North dakota is full of wide plains, huge skies and lots..and lots.. of weather! The skies were grey when we left the hotel for the first stretch of our drive that took us West across the state. I was struck again, as I have been on previous occasions in new mexico and Montana, of hust how huge the skies are …when you have no hills or mountains to obstruct the view. We passed through large expanses of grassland, dotted here and there with small lakes as well as agricultural land.
The place names along this stretch of US 2 are decidedly Anglo-Centic – we passed through Leeds, York and Surrey before finally reaching Rugby for our first important sight of the day – The Geographical Centre of the North American Continent. Neil just loves these places, whether it’s a centre, or a northernmost point or east or west or whatever…if we’re within cooee of one , he just has to see it! Unfortunately, the weather had gone from bad to worse as we crossed the plains and it was so wet by the time we reached the momentous place we had to content ourselves with a quick snap out the window.
Yep, this is the middle of the continent..according to those that measure such things!
We drove through bucketing rain but the skies out on the plains in a storm are well worth seeing.
Luckily the rain held off a bit when we finally arrived in Minot ( rhymes with “Why-not”, a little town that grew rapidly when the Great Northern Railroad came through in 1887. It now hosts as huge festival in fall, the Norse Hostfest, Americas largest Scandinavian Festival. This area was a huge magnet for Scandinavian immigrants and they have left their mark, including a lovely Scandinavian Heritage Park. We stopped here and walked around the park under gloomy skies and a VERY chilly wind. There are statues of Hans Christian Andersen, Scandinavian skiers and that Viking wanderer,Leif Erickson. There is a gorgeous replica of the medieavla Gol Stave church from Oslo, Norway and a 25 foot tall Dala horse, symbolizing Minot’s swedish heritage
We popped into the visitor centre and enjoyed seeing reminders of our holiday last year, Icelandic and Finnish flags and trinkets. I sat down with a chap that reminded me of the Icelandic Yule Lads.
We drank our coffee and ate our picnic lunch in the car, it was way to cold to eat outside. Then as we turned south for the rest of the days drive the skies closed in and it got darker and darker. At 1pm in the afternoon it seemed more like dusk!
We crossed the enormous Lake Sakakawea , a man made lake created by a dam across the Missouri River, we crossed on a long causeway seperating lake Sakakawea on one side and Lake Audubon on the other. The wind was whipping the waves on the lakes.
We passed some big strip mines and a huge power plant.
A little further south we arrived in the town of Washburn on the Missouri river, near the site of Fort Mandan. This was a fort built by the Lewis and Clarke Expedition of Discovery as they saught a path from St Louis to the west coast of the USA. At Fort Mandan they met the Native American woman Sakagawea who, famously, guided them across the perilous Rocky mountains so that much of their succesful mission is attributed to her. We stopped at the excellent Lewis & Clark Interpretive Centre.
The weather was still pretty dreadful when we left the centre for our final 45 minute drive down to Bismarck, the capital city of North Dakota. With a bit of time to kill we dropped into a mall to see if we could improve on our holiday weekend sale shopping, but the pickings were slim here at the tail end of the long weekend. Driving back to the hotel we passed the North Dakota State Capitol Building. It breaks the mould for the usual classical state capitols – this one is called the “Skyscraper of the Plains”, and it’s certainly the tallest building in Bismarck. However, I think it’s a bit ordinary!
We checked in to the Staybridge Suites and drove a little way up the road to the local Red Lobster for dinner. We’d enjoyed tis restaurant chain in the past, their things is seafood – and lots of it!
