Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Wednesday, October 16

We woke up today in Fargo!  We hadn’t really made any plans for what to do here, so I did what I do and went in search on the internet for things to do in Fargo.  Right away something popped up that looked interesting and unique and after reading the description to Kath we decided to go for it.  It is a “Murder Mystery Detective Experience” call “Motive for Murder”.  Sounds interesting, doesn't it?  We thought so.  You download an app on your phone which provides you with a map of locations where you go to gather clues as to who committed the murder.  Two maps are provided: one for walking and one for driving.  What a great way to get to know the town!!  We opted for the walking option, even though it is supposed to be windy here today (which is quite common if you listen to the locals) with a high of 67, but the wind makes if feel about 10 degrees cooler.  There is audio on the app, too, where I think clues are provided.  It could end up being silly, but what the heck, it sounds like fun. We also decided to continue our tradition of doing an Escape Room on our trips and booked an Escape Room adventure, too!  Gone are the days, it appears (probably because of COVID), where you join people you don’t know for an Escape Room.  All of the rooms/bookings are private.  The minimum number of people “required” for the one we chose, “Museum of Terror”, is three so, after Kathi called, we were told we could do it with two, but had to pay as if our party was three.  We really love our escape rooms, so we went ahead and booked it. We’ll see how we do in solving both the murder mystery and the escape room.

Before leaving for the Escape Room we went out the back door of our Airbnb to the “Art and Learning” store that is just across a parking lot from us. Our Airbnb host owns the store and works there and it seemed like it would have been a shame not to go over and introduce ourselves. So we went and chatted with him for a bit and browsed the store which is an art supply store as well as what I think would best be described as a teacher resource store.  Then it was near 1 o’clock and our escape room appointment was for 1:30 so we left and made our way to Puzzled Escape Rooms.  The door was locked when we arrived so we had to ring the bell a couple of times before someone came and let us in.  We were escorted into our room, where the woman told us the basic rules of an escape room as well as how to go about asking for clues.  Once she left the room, the hunt was on for clues!  Unfortunately, we once again, as so many times before, failed to solve all of the puzzles within the allotted one hour, but we were pretty darn close and we had a lot of fun trying.  The goal was to figure out enough clues to find the keys to five locks to keep Dracula from coming back to life. We found four of them and were only a couple of clues away from finding the key for the final one. Considering the room was created to be challenging for larger groups, we are pretty dang proud of ourselves.  I highly recommend trying an escape room if you have never done one.  It is a great way to spend an hour and test your problem-solving skills.

Next on our agenda was the Murder Mystery Detective Experience!!  First, however, we stopped at a nearby Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up, and we stopped at the house because I couldn’t remember if I had taken my morning meds and I wanted to check before we got any further into the day.  Turned out I had, indeed, taken my meds so all was well.  Next we stopped at the post office so I could mail out postcards to my grandkids.  Kathi wanted to get a mailing envelope to mail the postcard and the car bingo card she got for her granddaughter, Amara.  Once those tasks were accomplished, we mapped our way to the YMCA which was the starting point for our detective adventure.

This was fun although I think people around us must have wondered what in the heck we were doing.  We followed a map to different locations around downtown Fargo where we would stop and listen to the recorded “interviews” with witnesses and suspects.  We were also asked at each location to answer some question about the location. Questions about number of windows and doors or spotting certain characteristics of buildings that would help determine where the victim or the suspect was in “fuzzy” video obtained to help in the investigation.  In all we walked about 2.5 miles around town and it took us a little over 2 1/2 hours to stop at all the locations and listen to all the interviews and in the end, we were SUCCESSFUL in identifying the murderer!!  Kathi took selfies of us at each location to show that we truly were following all the clues.  We were very proud of ourselves for solving the mystery.

Once back “home”, we did most of our packing since my train leaves at 4:13am and I need to be at the train station by 3:30 so I can check my bag.  Crazy, right?  My hope is to try and catch some sleep on the train once I board, but I didn’t have much luck sleeping on the way here, so I’m not really hopeful!!  Kathi plans on coming back to the house because, heck, checkout time isn’t until 11am so she can take her time loading all her stuff into the car before starting the drive back to Indianapolis!

As always, we are sorry to see Girls Weekend come to an end but, as always, we had a wonderful time and feel blessed that we are able to take these getaways together and spend time in one another’s company.  We always feel refreshed after these adventures.

Until next year, blessings to you all and do your best to enjoy every day.

Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

(Addendum from Lori: there are NO photos from today because all we did was drive across the entire state of North Dakota, from west to east and the most interesting things we did were not photo-worthy!! So, instead, I will add a sunset photo from a previous day just to add some eye candy!)

Kathi here. Despite the VERY late night watching Mare of Easttown, which is rivetingly wonderful, we were up at our normal 7:30 this morning.

Today is moving day. Lori’s train leaves Fargo at 4am Thursday, which is really the middle of the night on Wednesday if you ask me, so we thought we’d spend a full day in Fargo to see what there is to see. We usually don’t travel on GW until much later on the last day so that we have at least a little time on our travel day to do something in the morning. I have clearly informed Lori that the next time she travels by train, if she has to leave this early it needs to be on Friday, NOT Thursday.

Checkout time for the Belfield Airbnb was not until noon, so we enjoyed a few hours couching and writing and gaming and chatting, but then it was time to pack up and get out. We had purchased enough food for the entire trip, so I focused on kitchen duty, getting it nice and clean and gathering everything we were taking with us on the kitchen table, while Lori packed up her bags. Then we switched and Lori took over packing up the kitchen stuff and loading it into the car while I packed. We are extremely efficient and productive as partners, and by 11:45am mountain time the place was clean, linens stacked by the washer, all trash bagged and placed in the outside bin, and we were loaded up and pulling out of the driveway.

The drive from Belfield to Fargo is almost 4 ½ hours (which is why we did this today and not in the middle of the night on Wednesday/Thursday). With fond memories of Salem Sue and the Enchanted Highway on our trip out to Belfield floating through our minds, we toyed with the idea of stopping at the Bismarck Zoo on the way to Fargo, but decided against it since we lose an hour on this trip and darkness seems to come rather early here.

The speed limit here is 75mph, and since I’m a rule breaker at heart, I locked the cruise control on 80 and we zipped through the plains. I-94 is as straight as an arrow from end-to-end in this state, and I was tempted to do 85, but as Lori mentioned yesterday, we have literally seen only three other Black people here—not surprising since Black people make up only 3.2% of the population. Although I’m sure North Dakota has some wonderful and kind state police officers who wouldn’t dream of dragging a Black woman out of her car for no good reason, the statistics here are not in my favor. According to https://policescorecard.org/nd, despite representing only 3.2% of the population, Black people account for 13% of people arrested and 19% of those killed by ND police. They kill more unarmed people per arrest than 96% of states, and as of 2021, there were NO Black, Latino, Native American, Asian, or Pacific Islander members of the police forces. So yeah – 80 mph is good. That’s just a little insight into the mind of any Black person traveling on the roads, and the reason why my husband was not at all at ease with my choice to do this drive alone. We are ALWAYS thinking like this. Don’t believe anyone who tells you differently.

The wind here is a factor that has to be accounted for AT ALL TIMES. I have often wanted to burst into a chorus of Oklahoma on this trip. The number of syllables even fits. “Nooooooooooorth Da Ko Ta where the wind comes sweeping down the plains…” On this drive it was very apparent. I started noticing that the car swerved whenever I went through an overpass and realized that the wind was coming so hard from the south that I was automatically counterbalancing it to the degree that when it was blocked even for a second, my pressure on the steering wheel would send the car swerving to the right. Four and a half hours on the road isn’t really that long, but between the straight-as-an-arrow path with no diversity at all and the constant wind factor, it was somewhat exhausting. We stopped for gas about an hour from Belfield, and then for ice cream in Bismarck, after which Lori took a little snooze, but when she woke up she started a game of jeopardy. That was fun and distracting and helped a lot. However, I was very glad to see we were approaching west Fargo, where out Airbnb was located.

We arrived safely, and easily found our way to the “quaint little house” as our Airbnb was accurately described on the website, arriving at about 5:45 central time. We usually have good luck with our Airbnb choices (Maine is a glaring exception for those of you who may recall that adventure) and this one is also great. It’s an old house with character and is quite comfy with a nice large kitchen and living area. We alerted the host that we had arrived and moved everything in. We took inventory of what we might still need over the next not-quite-two days which mostly involved items to be able to make ourselves sandwiches for our trips home. I ran to the cute little grocery only 1 ½ blocks away while Lori made dinner (tonight it was chicken breast with dill and thyme, green beans, and couscous). We settled in to watch more of Mare of Easttown with our dinner. We got through 1 ½ episodes when I caught Lori snoozing again, so I declared it bedtime.

Girls Weekend days are great days even when all we do is move from one place to another!

Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Monday, October 14, 2024

Monday, October 14

Another slow start to the day.  We were both up by 7:30 and worked on finishing up our respective journal entries.  We usually take turns every other day because this journaling thing is a bit intensive and takes a lot of thought, time and effort so we share in creating them.  We had some yogurt and bacon for breakfast.  Our intention for the day is to return to the South Unit of the park, which is only about 30 minutes away and stop and do little short hikes at various stopping points along the scenic drive.

Once we both are dressed and ready for the day, we hop in the car and head towards the Park Entrance, which is in Medora.  Believe it or not, we get distracted while driving through Medora by one of the small shops there that we just saw a woman enter and thought was open, so we parked to go in.  Kathi has been saying that she wants a new pair of pajama pants with animals on them.  At one time she had a couple of pair that she remembers buying at a National Park visitor center/gift shop, but we thought she might be able to find a pair at one of the gift shops here in town.  When we went to enter the shop we found that the door was locked.  The woman inside came to the door and told us the shop was closed but she said we could come in and browse if we wanted to.  She was the owner of the shop and was there to do a little bit of work.  We found no animal print pajama pants but we did find some nice warm sweat pants that say “North Dakota” down one leg and both decided that we could use a pair of these.  This shop, called “The Hitching Post” is pretty big and has a fairly large assortment of souvenir type items.  While browsing, I came across some Car Bingo cards.  Oh my gosh!!  I remember playing this in the car with my brother whenever we traveled long distances in the car but I have not seen any in ages!  I bought some for the grandkids.  Beckett is old enough to to play, but Margo and Theo aren’t quite there yet, but it won’t be long.  I got one version that was for state license plates, and one version that was just spotting common things on the road (interstate signs, trucks, that kind of thing).  Kathi decided to get one for Amara, too. After having luck at this shop and having NOT explored Medora we decided to drive around the cute little town and see what else we might find.  There were a couple of other shops open and I bought Margo and Theo each a pair of pajamas in one and we found an open coffee shop where I got a chocolate- chocolate chip muffin and we each got a cup of coffee.  The K-cup coffee in the Airbnb is absolutely dreadful so this coffee was quite a treat!

Medora truly is a cute little town that looks like it would be a great place to bring a family in the summer months.  Along with the Medora Musical, for which the town is famous, there is a great-looking park with climbing structures that are labeled like an old western town.  There’s a “bank” and a “jail” along with a “stagecoach” and “train engine”.  It looks like a park that kids would LOVE!  There is also a community pool that is a lazy river pool and is modeled after the Little Missouri River, which is the river that runs through Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  If my kids were still little, I would be tempted to bring them here for a vacation!

Having explored just about everything that was open in town, we entered the park and stepped into the visitor center.  When we were here on Saturday, we arrived late in the day and were not able to watch the movie that they run every thirty minutes, so we watched it today.  We learned what a forward-thinking person Teddy Roosevelt was in regards to protecting and saving the environment and natural resources.  He was born in Manhattan, but fell in love with the Dakota territory when he made a trip there to hunt bison.  He became a cattle rancher near Medora and would shuttle back and forth between the ranch and his home in New York.

While waiting for the next showtime we wandered the exhibit about Roosevelt’s life that is also in the visitor center.  I had left my coffee in the car and decided to go back out and get it before it got cold and on my way out to the car, I spotted a Black man that was buying an entrance ticket to the park and I ran back to let Kathi know.  The reason I mention this is because we often keep count of how many persons of color we see when we are on these trips.  Many times, Kathi is the only one.  This man was  only the third Black person spotted on this trip.  The first two were at the car wash we went through on Friday.

After watching the movie, we went back to the car to make the drive through the park.  We didn’t make it all the way to the end of the scenic drive when here on Saturday, so that was our goal today.  I had read this morning that once at the end, that it was possible to hike to the Old East Entrance to the park and we decided that we would do that, then stop for other small hikes as we made our way back out of the park.  

Once again we were blessed with seeing lots of wildlife.  In the distance I spotted a herd of pronghorn antelope, then later we rounded the corner and off to the side of the road was a pretty large herd of bison (Kathi counted 48!).  We sat and watched them for a while because they are such fascinating creatures.  A couple of them were sparring.  It didn’t look too serious but they were at it for a while.  We also saw a number of mule deer along the way.

We reached the end of the road, parked and made the walk through a large prairie dog town to the Old East Entrance where a bit of fence and the guard building still sit.  The prairie dogs barked and chirped at us the entire way and they ran around and dove into their holes. Fortunately that was as aggressive as they got.  They really are pretty cute little critters! 

We then walked back to the car and had a sort of picnic in the car and realized that we were losing daylight fairly quickly.  This meant no short little hikes on the way out, but we did have another beautiful sunset.

We made our way back to Belfield with a stop for gas since tomorrow we travel to Fargo for the remainder of the trip.  My train leaves from there at 4am Thursday morning, so we decided to make that drive a couple of days early rather than driving through the night and explore Fargo a bit.

Once back in our home away from home, we settled in to watch the last available episode of “Murder in a Small Town”, which, while better than “The Regime”, it is still just kind of “meh”.  We were still pretty wide awake and searched for another show to watch and we decided on “Mare of Easttown”, which also stars Kate Winslet.  This show proved to be a winner for us and we stayed up until around 2am watching the first 3 episodes!!  Knowing we had to pack and make the 4 1/2 drive across the state tomorrow, we called it a night and went to bed.

GW North Dakota. Sunday, Oct 13, 2024

Kathi here. We were up around eight again this morning and launched into the GW routine. We made a breakfast of bacon and eggs and added English muffins. Yummy! We watched the temperature all morning, because it started out at 31° today, and we did not want to hike in 31°. Not that we would have left the house early anyway since we’re making up for last year, but still. Eventually we deemed it warm enough to venture out, so we got showered and dressed, headed out of the house around 1:30pm, and arrived at today's destination around 2:30pm. But that was really 3:30 because by the time we got there, we had crossed the timeline again and were back to central time.

Today we are exploring the North Unit of Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which is about an hour north of where we're staying. It is much smaller than the South Unit and possesses a slightly different topography. The Little Missouri River runs entirely through this section of the park. It also runs through the South Unit but seems to be more constantly visible here. There are no wild horses here like there were in the South Unit, but there are bighorn sheep along with bison, prairie dogs, cows, and also Longhorn steer. Our goal was to hopefully see them all.

We had NO trouble sighting bison, and probably saw probably around 30 of them in all different types of situations including walking along the side of the road, crossing the road in front of us, and out in the grassland areas. We spotted them singly, in pairs, and in one field, a full herd that included a baby! I think the bison baby looked slightly like a less-slippery, furrier hippo baby crossed with a fat, hump-shouldered goat baby.

Another delight that Lori spotted as we were driving along was a little sharp-tailed grouse (thank you, Google) trekking along the side of the road. I had already passed her (the grouse) but did a U-turn to go back and find her. We slow-stalked her for a good 20 minutes trying to get a good photo; it was tricky because that girl was quick and moving at a constant clip.

Rather than a full loop road like the in the South Unit (although part of it was closed so we weren't able to go all the way around and instead had to turn around and come back out the same route) this north unit has one long road that goes from one end to the other, then you have to come back out the same way. On the drive out we stopped several times to either admire the stupendous views or take photos of wildlife.

At the end of the road, we parked for a while and decided to stretch our legs with a walk on a nice, easy trail through some grasslands. The wind was quite tame today, the skies were clear and blue with some wispy clouds, and we couldn’t ask for better weather.

This walk was indeed somewhat gentler than the one in the Painted Canyon that had surprised us yesterday, but the trail was really a pretty narrow track weaving through the grasslands. It was also a really sneaky but steady uphill climb that you really don’t notice until you do. One of the main features of this particular trail, however, was the preponderance of bison poop.

There was soooooo much bison poop!!! It seemed as if the bison who wandered through there were actually aiming for the trail. “Hmmm, I’m thinking I might need to take a dump soon, and I’m surrounded by all this wonderful grass and brush. I should just . . . NO! Look, a trail! I shall poop right there in the middle of that trail, and I will tell all my friends to do the same.” Keeping in mind that the trail was not much wider than a thick tire track, we had to be vigilant about where we placed our feet. We eventually developed a system, and whichever of us was leading would holler out "bison poop!" to warn the person in the rear of the imminent danger. This level of vigilance was exhausting, especially with the slow sneaky uphill slant that had us panting a bit. Once we were ¾ of the way through the trail we called it good and turned back. We’re just grateful none of the huge beasts was in the midst of doing his business as we rounded a corner.

Once we were safely (and bison poop-free, we are proud to say) in the car for the drive back out of the park we started praying to see the two main animals we hadn't seen yet: Longhorn steer and bighorn sheep. Lori, the avid naturalist, is sharp-eyed and always spotted the wildlife before I did. This would have been true even if I were not the driver. With only about two miles to go to the entrance gate she told me to stop. She had spotted a herd of Longhorn steer!

After getting some great photos we continued on, but alas, our quest for a bighorn sheep sighting was fruitless. Because of the hour-long drive home, we didn’t stay for the sunset.

We enjoyed leftovers and snacks for dinner, then settled in to do some journaling and photo editing, and then watched another episode of Murder in a Small Town. They were still in a small town and there was a murder, so there is absolutely no false advertising going on there. We turned in around 11, happy and satisfied at the end of another great day.

Girls Weekend 2024, North Dakota. Saturday, October 12

 We have been in no hurry this year to get up early and   get out the door for our daily adventures. Last year we   had a LOT on our agenda and most involved early   mornings, so we decided that this year would be a bit   slower-paced and more relaxed. True to that goal, we g   got up around 8ish or so. The first thing we did was t   toss the states and they ALL went face down but one, l   leaving us with next year’s destination. ALASKA! We   talked a little bit about where to go in Alaska and I   suggested Homer, which is supposed to be a charming place to visit with lots of art, artists, shops and restaurants. We will give this more thought and make a decision later. The rest of the morning was spent playing word games (mostly me), catching up on work e-mails and work-related things (Kathi….I am mostly retired at this point!) We had decided the night before that today we would visit the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site near Medora as well as Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We learned of the Chateau from a woman who sat next to us at the “Ring of Fire” show we went to on Thursday evening and thought it sounded like something that we would enjoy. We had some English muffins and yogurt for breakfast and eventually got ready for our day. We left the house around noon and drove toward Medora (which is about 30 minutes away). We stopped at the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Painted Canyon Visitor Center first and decided that we would walk the nature trail. Now, when I see “nature trail”, I think short, relatively flat trail that showcases the natural elements of the area. All of these things were true of this trail except for the flat part. This trail, while just over a mile in length, dropped down nearly to the floor of the canyon!

It is a beautiful trail and provides great views of the surrounding badlands and takes you through juniper and other vegetation particular to the area, but it was just a bit more strenuous than I was expecting! After finishing the trail and taking a bathroom break at the visitor’s center and some photos at the National Park sign, we moved on to the Chateau de Mores State Historic Site. The site includes the home of the Marquis de Mores who arrived in the area in 1883 and founded the town of Medora, which he named after his wife. The Marquis was a French aristocrat with an entrepreneurial spirit who moved here with hopes of finding a fortune in the cattle industry. He wasn’t really successful in this endeavor and the North Dakota winters proved to be far too cold for him and his family and they only spent 3 summers in the home before moving on. It is an interesting place to visit with a fascinating history and Kathi and I were the only ones touring the home. We had a great guide, Carter, who had fairly recently moved to this area to study history and take the job here. He was quite knowledgeable about the family and their life in North Dakota. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit. Should you be interested in learning more about the Marquis you can do so here: https://www.history.nd.gov/historicsites/chateau/index.html 

Next we went to the main (and ONLY) entrance into the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt NP.  A couple of interesting things to note about this park. One, there is a North Unit and a South Unit and they are 68 miles apart and not at all connected to one another. Secondly, the North Unit operates under Central Time, while the South Unit operates under Mountain Time. Confusing, right? Anyway, after stopping in the visitor center to pick up a park map, we went out the back door to tour Teddy’s cozy little hunting cabin, the Maltese Cross Cabin.

The cabin has quite a history itself, having traveled around the country. “During Roosevelt's presidency, the cabin was acquired for the 1904 World's Fair, hosted in St. Louis, MO. The cabin traveled from Missouri to Portland, OR for the Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition. It would spend time in Fargo, ND before settling on the grounds of the state capital in Bismarck, ND. The Daughters of the American Revolution eventually took over the care of the cabin, and acquired many of the items you can see today. In 1959, twelve years after the park was established, the Maltese Cross Cabin came to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Restored to its original state, you can walk in Roosevelt's footsteps by touring the cabin behind the South Unit Visitor Center.” (https://www.nps.gov/places/maltese-cross-cabin) Once we left the cabin, the Park Ranger came and locked it up. Apparently it was closing time for the Visitor’s Center (4:30). 

We went back to the car and were looking over the park map and trying to decide if we still have the energy to do the 38 mile scenic drive this evening or tomorrow. We originally planned to walk several of the small trails that shoot off from the overlook sites on the drive, but were both a bit tired from our earlier hike and had talked ourselves into coming back to the park tomorrow. On our way out, Kathi had a question about what part of the scenic drive was closed and a couple of the park rangers were in the parking lot talking, so we rolled down the window and asked about the closed portion of the drive. Then the ranger went on to tell us that we would be making the drive at a great time to see wildlife and also recommended a couple of good places to watch the sunset. This conversation made our decision for us and we turned onto the road into the park to make the scenic drive. Almost immediately, a mule deer (I think that’s what it was, anyway), crossed the road in front of use and we knew that we had made the right decision.

Next we came upon one of prairie dog towns (there are several in the park) and sat and watched the cute little critters run around for a while. We drove on and I spotted some bison in the distance. We stopped and I gave Kathi my camera to snap a few pics since they were on her side of the car. Not long after we came across some of the wild horses that live in the park. Boy, the ranger was right!

Late afternoon, early evening appears to be a great time to see wildlife!! After getting some photos of the wild horses we hit the road again, only to be brought to a halt while some bison crossed the road right in front of us! What magnificent creatures!
But I would never want to make one mad. We drove a little further and the scenic route and made note of the places the ranger said would be great spots to watch sunset. We turned around before we got to the end so that we could get a spot to watch the sunset. And what a beautiful sunset it was. We were both so very glad that we decided to stay in the park and make this drive today.

The only complaint I have is that the temperature dropped quite a bit and it was COLD outside of the car taking sunset photos!

But, it was worth it. Once we got back to our home away from home, Kathi made dinner (Turkey Shwarma in Lettuce leaves), while I worked on the Thursday journal and looked for a new show for us to watch since we agreed that “The Regime” was just at little bit too out there for our taste. I chose “Murder in a Small Town”, a Canadian show about, well about murder in a small Canadian town. We both liked it and will continue watching it. I could barely keep my eyes open at this point so went bed, while Kathi stayed up a bit longer to work on something, then she went to bed, too. Tomorrow we will travel to another time zone and visit the North Unit of the park.

Girls Weekend 2024, North Dakota. Friday, October 11

Friday, October 11, 2024

After a great night's sleep for both of us, we enjoyed a gloriously typical GW morning. We had not yet tossed the states because we were just too stinkin’ tired to do them last night. So we decided that was how we would start our day. There are only 13 states total left! In case you need an accounting of why that is/how this works, let me remind you (or tell you for the first time for any new folks).

Our first trip was in 1998. We both had small children and felt like we couldn’t be gone too long, but Lori and I really wanted to get away together because since we live so far apart, we never got to see each other. We had no idea where we wanted to go, but we needed it to be relatively inexpensive. We started brainstorming and decided that neither of us had been to Minneapolis but would like to. Enter Joey Babay (see GW travelogue from yesterday), whom I had met about 15 years before through a friend; all of us were doing the amusement park show circuit in different theme parks and we visited each other to support. Joey and I had kept somewhat in touch and I knew he had moved to Minneapolis. We were certainly not bosom buddies, but we were theatre people and therefore both impulsive and fearless. So I called him and asked if we could stay with him for a long weekend, from Thursday night to Monday morning. He said “sure!” and that was that. Lori and I flew in from our respective cities, met at the airport where Joey had left his car for us to use (that is another story – you’d have to read the GW from 1998! or Lori’s Girls Weekend Blog https://girlsweekendmemories.blogspot.com), drove to his house to wait for him to get home from work. We proceeded to have the BEST. TIME. EVER. Joey was working as a tour guide and knew his city like no one else. He was a fantastic host and we were two tired Mommies who needed this trip desperately. Halfway through the weekend, Lori and I made a pact that we would do this every year and would let nothing stop us from doing so. The pact morphed into a mission to visit every single state and Washington DC, which leads us to now, and GW #27!

So . . . where was I? Oh yes – tossing the states. 50 states and DC to start = 51; minus Indiana and Oregon because we counted those two as done from the beginning, so that’s 49. We have strict rules about doubling and checking off two states in one trip, but have managed to successfully accomplish that 7 times, and even tripled in 2022. So that’s 14 + 3 and now we’re at 49-17 which is 32. This is trip #27. So 27 minus the 8 multi-state trips = 19 single state trips. Gotta subtract those single states now, so 32-19, which is 13! Did you follow the math? The wooden puzzle pieces representing those 13 states went into a bowl. I tossed them into the air, and they slammed onto the hardwood and scattered everywhere! The states landing face up were Texas, Alaska, Colorado, Georgia, Nebraska. I want next year to be Texas (‘cos of my friend Paula's place), and Lori wants Georgia because she has wanted to go to Savannah for a long time. Of course, our desires do not matter in the slightest. I just like to note our preferences only to prove the puzzle's power over us!

 

After tossing the states we enjoyed a typical hangout morning- hallelujah! We exhausted ourselves last year ripping and racing all over Charleston. We had a great time, but all those early mornings with little chill out time took a toll. So this morning we luxuriated in enjoying our coffee, eating breakfast when we wanted (I made bacon, Lori made her yummy cheesy eggs), and surrounded ourselves with all our devices doing puzzles, catching up on news, journalling, and in my case, slogging through a few emails and doing a bit of work on a project I want to move forward even on vacation. Don’t judge me!

Eventually we got dressed and left to go to the grocery store around 1:00 PM in Dickinson, which is about 30 minutes away and is the closest town with a grocery! They actually have three, but one of them is a Walmart. Lori has been boycotting Walmart for over 20 years. She used to work for them as a pharmacist, but their insurance wouldn’t cover her son’s special food, which he literally needed to be able to live and thrive. So, she quit and will only go there if it’s her only chance to eat. We ended up at Family Fare grocery. Soon after walking in it was clear that something strange was going on. We walked through produce and as soon as we reached the deli area only cleared cooler counters and shelves greeted us. We asked the woman wiping down all the deli coolers what was going on and she told us that in the middle of the night the majority of the refrigerated coolers in the store had  gone out.  The staff had been there all morning clearing and throwing out almost all of their refrigerated items—all meat, cheese, milk, yogurt, you name it. They even threw out the coffee creamers and that crap isn’t even real food. It could survive anything, but out it went. The freezers were OK for some reason, and two to three coolers that were on another system. Miraculously, those two coolers had most cold items we needed and we able to purchase everything except for half-and-half and bacon. We felt so bad for that store and their poor employees, who were working like crazy.

I keep thermal shopping bags in my car, so we put everything in the trunk and went to find somewhere to take a nice walk. Courtesy of all trails, we found and enjoyed a lovely trail at Patterson Lake in Dickinson. It was a gorgeous day, although the wind was whipping a bit which definitely put a chill in the air. The lake trail was beautifully maintained, and included a park with lots of trees, a frisbee golf course, and at least two outdoor workout stations. I decided to do a quick 10 minutes on the elliptical machine.

Yesterday, on our way back from the Enchanted Highway, we had driven down a 15-mile unpaved country road rather than going directly back to I-94. My car had become absolutely filthy with caked-on dust and dirt, and I was hyper-focused on finding a car wash. The first one we tried was closed. On the way to find a different one, we saw another grocery store and stopped to purchase the last two items that we were missing. We finally found an open and pretty good car wash and were able to get the car relatively clean.

We aimed the newly clean(ish) car back toward the Airbnb, where we put away the groceries and settled into our evening routine . . . which remarkably resembles our morning one! Lori made a delicious Hello Fresh dinner (she had redirected her weekly order to come to us here, leaving her husband back in Oregon in a happy heavenly cloud of fast food binging). After dinner we decided we’d watch some TV. We like to start a show neither of us has seen and binge it throughout GW. I had just seen a great interview with Kate Winslet, whom I love, and had also just gone to see her in the movie Lee, which is out now, and is fabulous! Make sure you see it. Anyway, she apparently also has a new miniseries called The Regime. I told Lori that was gonna be our show, and I was excited. I mean, Kate Winslet stars in it – what else do you need? As it turns out, a lot. You need a lot of things, but mostly, you need an understandable plot. This was one of the most bizarre things ever seen on television. It did star Kate Winslet, and she is amazing, but that was not enough to convince us to watch anymore of the series. It’s ridiculous. So at 10:30, we opted to go to bed. Stupid show.

Girls Weekend 2024 North Dakota

Fargo Train Station 4am

 Thursday, October 10 2024

 My phone was buzzing with text messages from   Amtrak most of Monday evening and throughout   the night letting me know that due to “trespasser   activity” on the tracks in California, my train would   be delayed the next day. By the time I woke up   Tuesday morning, the message was that the train   would be delayed by more than 4 hours. This   delay  would mean missing my connection in   Portland, so I let my husband Tom know that   instead of me starting in Salem he was going to   have to take me to Union Station in Portland to   begin my trip to North Dakota for this years’ Girls   Weekend trip, Yes, you read that correctly, I am   taking the train to Fargo, North Dakota for Girls   Weekend, and Kathi is driving! So we each started   this year’s trip a little early.

 

I set out on Tuesday, while Kathi set out on Wednesday. Tom drove me up to the train station in Portland, where I boarded the Amtrak Empire Builder at 4:45pm for the 30+ hour train ride to Fargo. Kathi began her journey to Fargo early on Wednesday morning. When she saw that the route would take her through Minneapolis, she gave her friend Joey Babay a call to let him know she would be coming through and to see if he could meet for a bit. Joey is a VIP in the world of this tradition. He was our host on our VERY FIRST Girls Weekend trip back in 1998, so this was a sweet visit with many happy memories. Kathi face-timed me while she was with Joey so I could participate a bit in the reunion, too. It was a great little walk down Memory Lane for all. Afterwards, Kathi traveled on to Fergus Falls, Minnesota where she checked into an Airbnb to get 4-5 hours of sleep before making her way to Fargo for the 4 am pickup at the train station.

 

Kathi picked me up at the Fargo train station at 4am, Thursday morning for the OFFICIAL start of Girls Weekend 2024, North Dakota. (By the way “trespasser activity” on the tracks means a person is on the tracks and of course, the train is unable to stop, leading to unfortunate consequences. On this particular night there were TWO of these incidents).

 

We chose to travel to our destination this year by these means rather than flying because, well, there is no major airport in North Dakota and the airfare for both of use was outrageous! But nothing can stop Girls Weekend, so we both chose alternate means of travel. I traveled to Fargo on the train because that is the only train station in North Dakota that was actually on Kathi’s path to our ultimate destination of Belfield a (very) small town near Medora (which was our original intended destination for this trip) and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The train station nearest Belfield was two hours north of the highway Kathi was traveling on and would have been a major detour for her, so I decided to take the train to Fargo, then travel back west in the car with Kathi. So we went from the east side of North Dakota, to the west side, which is about a 4 1/2 hour trip. Had we driven straight through we would have arrived in Belfield at about 8:30am. However, check in at our Airbnb was 3pm, so we decided to look for things to do along the way.

 

I had actually found a website that listed places to see/things to do between Fargo and Medora. We first stopped just outside of Bismarck for gas and not long after I spotted one of the “must see” landmarks that appeared on the above-mentioned list. This was “Salem Sue”, the World’s Largest Holstein Cow, which stands on a hilltop along I-94 and can be seen for miles around. You can read about Salem Sue here, http://www.newsalem-nd.com/salem-sue.html. She seems to be a very well-loved and much celebrated monument in North Dakota. 

After visiting Sue, we stopped at a gas station for a bathroom break and a few snack items. Kathi was also on the hunt for a magnetic key holder for the spare key to her car in case she ever locked the keys in the car, so we asked about the nearest auto parts store. Amazingly enough there was one in New Salem, the small nearby town AND it was open, so we went and were rewarded with them having it in stock!

 

Before leaving the auto parts store we sat in the parking lot for a while so Kathi could participate in an interview with an Indianapolis radio station regarding her work with the Komen Tissue Bank. She also messaged our Airbnb host to see if it would be possible for us to check into the place early. The response was that it depended on when the previous occupants left. So then, Kathi asked if there was anything for us to do in Belfield to kill time before we could check in. The response was short and sweet, “no”. HAHAHAHAHAHA!! Always ones to make the best of things, we knew we could find SOMETHING to occupy us, so we hit the road again.

 

We hadn’t traveled much further when we spied a large sculpture off the interstate that looked like a giant eye. I was pretty sure that this was part of another item on the “must see” list, the Enchanted Highway, so we pulled off to check it out. Sure enough, this was indeed the first sculpture to be found on the 32 mile stretch of road between the I-94 and the small town of Regent named the Enchanted Highway.

 

The Enchanted Highway is a collection of the world's largest scrap metal sculptures constructed at intervals along a 32-mile stretch of a two-lane highway in the southwestern part of the U.S. state of North Dakota (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enchanted_Highway). These are charming and amazing structures that were the brainchild of Gary Greff, who wanted to create a tribute to small towns in America. He had no previous experience as an artist but created these sculptures out of scrap metal that he welded into these unusual works of art. This stretch of road is definitely worth visiting if you are anywhere near this part of North Dakota. 

The Enchanted Highway shoots off to the south, directly perpendicular to I-94. The string of sculptures lead to Regent where there is a gift shop, museum, and The Enchanted Castle, which is a combination hotel/steakhouse/tavern. We were hoping to have lunch there, but unfortunately the steakhouse is only open for dinner. The gift shop and museum were also closed so we weren’t able to visit those, either. The only place that appeared to be open in Regent was a combination gas station/grill that had lots of animal heads mounted on the walls. We were quite hungry by this time, so we ordered up a couple of cheeseburgers. Kathi had fries and I ordered fried cauliflower. The food was all quite delicious (!!), and we felt ready to hit the road once again.

 

By now we had managed to kill enough time with our detours and were able to check in to our Airbnb when arrived in Belfield at 2:30pm. We were very pleasantly surprised to find this to be quite a charming and roomy place. I, who had slept very little on my 30+ hour train ride, could barely keep my eyes open by this time, so I lay down on the bed and took a two-hour nap, while Kathi hung out in the living room and did Kathi things. I had set an alarm for 5pm because we had tickets for a show in the small theater in Medora called Ring of Fire. The show was about Johnny Cash and was a musical that included many of his songs. The cast was very talented. and each and every one of them could not only sing but could also play multiple instruments! It made for an enjoyable evening. Afterwards we stepped outside and looked toward the Northern skies in hopes of seeing the Aurora Borealis, which is currently very active and said to be visible this far south. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see anything.

 

We returned to the Airbnb and both of us went to bed pretty much right away and were both asleep pretty quickly. It was a long day, but, as usual, one that we thoroughly enjoyed!