Our first ceremony of the day was at the James Field Baseball and Softball Complex in Bowman, ND.
Theresa Jones, Manager of Parks and Recreation Center in Bowman met us enthusiastically and ran with us into the complex.
Teresa welcomed us and expressed her gratitude to the team for visiting. She told us that she recently visited Germany and the Netherlands and her highlight was the the labyrinth at the three border point and the Vaalserberg in the Netherlands. Our German runner was to thrilled to hear this since this is a Sri Chinmoy Peace Blossom and was recently visited by the Peace Run on the 12th of June of this year.
Director of Parks and Recreation Center, Dan Peterson, welcoming our international team.
The Bowman Green Sox Team eager to know what the Peace Run was all about and listening to Salil's introduction.
Atulya giving clues where he comes from.
Time to share the torch with our new friends.
Teresa was kind to collect some soil for us from North Dakota. We will be planting a peace tree in NY and place the soil of all 50 states.
Thank you so much for your generosity!
After our ceremony, the future baseball stars began warming up for their game. Thank you for spending some time with us and good luck!
Time to start running towards our accommodations since we didn't have any more ceremonies scheduled for the day. Here is the men's team adding on their miles for the day.
The men's team made it to South Dakota.
The ladies turn doing their miles. Even though it's getting hot to run, nobody stopped smiling. Go Team!
We ran through beautiful landscapes.
The team visited the Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche, South Dakota.
Belle Fourche Mayor, Randy Schmidt, saw our vehicles parked outside the museum and came out to greet us. We were so happy to meet him and took a photo at the Center of the Nation Monument. While the actual center of the nation is located on private property, the Geographic Center of the Nation Monument is located in Belle Fourche in western South Dakota. The National Geographic Survey designated Belle Fourche as the town closest to the actual site and the monument was placed there.
We had fun inside the Tri-State Museum. We learned the history of cowboys, rodeo, the pioneers, their mercantile and military. We also got to learn about the subject of dinosaurs, archeology and geology.
The other women's team continued with their miles. You got this girls!!!
Harita could probably run all 10,000 miles herself. Go Harita!!!
After our miles we decided to check out the town.
We met this man at a coffee shop and he was delighted about the Peace Run. We were happy to have shared the peace torch with him.
We also visited Black Hills National Forest located southwest of Rapid City. The forest headquarters is located in Custer, South Dakota and is one of America's most famous monuments, Mount Rushmore and another lesser known monument, the Crazy Horse Memorial. Construction on Crazy Horse began in 1948 and is still far from complete. The name comes from the Lakota words "paha sapa" which means "hills that are black". Seen from a distance, these pine-covered hills, rising several thousand feet above the surrounding prairie, appear black.
We were amazed by the beauty of Black Hills National Forest.
And the magnificent wild life.
The Academy Award winning film Dances With Wolves, Directed and starred by Kevin Costner, was filmed there.
