What is there to do in North Dakota?

This is a true story.  The events depicted took place in North Dakota in 2022.  At the request of the survivors, (only our names are used).  Out of respect for the dead, the rest has been told exactly as it occurred.  

North Dakota is known as the state that people visit only to complete visiting all 50 states.  The state tourism department has capitalized on this.  They even have a "Best for Last" club to celebrate those who finish this goal with North Dakota being last.  All you have to do to join is to check in with a state visitor's center and let them know North Dakota is your 50th state to visit.  They'll give you a certificate, add you to the list, and some centers give you a T-shirt.  It's not our 50th.  We still have some northeastern states, Hawaii, and Alaska to go.  This was just the northern route to get from Mississippi to Washington via Kentucky, and we hadn't taken it before.  There are specific things we want to do in Minnesota and Wisconsin, so we'll be back to those and just drove through this trip.  With the difficulty I had finding things to do in North Dakota, it looked like a one and done kind of state.  I chose this northern route through North Dakota specifically because we were in a hurry to get home, and I couldn't find many stops worth making, so it should be much faster to get through North Dakota than South Dakota.  (Bruce laughs and says, rightly, that we haven't made it through South Dakota in less than three days so far, and I still have things I want to see there!  It's only about 400 miles end to end!)  I searched Tripadvisor, Viator, Google, and even asked in some travel groups.  All I got was Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the wood chipper in Fargo.  Even Minot, one of the infamous Cold War missile storage/launch sites, can't be toured.  Long ago, I dated a guy who was stationed in Minot.  He talked about reading while driving because the roads were straight and you never saw anybody else on them!  (We didn't try that, but I don't doubt he did it!)

So, into the Fargo-Moorehead Visitor's Center we went.  

The Walk of Fame is full of celebrities that have visited North Dakota.  I was pretty sure Aerosmith was NOT from North Dakota.  When I got home and looked up what celebrities were from ND, I understood why they had to expand the criteria to those who had visited the state!

I loved the movie, "Fargo", and watched it several times.  Liked the series, and am waiting for the next season to drop.  The wood chipper is so famous, that they have a small replica on the lawn and the one from the movie inside.  We had fun playing with it.  It has a socked foot sticking up in it and a wood block laying to the side.  In the film, Peter Stormare uses the wood block to apparently stuff Steve Buscemi's character into the wood chipper.  Peter Stormare is much taller than either of us, so we had to just use our hands.  

After checking out all of the Fargo memorabilia, we scoured the shelves for things to do along the road while driving through North Dakota.  Most things were about multi-day hunting/fishing trips, water sports, or winter skiing, all of those things that require time we didn't have this trip.  There was one little brochure that showed a few stops along the way, so we made that our road map.  We weren't interested in shopping and didn't have time for hiking, hunting, fishing, or a bunch of small museums, so we grabbed the highlights.

First stop was Jamestown, ND.  This town has two claims.  It is the site of the world's largest buffalo statue and the birthplace of Louis L'Amour.  We are suckers for those kitschy roadside attractions, so we had to stop and see the buffalo.  He is 26 feet tall and made of concrete over a wire frame.  He lives at the end of the little recreated western town on Louis L'Amour Lane.

The recreated western town boasts replicas of many types of old-time buildings and other fun little things. There's a reason why Bruce didn't have a Wanted poster!  (I, on the other hand, was smart enough to not get captured!)  If you called ahead, you could even hire a stagecoach ride!  I found buffalo berry jam in the gift shop.  After bringing it home and tasting it, I wasn't very impressed. It probably won't get eaten.  It wasn't bad, but it was kind of bland.

 

The next stop was Salem, ND, where we got to meet Salem Sue.  Sue is the world's largest Holstein cow, and she was erected in honor of the local dairy industry. The local high school uses the Holstein as their mascot, though it appears to be a different Holstein than Sue.  She is 38 feet tall and 50 feet long.  She even has all the veins and cloven hooves.  I'm just glad I never had to milk such a big cow!  My grandmother had her favorite "pepper cow", which was a Holstein with mostly tiny spots that looked like she was dotted with pepper, almost a roan color.  Most of the milking cows looked more like Sue. They bred their cows for slaughter or sale.  They didn't have a milking operation, but Papaw always kept one for actually milking since he drank raw milk instead of that "new-fangled, pasteurized stuff."  He lived a long, long life.

The next and next to last thing on our list was a series of stops.  It was on the brochure we got in Fargo, but Bruce remembered it as one of the drives we had heard about a few years ago and wanted to do eventually.  It is the Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile long stretch of mostly unnamed road from Interstate 94 to Main Street in the town of Regent.  Part of the road appears to be named 100-1/2 Ave SW.  Google Street View calls it 102 Ave SW.  Along this stretch of road, a sculptor has erected eight huge scrap metal sculptures in small plots of land on either side.  The first one, "Geese in Flight,"  is just off the interstate.  You can easily see it before pulling off.  

Geese in Flight

Deer Crossing

Grasshoppers in the Field

Fisherman's Dream

Pheasants on the Prairie

Teddy Rides Again

Tin Family

Whirly Gigs

At the other end of town, follow Main Street when it forks off of 102-1/2 Ave SW.  At the end of Main Street is the Enchanted Castle.  This was previously a school building, but the same man who made the sculptures converted it into a hotel, tavern, and restaurant.  In front of the hotel is another sculpture of a knight fighting a dragon, and castle wall structures have been erected in front of the school with a wooden drawbridge overlaying a "moat" of blue-painted rocks.  It is absolutely adorable!  The interior has many suits of armor.  

We decided to eat at the Excalibur restaurant.  We had large rib eye steaks with a cluster of snow crab legs and some shrimp, a seasoned succotash, a salad, and warm bread.  It was reasonably priced for the serving size.  We were expecting an okay meal, given that most of these kitschy places are more for the "kitsch" and less for the taste of the food.  We were pleasantly surprised, though.  The food was DELICIOUS!  (I was hungry, so there are no pix of the food!)  I was sorry that I had already booked us a nonrefundable room in Dickinson.  I would have liked to have stayed at the castle.  The rooms seemed comfortable, and the rates were reasonable.

I guess North Dakota had more than what was expected, but it's still a one-and-done kind  of state.  Based on the write-ups, none of the museums and other potential stops had anything particularly unique.  From the time I took the first picture until checking into the hotel in Dickinson was 8-1/2 hours.  That's pretty much got North Dakota except for Teddy Roosevelt National Park.  If we come back, it would only be to drive through or for hunting, fishing, or water sports, and there still isn't anything else terribly unique found there that can't be found elsewhere.

Heading North

Since we had were going north for my high school reunion, we decided to take the northern route back to Washington this time.  The plan was to stop in Chicago overnight and see the Shedd Aquarium, then see how far we made it by suppertime.

So, north we headed, right through Cincinnati.  Just in time for lunch.  Chili five ways was on my mind, and so close I could taste it.  Skyline Chili, here I come!

I had never realized how pretty the Cincinnati skyline was.  It seemed bigger and more filled out than the last time I was there, and given how long it had been, it most likely was!

We got off the interstate early and drove through Covington, where my aunt and uncle used to live.  The old shotgun houses still lined the streets (at least the ones we drove on), but it appeared many of them had lost their back yards to growth.  I was too busy gawking and talking about memories of visiting Uncle Johnny and Aunt Bobbie Jean, playing in their yard, and walking down to the corner market for candy in what, for me, was the big city.  Covington was the largest city I had ever been allowed to navigate on my own!  Sure, I'd been to bigger cities, like Lexington and Cincinnati, but I was always with a parent or other adult in those places.  I felt very adventurous every time we went to Covington! Since the shotgun houses were the biggest part of my memory, Covington still looked the same as the last time I saw it, probably when I was 10 or so, when my aunt and uncle moved back to Mt. Olivet.

Once we got to Covington, I remembered the Singing Bridge.  I always loved to cross it.  The driving surface is made of corrugated steel, and it "sings" as cars drive over it, causing vibrations in various tones.  Unlike the Singling Highway in New Mexico, the Singing Bridge doesn't play any particular tune.  Instead, the different tones are determined by the vehicle that is driving over any particular spot.  I my memory, you could not get from Covington to Cincinnati without going over the Singing Bridge. The bridge we crossed on didn't sing, though.  Apparently, there are more bridges available to get from Covington to Cincinnati.  Checking out Google tells me they have been there a long time, too.  Daddy just always took the Singing Bridge, apparently.

When we got to the Ohio side of the Ohio River, the biggest thing I noticed was how CLEAN Cincinnati was!  The two things I remember most about Cincinnati were the huge buildings and the garbage that was always being picked at by the pigeons.  It was empty, too!  The Skyline Chili we chose was on the corner of 7th and Vine.  When we walked down Vine Street, Mom always made me hold her hand, telling me how dangerous the area was.  I didn't see any empty lots with broken glass in them.  The area was all well groomed and fully developed.  There were even murals painted.  

When we parked, we learned that not only was it Memorial Day, but also the last day of the Taste of Cincinnati, which was happening closer to the riverfront.  Because of that, parking was by the day, not by the hour, so it was pretty expensive.  I had gone on Skyline's website, not just Google, to make sure they were open since it was Memorial Day.  The website did not say they were closed on memorial day.  So, we paid $20 to park before turning to look at Skyline Chili on the corner.  It was dark.  Okay, maybe heavily tinted windows.  Nope.  When we walked across the street, there was a big sign that said "Closed for Memorial Day".

 

So, with tears in our eyes, we set off into the sunlight in search of another place to have Skyline Chili.  (I know it's not Thanksgiving, but a little Arlo Guthrie seems appropriate here!)  We tried a couple more locations, and they were closed, too.  I came to the realization that I wasn't going to get my Skyline Chili.  Sure, there were some Gold Stars open, but they just aren't Skyline.  By the time we gave up, we were out of town, and neither Skyline nor Gold Star were options.  So, I settled for some chili spaghetti from Frisch's.  Notice the 3 little beans and the lack of onions or that glorious halo of cheddar cheese!  It was a poor substitute.  

When we got to Chicago, it was all about food again.  Chicago deep dish pizza this time.  After getting several recommendations on the best deep dish, we let geography make the final decision.  Our hotel was closest to a Lou Malnati's pizza parlour, so that's the one we tried.  It was AMAZING!  They let you know that it will take about 45 minutes to cook.  We got the classic and added some vegetables.  This was my first deep dish pizza.  I had had pan pizzas and pizzas made with heaping toppings.  I've had New York foldable, thin crust, and many things in between.  Chicago deep dish from Lou Malnati's takes it hands down.  It's so full of toppings, that I couldn't pick it up and had to use a knife and fork.  As you would think.  It's very filling, and we took half of it with us.  It fit nicely in the cooler.  We hoped cold deep dish would taste as good for lunch after the aquarium.

After a good night's sleep, I awoke to foot pain.  Not enough to require the boot or any other devices, but enough that I knew I didn't want to walk around a large aquarium.  So, we decided to let the Shedd wait until we come back to Chicago.  We want to do the whole Route 66, so we'll have to come back.  We got in the car and headed on toward home.

It was a mostly uneventful drive with beautiful, sprawling pasturelands and fields.   I had planned the Shedd Aquarium, so I didn't have any other stops planned for the day.

As we drove through the Wisconsin countryside, we decided we must sample the cheese.  We just happened to be close to the Mousehouse Cheesehaus, so we had to stop.  The shop was adorable and had all kinds of cheeses.  On the other side of the shop was fudge and a deli.  We walked out with 15-year aged cheddar cheese and six pieces of fudge.  They were added to the cooler, though, because we had pizza to eat for lunch, and it was just as good cold as it was hot!

When we stopped for gas in Minnesota, we found this huge prairie chicken!  

Then it was on to North Dakota and the challenge of finding things to do in the state to warrant one trip through it.

Travelin' Again

Finally, COVID is over, healthcare has adjusted to the ability to care for COVID patients and those with other illnesses or injuries, and vaccines have been developed.  Other than trips that were necessary and didn't include many stops or sightseeing, we chose to stay home.  But, vaxxed and boosted, we were ready to see some new sights as well as revisiting a few.

We took off from Biloxi, Mississippi, and headed to my high school reunion in the major city (hah!) of Mt. Olivet, Kentucky.  Mt. Olivet is one of the  smallest incorporated towns in the state in both area and population.  It is less than one square mile in area and consistently has less than 300 total population.  It is the county seat of Robertson County, the smallest county in the state.  

Robertson County's most notable feature is that it is home to Blue Licks State Park. They also have an awesome covered bridge over Johnson Creek.

The county maintains one school, which houses kindergarten through 12th grade.  While I was there, the school was in a building donated by the Deming family and aptly called Deming.  When I graduated, my classes were in most of the top two floors where Deming High School was housed.   A new school building opened in January 2013.  Thus was the end of Deming High School.   The building burned down in July 2013 from arson.  The new school is called Robertson County School

I pulled this photo from Facebook.  I don't know who to credit.

Mine was one of the largest graduating classes in the history of the school.  There was a discussion about whether we were the largest graduating class or just the largest starting class. We had a whopping 13 attend the reunion.  We had to count, but we finally determined that we graduated 33.  Unfortunately, a significant number of our initial 33 are no longer with us, having lost one to COVID last year.  This is a screen grab of the graduating class from an online copy of our yearbook, taken in front of the school.

We are still a bunch of hooligans!

 

After the reunion, Bruce drove me around the area to see how things had changed.  The new school is just like most other schools.  Nothing unique about the architecture.  The old school was razed and replaced with a Family Dollar.  

There was a fence around the elevated corner in the middle of town (in front of the post office) so kids can't sit on the corner like we used to.  (If you look closely, you may find this guy on the yearbook photo.  He and I were voted "most unique" in our graduating class!)  I  also pulled this photo from Facebook and don't know who to credit.

I took this picture from in front of the bank, facing the other direction.  Same corner in the center of town.

The old buildings that were once so stately had been neglected and were falling down, many of them with people still living in them.  Over half of the population lives under the poverty line.  Family farms don't pay like they used to when my grandfather was a farmer, and there is no other industry in the county.  My first job in high school was as a part time receptionist at a real estate office on the first floor in this building.  Because of the sun direction, I wasn't able to get a good shot of the interior.  The ceiling was falling down along with the insulation above it.  I'm sure the building wasn't safe to enter, though nothing was posted on it.  It hadn't yet fallen down like many of the buildings along Main Street.

The house I grew up in had been well cared for, with new-ish siding and a garage added on.  The absence of all the window air conditioners we had growing up makes me believe there is central heat and air inside now, too, but I didn't look for a unit.

They apparently put new doors on the barn by the street.  Those doors were falling off when we lived there.  We kept the horses in the barn in back and that barn didn't get used much.  The outdoor ring between the barn and the house is now lush grass.

The indoor ring was still looking good.  I couldn't tell what it was used for.  I didn't do much snooping. Even though I graduated with the guy who owns the place now, they didn't appear to be home, and I hadn't asked to traipse around his property.

After checking out the changes in Mt. Olivet, we headed to Cynthiana, where I lived before we moved to Mt. Olivet.  On the way there, we went past my grandparents' farm.  The house had burned down long ago.  I barely recognized it and wouldn't have if the semi-circular driveway and the old barn on the hill weren't still there.  I wasn't sure I had the right place until we passed and I recognized some of the other landmarks. 

The first house I remember living in still looked the same.  I didn't get photos.   The first farm Daddy bought wasn't even recognizable.  I wasn't sure it was the same place until I recognized the neighbor's house from across the road.  I learned later that the house had burned down. 

The roller skating rink we always went to was still there, still in the same building, and still going by the same name - Charley's Roller Rink.  Inside, it was still the same, too.  Only the faces had changed.  In the back, there was a little space sectioned off, which was where Pepsi (the owner) allowed people to smoke.  The rink is now smoke free, and that has a pool table in it.  They even still hang the pom-poms from the same place on the ceiling!  When I went in, there was a birthday party going on, so there are no pictures that include people.

By the time we got back to town, it was supper time.  There really weren't many places to eat out in Mt. Olivet or Cynthiana, and since Granny Mitchell's in Mt. Olivet and Pine Villa in Cynthiana are both closed down and long gone, the only option for comfort food from childhood was Biancke's.  We had eaten at Jerry's in Paris the night we got in.  This is not pronounced as you would think.  This is Kentucky, where things are pronounced as they are spelled.  In this area, there is a town called Buena Vista (pronounced Byuna Vista) and Versailles (pronounced Ver-sails) and Biancke's (pronounced Bye-Aink-eez).  Even though they pronounce the name funny, they do still make an excellent Kentucky Hot Brown.

By the time we finished eating, it was getting dark, so we headed back to Paris (Kentucky) where the closest place to stay was.  I took a picture of the Kentucky version of the Eiffel Tower before we headed to our Airbnb.