Friday, 16 July 2021
Late yesterday we got a sudden heavy rain complete with thunder. I fed the puppies a CBD treat to help calm them down.
Then this morning heralded one of those days where I just have to grit my teeth and make it through. During the night, Gracie threw up on her bed, so I had to clean it up even before I got my coffee. I managed to spill part of the coffee, with milk in it of course, in the microwave and had to take it apart to clean it up. When I was picking up dog poop during our early walk, I got some it on my thumb, so I wore a poop bag on my hand to try to keep it isolated and then cleaned like crazy when we got back. My arm was hurting a lot during all of this, even after I took an extra dose of Tylenol, which usually helps at least a little. Pain is just very tiring.
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| today's route |
I only drove 215 miles today, but that's more than halfway across the state (340 miles from side to side), so I've had to enlarge the map more than usual so anything's even legible.
I'd been told North Dakota was mostly a tree-less prairie, but I can't say that's what I've found. There are many more trees than I expected, though I grant you that many of them were likely those planted to act as windbreaks. Still, it's a much prettier state than I'd thought.
As you can see, the majority of the drive was not far from the Canadian border, and I kept passing signs with arrows pointing north, saying thing like "Port of Entry 17 miles."
I also saw a sign with an arrow pointing toward "Pembina Gorge." Well, this land didn't look gorge-like to me, so I looked it up and am very sorry I didn't know about it ahead of time. It's designated a state recreation area and the state says, "With steep valley cliffs towering over small, isolated prairies and pocketed wetlands surrounded by the largest continuous, undisturbed forest in North Dakota, its stunning beauty is simply unmatched." I'm really sorry I missed it.
I saw many many canola fields along Hwy 5 - more than I've seen anywhere else. It occurred to me to wonder if bees like canola flowers, so I looked it up and learned that yes, yellow is one of their favorite colors and the canola flowers are perfectly shaped for bees. North Dakota claims to be #1 in the US for honey production, with 23% of the total for the country. I'm thinking now that these bees may be very important to some of the crops I've been passing. A brochure I got from the Welcome Center a couple of weeks ago says that many North Dakota beekeepers take their colonies south to California and Florida for the winter, where they're welcomed for pollinating fruit and nut trees.
I started seeing occasional crop fields with blue flowers but have no idea what they are. And I saw fields of some kind of grain that's green - definitely green - but again have no idea what kind of grain it is.
At Belcourt I came to the Turtle Mountain Reservation for the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa. I was here to visit the Heritage Center they have by the casino, and I'd called ahead a few days ago to be sure of the hours. However, apparently they operate a little more casually than they told me, because it wasn't open. I stayed there an hour and it never opened. I asked at the casino, and they told me that nobody knows what hours they keep at the Heritage Center. So the dogs and I walked around a bit and we all ate lunch.
But at the casino there were several statues I found impressive.
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These are 2 views of the same sculpture - I couldn't find any one place where I could pick up decent perspectives of all 3 of the critters (bird, buffalo, fish) depicted.
I was really sorry to miss the Heritage Center because I haven't found many places in the state where the Tribes themselves are doing the explaining about their culture.
Farther along the road I passed a field with about 50 cows all huddled closely together. They were in such a tight bunch, I had a hard time estimating their numbers. And I couldn't see any reason why they'd be like that.
I came to a fork in the road and went south, instead of going north to the International Peace Garden. I'd really wanted to visit there, but aside from costing a lot of money, it looked like I might run into a little trouble. My passport is expired and I didn't bring my birth certificate with me, so I have no proof of citizenship since a driver's license doesn't count.
As far as I could tell from what I read online in various places, the Peace Garden is regarded as belonging to neither the US nor Canada, and people can come in freely. But when I want to leave the garden and go back into the US, I'd need to prove my citizenship, which I can't do with what I have here. Rather than risk that kind of trouble, I decided to put it on the list of places to go when I can prove who I am. But aside from other reasons, I'm sorry to have to miss it because it's the product of the CCC.
Instead, I went south to the town of Rugby, the location of the Geographic Center of North America.
There was a sign nearby that wasn't easily legible, so I'll present its information here:
In January 1931, a US Geological Survey determined the center of North America in Pierce County. The center is marked with a monument or cairn that is pyramid form in shape. It is 21' high, 6' wide at its base, and setting [sic] on a heart-shaped foundation. It was built across the highway, northwest of its present location by [local folks, including the Boy Scouts] . . . of native fieldstone. The structure was moved to it's [sic] present location in July 1971 when Hwy 2 was four-laned.
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| the flags of all 3 countries on the North American continent |
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| Per the signpost: Acapulco, Mexico 2090 miles to the south Arctic Circle, Canada 1450 miles to the north Neah Bay, WA 1100 miles to the west Lubec, ME 1500 miles to the east |
I'm not sure why they picked those locations for the signpost because, as an example, almost anywhere in Alaska is farther west than Neah Bay, WA, and Alaska is on the North American continent, after all.
As you can see from these photos, Rugby is still in very flat territory. Scarcely a hill in sight.
All day long I drove through North Dakota agriculture - vast fields planted with a variety of crops, plus herds of cows and occasional bunches of horses.
Continuing down the road, I passed the small town of Towner (pop. 533), which proclaims itself to be the "Cattle Capital of North Dakota."
Farther along I came to the even smaller town of Granville (pop. 241), "Gateway to Nature." Which is a pretty broad statement, but then it's only 22 miles outside of Minot which, at about 41,000 residents, is the 4th largest city in the state. From such a metropolis as this, I suppose "Nature" might look a little different.
And finally I came to Minot, "The Magic City" it calls itself. The town's explanation for this nickname is as follows:
Minot came into existence in 1886, when Jim Hill's Great Northern Railroad ended its push through the state for the winter, after having trouble constructing a trestle across Gassman Coulee. A tent town sprung up over night, as if by magic, thus the city came to be known as the "Magic City."
I'd been having trouble all day with the wheels pulling strongly to the right, making it hard for me to keep it on the road. And since I effectively have only 1 usable arm, I assumed at least part of it was a strong southerly wind blowing against my left side most of the drive. But I couldn't help wondering if I had something wrong with my tires, so my first stop in town was a tire place I found online.
The nice guy there said he couldn't fit me in until late next week, which wasn't going to work since I was only there for the weekend. But he did take a look to see if the tires were wearing evenly and urged me to consider replacing 2 of my tires. Once he'd mentioned it, I could see for myself that the tread was way too far worn to be as safe as I prefer and they needed to be replaced. This guy suggested I get the new tires put on the front axle and put the tires there now on the left rear, in place of the worn ones. That would likely take care of any ordinary trouble, and I could then drive on them for a bit to see if there was still a problem. So I figure that's a chore I'll get done when I get back to Bismarck next week.
I went on to tonight's campground, Roughriders RV Resort, which surely takes its name from T. Roosevelt's Rough Riders. North Dakota in general, and western ND in particular, are very attached to the former president who spent a lot of time here before his presidency.
But from my present-day point of view, I'd say the name actually referred to how rough the camping conditions were at the campground. A "resort" it's not - unless in the context of - say - last resort. All the roads were dirt - not even gravel, the campsites were close together, they didn't give me the site they'd promised me off to the side but instead wanted to stick me smack in the middle of the campground (I convinced them that would be a mistake with my dogs, and they moved me), the laundry room was only available a few hours a day, not even a playground for the children. Strange place.
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