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!