Let the Distractions Begin!

Thought I was kidding about the bug guts?

I woke up bright and early in my Fargo campground.  I was surprised at how quickly I fell asleep and how deeply I did sleep. I woke up around 6:30am and was on the road shortly thereafter.  I didn't realize the night before that the campground was right along the Red River and with that came a big mosquito issue.  They were everywhere!  I hustled to use the bathroom and get dressed, and hit the road.  First stop, however, was going to be at the gas station to tank up and clean the windshield.

Having made it all the way to North Dakota on my first half day felt very good as that afforded me the luxury of giving into my wanderlust of distractions.  I knew I had camp reservations at Teddy Roosevelt National Park and that getting there by nightfall would be a breeze, so I let TOOTS (my Garmin GPS navigation) help me feed my need to go off the beaten path.

I must admit that initially, my thoughts turned to "I wonder what little cute vintage bowling alleys do they have here?" but after realizing they were even further apart and WAY away from I90, my desire to see bowling lanes quickly diminished.   But I did see that a search on TOOTS for historical parks & museums brought up the Knife River Indian Villages Nat'l Historic Site.

Hidatsa Indian Earth Lodge

Given my interest in the Native Americans and their culture, this was a place I was willing to venture off course to go check out.  It did not disappoint!  The visitor center featured some archeological artifacts from the Indian Villages along the Upper Missouri and Knife Rivers.  On the park grounds an earth lodge has been built by the park service, to replicate how families lived there for centuries, and as late as the 1840's.

With it being near midday, I decided to fix my lunch and enjoy the song birds singing on the prairie.  The winds were warm, but it was a very nice way to spend an afternoon taking it all in.

Back on the road, I again checked out TOOTS to see what bowling centers might be around.   As it turned out, I was going to be going right through the town of Beulah, ND where Molco Bowling Lanes were.  I say "were" because when I arrived, there was a big "FOR SALE" sign on the lot and a note on the front door providing a phone number for bowlers to call to get their personal items out from inside the center.  Sad!

Next stop on my tour of distractions was the Enchanted Highway.  This was not a surprise along my route, as I had read about these behemoth metal sculptures east of Dickinson on Trip Advisor.  Thank God they didn't have those annoying "Trip Advisor Award of Distinction" billboards along the route, as I would have probably decided they were too touristy for me.

Gary Greff is a retired schoolteacher and the artist behind the 32-mile stretch of road that branches of I94 that has seven of the completed sculptures adorning the vast prairie grassland.  I made it a point to stop at each of the seven and take photos from a variety of angles and perspectives.  My favorite was "Fisherman's Dream" which Greff completed in 2007.  His plan is to add three more pieces to the stretch of road between Regent and Gladstone.

Being well south of where I needed to be, I figured heading up through Dickinson and having dinner there would be a good game plan.  I had picked up a Restaurant.com dining certificate for the Dakota Cafe which I assumed would probably be a truck stop diner.  I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Once again, as I was driving the backroads I checked in with TOOTS to see about bowling centers.  To my amazement, she found "Bowling Alley Camp" in New England, ND.  What a strange name; one worthy of looking into just to see what it was.  When I pulled up to the address, I saw a large sign that read CAFE.  No mention of bowling, no little bowling pins or balls . . . just CAFE.

I parked and went inside, not really knowing what to expect.  A nice lady and a somewhat younger man greeted me with big "HELLO's" and smiles.  I asked if they had bowling lanes and she quickly responded "Well yes, but they aren't open for bowling now."  That led to a 15 minute conversation about how she and her husband had bought the cafe and while they knew about the lanes, hadn't really had time to get them fixed up for bowling since buying the place last November.

She was nice enough to take me back to their little six lanes of storage to see what they had.  She proudly told me "those are real maple lanes, not those synthetics!"  She allowed me to rummage around the ball rack and showed me their huge 22 gallon trashcan of rental shoes.  They asked if I wanted to roll a few frames, but I took a pass.  I did snap some photos though, as I knew I would have to share THIS experience with my friend Eric from Nebraska.  If you are out and about in North Dakota, I would encourage you to stop in Dollyn's Cafe!