BigWeather's Blog

Woke up about 8a and ate the standard Holiday Inn Express breakfast with Michelle and Genetta.  Hitting the road at 10a we stopped by McDonalds drive-thru to get Addison a bite to eat and got gas — though truth be told that was just an excuse to de-bug the windshield.  The previous evening’s drive through the prairie had absolutely plastered the windshield with bug remains.  Leaving Fargo (as noted, less than 120,000 people but 15% of the state’s population) we were in the beautiful stretches of prairie that dominate the road to Bismarck in no time.  We saw some snow fences, designed to have snow drifts accumulate off the road so as to not block traffic.

About an hour or so in we stopped by Valley City to use the restroom.  This actually turned out great as the restroom was in the visitor center (shockingly open on July 4th) and it had a really nice (though small) museum.  Turns out that Valley City was an important rail hub in the late 1880s.  The museum focused not only on rail history in North Dakota (including a passenger car used as an office from the 1880s) but also farming in the area.  We learned a ton of neat things about railroads.  There are “ribbon rails” which can bend and are hauled onsite by up to 25 flatbed cars.  An upcoming stop is designated by a sign with a “W” on it, meaning “whistle” to alert traffic and pedestrians.  There was also a caboose in the parking lot.

As we were about to leave I asked about how far the High Line was from Valley City.  Turns out it was very close nearby so we set out to just north of town to see it.  The High Line is a very long railroad trestle built in the early 1900s that spanned the Sheyenne River.  It was so important that it has been guarded during every major conflict since — World War 1, World War 2, even the Gulf War and just after 9/11!  It was quite the sight, a steel behemoth astride a remarkable blue river snaking through the green prairie grass and riverside bushes.

Returning to the car we drove a couple more hours to Bismarck, passing cows, ponds, and lots of birds (white ones like egrets).  Bismarck was a nice small town (despite being the state capitol) but, it being a holiday, was virtually deserted downtown.  It was also hotter than Hell.  Furnace Hot.  We intended to go to the Blarney Stone Irish Pub but they didn’t have a separate dining area for under-21 so we had to leave.  Luckily there was an excellent restaurant nearby.  The Starving Rooster, named after a thresher made in (fairly) nearby Minot that was said to be so efficient that nothing was left for the roosters to eat, served great comfort food that hit the spot.  We started with an appetizer of cheese bread which wasn’t bad.  I had a prime rib stroganoff  bake, Addison bacon macaroni and cheese, Genetta a meat pizza called the Hercules, and Michelle a ham and cheese panini.

We left Bismarck at 3:30p and hit the road once again.  We had intended to go to Fort Abraham Lincoln just west of town, the fort that Custer lived at just prior to Little Big Horn.  There was a July 4th celebration nearby, it was incredibly hot, and we were later than I’d have liked so we passed.  With a 75 MPH speed limit we chewed the miles to the Enchanted Highway.  We had a brief rain shower but no tornado so that bucket list item remains.  Oh well.

The Enchanted Highway is a sequence of seven very large roadside sculptures scattered along a 25 mile stretch of road from I-94 south to the small town of Regent, North Dakota.  Those who know us know that we like metal yard art so this was quite the treat.  In fact, this was the primary reason we drove the extra 800 miles or so to western North Dakota rather than just seeing some stuff in Fargo and calling it a state.  I’m so glad we did!  The first sculpture looms over the highway, just to the north off of the exit, as a flock of geese in flight with hundreds of smaller geese sculptures lining the drive up to the main piece.  We decided during our drive to Regent to only stop at the pieces on the right (west) side of the road, catching the other side on the way back to the highway later.

Next was a piece depicting two deer, one jumping a fence.  It honestly didn’t do much for me.  After that, however, was my favorite — a series of immense grasshoppers and some tall metal grass sculptures.  The fourth piece was a family but I really didn’t care for it much (other than from a technical perspective, which was impressive).

Rolling into Regent we noticed there was an Enchanted Highway Gift Shop in a small building flanked by a silver metal tree (festooned with birds’ nests) and a large house whirligig with lots of moving parts.  Inside there were shirts, magnets (!!!), and lots of other things.  They also had miniature versions of the geese in the first sculpture that Michelle was seriously pondering.  I thought I recognized the gentleman behind the counter — turns out it was the artist.  We got into a conversation and he talked about his work, his plans for three more — a knight and dragon, spiders in a spider web, and a Native American — but his struggle to find farmers willing to sell the small parcel of land needed for each.  He invited us to see his progress  on the knight and dragon near the small Enchanted Castle motel (with faux medieval facade) he runs.  Finally, he asked what our favorites were.  It was really neat to talk with him and he even “signed” with a router underneath the wing of the goose yard art that Michelle bought.  We also donated $25 to his efforts in addition to the stuff we bought — we got at least that much enjoyment out of seeing his work!

Upon exit of the store we animated the whirligig with the push of a button and then drove the short distance to see the beginnings of the knight and dragon statue, basically most of the knight was done but lying on its back.

We then headed back north towards the highway to see the remaining three sculptures.  The first we came to was the outline of Teddy Roosevelt (best President) on top of a horse as well as a stage coach.  I liked TR but the stage coach wasn’t the coolest.  They may have worked better separately.  Next up was my second favorite, a small group of pheasants made of colored canvas covering wire frames.

Lastly there was a fairly elaborate fishing scene with fish below the surface, above the surface, river grasses, and a fisherman in a boat.  Also along the way we saw cows, sheep, a very bright yellow crop (that we’d later learn the identity of — stay tuned!), and pheasants.

The extreme southwestern corner of North Dakota is actually in Mountain Daylight Time which sort of caught us by surprise as I expected the boundary to be along the Montana border only about 30 miles away.  We arrived at our hotel in Dickinson, a Holiday Inn Express, about 6:30p and rested for an hour.  Unfortunately that rest cost us the opportunity to go to the adjacent Sanford’s Pub & Grub as it closed at 8p so we were forced to go to Arby’s.  It was… Arby’s.  Kids had chicken tenders, I had beef and cheddars, and Michelle had… Oh, heck, I can’t remember — it was Arby’s.  We were back to the hotel at 8:45p and spent a couple of hours watching fireworks on TV while I offloaded photos and typed up the daily summary for later bloggin’, heading to bed at 10:30p.