Finishing Devil's Lake

 6-5-2021 - Saturday

We saw this pretty yellow headed bird yesterday but couldn't get the camera out in time.  This morning, I saw another one right in front of the RV, so I got a nice picture.  When Joe got up, he googled "bird with yellow head and black body," and it immediately came up with "yellow-headed blackbird."  The last time we googled a bird (the magpie), we had to provide color, body shape, size, etc.  This one was quick - it's the only black bird with a yellow head in existence.  More on this later.

About 10:00, we started into town for breakfast and to begin the rest of our loop drive around Devil's Lake.  And I got my picture of the resort just down the road with it's cute sign.  I actually thought it was a bait shop, but it was a resort instead.  There's a fisherman right in front of the resort sign.

 But we forgot the binoculars and had to go back by the RV, so we did the drive backwards, from the east.  That little round-trip to town took 15 miles, but the drive around the lake was long.  The road isn't always close to the lake, and the lake goes on forever.  Along the way, Joe stopped at a couple of fields to check out the crops.  The first he determined to be some kind of bean, maybe Great Northern?  Across the road, he thinks that's a grain, maybe barley, oats, could be wheat.  They really should put signs on the fields for inquiring minds like Joe.

Next was a small gathering of one-room schoolhouses that had been relocated to this place.  They had the dates on the front, 1888, 1914, 1898, and there was a cabin beside them that Joe figured was where the teacher lived.

My grandparents lived in a one-room schoolhouse east of Princeton, right at the edge of what is now Toyota's property.  I only remember it divided into 3 rooms, but I don't know at what point the dividers were built. 

We see a lot of grain elevators in this part of the country, usually at big farms or ranches, but sometimes in towns.  Here, the elevators were almost larger than the little town.

Next on our agenda was Fort Totten and Sullys Hill National Game Preserve, called the White Horse Hill.  We drove to the parking lot of the Fort, which served American Indian policy from 1867 and 1873 as a military outpost, but for most of its history it served as a boarding school for Indian children.  There were several buildings, maybe 12-15, but it was 95 degrees, so we skipped the walking tour, and drove on to the Game Preserve.  

There were supposed to be elk, bison, prairie dogs, lots of birds.  We did see a buffalo at one overlook, which is always exciting to us.  And prairie dogs again.  Joe introduced Theo to his eastern cousins.  The elusive elk remain elusive.

Prairie dog village.

This momma looks like she has some nursing babies.

Ahh, our buffs!

This preserve is in one of the few forests in this area.  There was a sign about that too.  It says that "few forests occur in North Dakota due to regular cycles of drought and prairie fires."  (You should be able to click on any photo to enlarge it.)

What was disappointing here is that it was only about a 5-mile drive.  We even drove it twice, trying to figure out if we missed a road somewhere.  There was an overlook that might have been interesting, but it had 193 steps! And it was 95 degrees! The heat reminded us that we don't want to come home until October.

We did see a second buffalo on our second time around, so it was worth something.  They had a nice visitor center, and exhibits of the animals in the area.  They even had one of that jack rabbit we saw last week.

And our yellow-headed blackbird.  So we got that right!

We did get a nice view of part of the lake from the jeep.  It goes on forever, with lots of fingers and bays.

Next, I finally got to go to the casino.  We got there about 5 minutes before 3:00, and their buffet opened at 3:00, so we got right in line.  Prime rib, chicken, fish, ribs, etc.  For $8.00.  We played for about an hour and a half, then we went back to the RV.  Joe was ready for a rest (those casinos wear him out).  But an hour later, he decided we needed to drive back in town to go to Grahams Island State Park, which we had skipped last night.  This is where he made the reservations for July instead of June.  That too was disappointing.  The state park part was not much more than a campground, with a swim beach.  No side roads to drive.  But we did see 2 deer, more white pelicans, lots of ducks and geese, and some pheasants (8 female, 1 male).  The deer were almost red in color.  We had seen 2 deer crossing a field on our morning drive.  Today was a free fishing day for residents (no fishing license required), but we didn't see anything about non-residents.  I understand it was Arizona's free fishing day too.  We did see lots of boats out, and lots of people lined along the banks fishing.  

On our final trip through town, we spotted this snowmobile.  Now this is the kind I would need.  I bet it even has a heater!

We drove just about 200 miles today.  Our little evening trek was 55 miles!  But we got back to camp and started getting ready to leave tomorrow morning.  We should leave North Dakota tomorrow and be somewhere in Minnesota.  After today's heat, tomorrow's forecast here is a high of 77, and windy.  Yeah.

Arriving Devil's Lake

 6/4/2021 - Friday

We de-camped this morning and headed for Devil's Lake.  We had kicked around the idea of heading to International Falls, Minnesota, but there didn't seem to be enough to do there to justify the extra miles, since we can't cross the border.  Joe made reservations at Devil's Lake on-line about 11:00 last night, then he went to bed.  After I finally finished working on my blog for the last 2 days and posting it, with Cathy's help,  I checked my phone. I saw we had confirmation of his reservation.  However, the dates were July 4-6 instead of June 4-6.  So I called (it's midnight now), and got a message that they would be with me  in a few minutes, so I kept waiting.  By now, Joe has gotten back out of bed, for moral support I guess.  I almost hung up once, but he told me to wait a little longer.  Finally, I got a person and cancelled his reservation, but they had nothing available for this weekend.  We will get charged some kind of cancellation fee, not sure how much, but at least we got that straightened out.  But no reservations for tonight.  So when I got up this morning, I started calling and found a spot.

 We were on the road at 8:45, stopped in Rolla for a very good breakfast.  When we came into one town, Rolla I think,  there was another sign about free COVID shots in the middle of the street.  I didn't get a picture, but I saw another similar-looking sign, so this time I was ready.  I got my picture, but it turned out to be a sign for a rummage sale.  But you get the idea.

Farmers are getting in the fields now.  In the afternoons, we usually see equipment just parked in the field.  Joe swears they all must quit working at 3:30.  But we moved over to meet this big tractor this morning.

We saw ducks, and white pelicans again, and some more of the white sand/salt.  Never did stop to check it out.   I even saw one pelican in flight, and could see the black on his wings.   

We arrived at the campground at 12:20, after spending 15-20 minutes working on the bugs on the windshield at the gas station right next door to the campground.  This campground is one where you go find a spot, then fill out the paperwork and put it in an envelope.  We could see from the gas station that there were no trees here, and it is 95 degrees. 

 I had also called the casino here this morning, which is about 7 miles from here, and they had a spot as well, but we decided to go with this other one.  But with the heat, and no trees, we were having second thoughts.  We found a spot (there were plenty), Joe got everything hooked up and started filling our water tank when I told him we had no electricity.  He unplugged and re-plugged the cord, but nothing.  He checked ours, then the others around us, and there was no electricity in this whole section.  By now, it's 99 degrees.  The people behind us had just gotten here this morning and were trying to clean theirs because they had sold it, but they couldn't get the power to come on, so the guy had gone to town and bought new fuses and a gfi.  She said they couldn't get the vacuum to work.  Joe asked if she was sure she had electricity, and she said yes, the radio was playing.  Joe said maybe it is running off the battery, which turned on the lightbulb for her, and she figured out she didn't have electricity either.  So we both called the RV office and left messages.  The lady there called us back in about 10 minutes and said there must be something wrong with the breaker because she had had one other call.  Her maintenance man (husband?) was on his way, would be here in about 20 minutes.  So we turned on the generator, and the A/C, and waited.  He arrived, he threw some breakers, but it didn't seem to make any difference.  But while he and Joe were standing there talking, it came on (may have been some kind of delay on it).  Anyway, he got us up and running, so all is good now.

Devil's Lake is a huge lake, just goes on and on.  The town of Devil's Lake is bigger than we expected, has a Walmart, McDonalds, Dairy Queen, etc.  After we recovered from the heat, even though it hadn't cooled down, we headed into town to drive around.  

The lake looks pretty shallow, but there were boats out on it so I don't know how deep it is.  There are also a lot of fisherman on the shore.  We saw one guy bring a fish in, couldn't tell what kind it is.

We drove the west side of the loop around the lake.  Part of it was like a causeway, with water on both sides (looked like Florida).  Along in here, we came upon a male and female pheasant again.

We had planned to go to the casino tonight for their buffet.  But when we got there, they had a car show going on, and some kind of event that people were sitting on the side of a hill, and they were forcing traffic into the lower parking lot, but the casino and restaurant was at the top of the hill.  Joe said he wasn't walking up the hill, so we gave up on that plan and headed back to town to Pizza Ranch.  We saw a lot of old cars around town, and parked at the hotel next door to Pizza Ranch.  If I'm lucky, we will try to go there tomorrow night.

It was 66 when I got up, but 95 when we got to the campground, then 99.  We only drove 121 miles today.  Joe is amazed at how good the roads are here in this north country (both highways and gravel roads), Arizona should take some lessons.  And with almost no traffic, it makes it a nice drive.  It rained during our evening drive and cooled things off a bit.  It's "only" supposed to be 93 tomorrow.  There is a wildlife refuge here than we plan to drive, as well as the east part of the lake loop.  That will probably be our last day in North Dakota.

Here's a moose thinking cool thoughts 😎

And be sure to see Aunt Wilma's latest post!

 

Minot

 6-3-2021 - Thursday

Today we did the western part of the Turtle Mountain Scenic Drive, which took us around Lake Metigoshe.  Pretty lake, lined with lots of lake homes.  For once, we stayed on the main road, so this little side trip didn't take long.  

Next up, we dumbed onto our next point of interest, "Mystical Horizons."  The sign on the highway just said Point of Interest.  We had seen this in a magazine and we could easily have missed it because we weren't really looking for it.  It's designated as the 21 Century Stonehenge.  Besides the stones, it has a sundial and a Polaris sighting tube, aimed at the North Star (unfortunately, Joe couldn't find it in the daylight).

We are still on Turtle Mountain here, and there is a nice view of the valley below from this spot.

Our next area of interest was the J. Clark Salyer National Wildlife Refuge.  We stopped at the Refuge's Office and Visitor Center, but it wasn't open.  They did have brochures available on the outside, so we got a map and started out.  It's a 22-mile auto tour Scenic Trail.  It's also a Grassland Trail and a Souris River Canoe Trail, but the water is so low here that it would be difficult to canoe. This is mostly a refuge for birds and waterfowl, and it a really marshy area with the Souris River running through it.  It is 58,700 acres and extends south from the Canadian border for approximately 45 miles.  We aren't really into birds and can identify very few, but we were hoping to see grouse or pheasant.  We didn't.  We did see a heron (we think), some turtles from the bridges, and a deer running across the field.

Heron?

Ducks

Baby turtles swimming

Bigger turtle

There are 6, I think, dams on this river.  We walked over to one, rough walking on these small boulders.  You can fish this river, but we didn't see any fishermen.

The dragon flies were out in full force this morning, and our windshield shows it.  We surely depleted their population.  As soon as we hit town, Joe was looking for a car wash.

We completed this drive and headed to Minot.  Collins was stationed here in 1968 at the Air Force base, and Minot, North Dakota occasionally comes up in conversations, so we thought we should check it out.  I imagine it has grown a lot since then.  We had a very good Mexican lunch at Paradiso's, shopped a little at Walmart, found a car wash again, and drove past the Air Force base on our way out of town.  

 

We had seen this building (church?) a block or so over, so we circled around to check it out.  It turned out to be a Visionary Terrace, maybe Scandinavian. And this other "statue" was right outside this building, I'm not at all sure what that represents.
 

We had seen a roadside decoration on our way this morning, and we happened to come back part of the same road and were able to get pictures.  I know my friend Barbara will want this for her front yard!

Just past this, but on the same property, were a moose and Sasquatch.

Our last item of interest on this Scenic Drive was Tommy the Turtle, this area's local mascot.  It is the world's largest snowmobile riding turtle at 26 feet tall (who knew?).

On the way back to the RV, we drove a little bit of the entrance of the Peace Gardens.  We could see progress was being made.

We got back to camp about 5:00, earlier than we expected, since we drove 275 miles today.  We thought we were going to get out of North Dakota tomorrow, but we decided to spend a couple days at Devil's Lake, so we have a short drive ahead of us (90 miles I think).  It was really hot here today (97), felt like Arizona.  I hope this heat wave doesn't last very long.