A New Direction

I don’t remember a time when I was so looking forward to starting a new adventure. I couldn’t think of why until I realized we really had not been on a major trip for almost two years (last winter on Vancouver Island couldn’t count as an adventure – it was an escape). We were ready to leave Monday night but we managed to stall until dawn Tuesday morning.
The First Leg
We have often travelled the road to Shelby (Montana) but this time we turned left and headed off in a new direction. Highway 2 through eastern Montana is mile after mile of flat straight road where a curve or a hill becomes a major event. With no trees or buildings to break the wind, every gust slams against the Motorhome and it’s often tough to keep the rig on the right side of the narrow, shoulderless road. Small white crosses along the side of the road mark every highway death and train tracks shadow both sides of the road. There seems to be more trains on the tracks than vehicles on the road.

Occasionally a tree, house or outbuildings pop up off the edge of a stubble field. Mostly the buildings are abandoned and desolate with the sense that of whoever lived there didn’t care, moved away and left the buildings as monuments to better days gone by.

Towns and grain elevators erupt on the horizon. It seems like hours before you get to where you think they should be and they can still be miles away. For the most part, it takes less than a couple of minute to get from one end of a town to the other but each town has a ‘Bar an Grill’ – some operating and others boarded up. Churches like so many of the buildings around them are unkempt but still had a cross sitting above the big welcoming doorways but there is no one to welcome.
It surprised me how isolated and desolate this part of the State feels. I wonder what happened to all the people who considered those run down deserted houses their ‘cherished homes’. There must be hundreds of stories about how they got there, what they did there and why they left.
We didn’t get to North Dakota until our second day out and what a difference. The flat plains gradually changed to more rolling hills and there was a well maintained – four-lane divided highway except for a few miles just west of Minot, ND. The fields were lush with sunflowers and corn waiting to be harvested. The yards and houses showed signs of life, pride and caring.
Small towns doted the landscape and every town has something they are famous for. We passed one place that claimed it was the ‘Cattle Capital of North Dakota’ and then there was the sign about 5 miles outside of Rugby, ND that said we were at the geographical centre of North America. The most unexpected was the billboard sign for a Winery. I just never imagined a winery in North Dakota – who’d thunk it?! The rain had just started when we landed in Minot, so we settled in there for the night.
Next day destination?! Bemidji, Minnesota. If nothing else, I was totally fascinated by the name and wanted to find out more. As we travelled into Minnesota, we moved into ‘cottage country’ – the area that caters to cottagers and tourists – “land of a thousand lakes,” thick growth of trees, cottages, resorts, and the like – but we are outside the major tourist time and if places are not already closed down, they are getting ready. We spent the night in a park just north of the town and with considerable effort, I managed to persuade Fred to visit town the next morning.
The first OOPS! Damn, we missed the road into town – no place to turn around. To my chagrin and Fred’s usual ‘good nature and blue-air words’ we had to disconnect the car to get turned around. Being able to back up is a definite advantage of the fifth wheel over the Motorhome and car.

Depending upon who you talk to, Bemidji means either
‘where the rivers converge’ or it was named after the first friendly Native chief that the white man encountered.
Bemidji bears claim to Paul Bunyan and the Blue Ox (like so many other places) but it does have some interesting sculptures throughout the town
We spent so little time in Wisconsin I almost forgot we stopped there – but we did and managed to find an informative, well designed little historic and wildlife Interpretation Center just before we left the State.
The first leg culminated at Jan and Fred’s in Rapid River (Upper Michigan) – a couple we met in Las Cruses, New Mexico and traveled to Mexico with in 2002-3 I managed to get a great picture of the Two Freds very similar to the one we took 5 years ago – neat, eh?!

We spent a few days touring around with them. More to Come!!
Need to get this posted!!