Minot to Bismarck

We said goodbye to our cozy studio in Devils Lake and headed to Minot.

Originally we had planned to head to Jamestown, North Dakota and stay in a pioneer tent. It was a large canvas tent on a raised wooden floor, with beds, a table and wooden chairs. BUT after our time at Lows Lake and the bugs, we decided maybe now (without flashlights and other camping gear) wasn’t the time to try a tent. So instead, we switched it up, and decided to head to Minot and visit the North Dakota State Fair, and then head to Bismarck for the night. We actually had to go to Bismarck because the State Fair is huge deal here and there were no hotel rooms for about 50 miles surrounding Minot.

We put Minot, North Dakota in the GPS and this is our direction… go straight for 118 miles and turn right. 🤣 We’ve had several travel days like this… go straight for a gabillion miles and then turn.

We had a little rain as we started torward Minot, but a big advantage to big sky is you can actually see the end of the storm clouds.

The drive today was beautiful with lots of old farming structures. We saw fields of yellow flowers that will eventually become canola oil.

As we were driving, we saw a sign for the Geographical Center of North America. Well yes, that sounds like something we would live to see! Here’s a little background we learned from a plaque: In January of 1931, a US Geographical Survey determined that this is the center of North America. It was moved across the street when the road expanded in July of 1971, so it’s technically slight off the exact center now but close enough for government work).

We passed a few more canola fields…

And then we made it to Minot. The North Dakota State Fair is BIG deal here. It wasn’t just cars waiting to get in to the fair.

State Fairs are awesome – they have something for everyone… Rides, animals, farm equipment, and fair food!

When we arrived, they were having a parade of, well, everything. There were big work trucks, farm equipment, and churches. It was pretty cool, especially with the older man and woman announcing the parade entrants. “Here’s a truck from Sam’s Concrete. Didn’t they do your driveway?”

Oh NO, the hover rounds have found Mike all the way in North Dakota!

When we couldn’t find Mike, Leo said “Mom, he’s looking at farm equipment. He loves that like I love sneakers.” LOL, he knows him well.

We ventured into the livestock area to see some of the cows, and of course the pigs. None were as cute as RockyNoel and ApolloSuzanne, but we loved the fact sheet. And we were all giggled at this lamb who did not want a haircut.

They must put something in the hay up here, because these were some of the biggest horses, I’ve ever seen! But they had some of the littlest ones too.

There aren’t many things I love more than fair food. The smells, the variety and just the all around celebrated unhealthiness of it. It’s just the best! We all got different items: Nachos, quesidillas, burgers, fries, corn dogs and friend pickles. All we deliciously fair food! And we loved this one, “All wrapped Up in Bacon” – although we didn’t order from them… we are bacon snobs now.

So now you don’t buy tickets for rides. you purchase “credits” on a Magic Money card that can be reloaded. Each ride and game scan your card, and these two fully enjoyed their credits!

We tried one ride, Back draft, and the spinning combined with up and down motion proved a little too much for this guy.

But after about 15 minutes and a big ol burp, he rallied and was ready to spend some more credits on game. Big surprise, we did not leave the fair with any prizes. But they had so much fun just playing.

Credits spent, we headed for ice cream and one more things we wanted to see… Daryl’s Racing Pigs! Oh my gosh, they were the cutest!

And we even won a prize for coming from the furthest place to see the racing pigs! Actually, we shared with another family from NC. We ended up talking to them afterward, the wife was from New Bern and married a guy from North Dakota. They were here visiting family.

As we waited for the races, to start they played music. As “Whomp, There It Is” came on, we got distracted by these three women. We decided that when your rap song is played at the North Dakota State Fair and 2 older women are singing and danced along, we can definitely say you have crossed all the boundaries of success!

Oh my word, these little piglets were too cute and so fast! Well at least some where. Others were perfectly content to just jog along.

We decided to finish our day with a couple of glasses of fresh lemonade, and then call it day.

We headed south to Bismarck. And no matter how many times we see wind turbines, I am always amazed by how huge they are.

We could see for miles and miles, and the view ws beautiful, especially as we passed over Lake Sakajawea.

We made it to Bismarck, checked into our latest Holiday Inn and let the boys head to the pool. Meanwhile, we headed to the laundry with a whole week’s worth of dirty clothes. $4.50 later, we are good to go for another week with clean laundry!

Clothes clean and energy out, we headed to dinner at a place recommended by the hotel, Charros & Tequila. Holy Moly! We have been all over the United States and we all agreed – this was some of the BEST Mexican food we have ever had… that is all except Michael who always likes to be a contrarian when we all agree on a best restaurant 😏 But seriously, the table side guacamole… Oh. My. Word.