around 5:30 am.  Finally, just now (Thursday at 1:00 pm) I have everything under control and the workload manageable again.  I am not looking forward to a repeat of this next week, when I will be off for Yom Kippur.  Although it's only one full day, it starts Tuesday night and ends late Wed. night.  This, unfortunately, is something we need to be there for during it's entirety, so we won't leave Fargo until Thursday morning.

(A note to my curious non-Jewish readers about the High Holidays, which begins with Rosh Hashanah (RH) ends with Yom Kippur (YK):  RH is often called the New Year because it commemorates the beginning of the year of creation (Rosh HaShanah is literally translated as "Head of the Year").  It is not celebrated like our secular new year.  It is a joyous time, but also a time of introspection.  The days between RH and YK are called the Days of Awe.  In effect, this is a time when we have a chance to reassess our goals, ask forgiveness from both God and our fellow humans, sincerely repent for our sins, and start over with a clean slate.  God is judging us now.  A High Holiday metaphor is that there is a Book of Life.  On RH our fate for the next year is written and on YK it is sealed: all based upon our actions during the Days of Awe).

I already described the campground.  What I didn't mention is that the office is actually a large souvenir gift shop with a restaurant/bar upstairs (nothing on the menu we can eat).  It's probably about 1/4 mile from the site to the office.  I understand that around the corner is a herd of buffalo which we can feed.  I'll have to check that out.  We're very close to "Frontier Village," which is a touristy place set up as an Old West town.  There lives a statue of the world's largest buffalo and one of the only very rare albino buffaloes.  Perhaps we'll have a chance to check that out on Sunday.  Other than that, there are a lot of big box stores and a mall nearby.  From the map, it looks like there's a river (the James River), so we'll have to see if there's anything interesting to do there.

As for weather, the last 2 days have been no more than mid-40s with very high winds.  This morning, I had the heat up to 76 with the fireplace and my small electric heater on!  It's too cold to take a walk without a winter coat, which I don't own and don't want to!