Arriving International Peace Garden

 6-1-2021 - Tuesday

We were up at 6:00 a.m. (unheard of in this RV), on the road by 7:00.  The construction workers were just starting their equipment as we left the campground.  Heading east, the sun was in our eyes immediately, but traffic was very light.  We drove 22 miles before we got passed by another vehicle.  We saw 4 pheasants, always exciting, a couple antelope and a couple deer.  If we had stayed on the interstate on yesterday's joyride, we would have come upon plenty of signs for the Enchanted Highway, including small versions of the sculptures, and exit sign information like this one.  I sure made that trip harder than it had to be.

We passed this semi with a sign on the back saying "long load," then he passed us.  I had never seen that kind of sign before.  And then, on the other side of the freeway, we saw a triple-hitch Fedex truck, heading west.  Not sights you see in Arizona.

 We saw flying geese, and a little goose family of mamma, pappa and 5 babies, waddling right along the highway.  This area is considered a flyway for lots of species of migratory birds. 

Five miles past where we turned around yesterday is this giant Holstein cow named Salem Sue in New Salem, North Dakota.  She is 38 ft. long, 50 ft. high, and weighs 12,0000 lbs.  She was built in 1974.  She is the world's largest Holstein cow sculpture.  I got a pretty good picture considering we were going down the highway 70 miles an hour, on a bit of a bumpy road, with the telephoto lens way out, and she was probably a mile away.

We finally stopped for breakfast just before Bismarck, and turned off the interstate onto hwy 3 about 11:25, 171 miles under our belt.  We lost an hour somewhere through here, so it was good that we got an early start.  We crossed the Mighty Missouri River, and they had road construction on the bridge, of course.  Actually, they were washing the bridge.

We went through a marshy area, and there were so many bugs hitting the windshield it sounded like rain pelting it.  Hwy 3 was just one small hill after another, and usually there was a pond between the hills. 

We went through Rugby, which is considered the geographical center of North America (the one in South Dakota was the geographical center of the United States).

 We saw some large white birds on the ponds, and Joe figured out they were swans, either trumpeter swans (that migrated through here) or tundra swans (local residents).  I could never get a picture, so we will try for that tomorrow.  It makes sense that this area is a flyway, with so many ponds and lakes, and so much food in the green fields.

I took a picture of the GPS, showing all the little blue dots (ponds or lakes) in the area.  It looks like Minnesota!

Along the beaches of the lakes, and in some cases, where the ponds had completely dried up, the ground was white.  We don't know if this is salt or sand, will try to check that out tomorrow as well.

This northern part of North Dakota is very sparsely populated, and part of it is Indian Reservation.  Towns are very small and few and far between.  The last town we go through, Dunseith, is about 12 miles from the Gardens.  They had a big sign in the middle of the road offering free COVID vaccinations to anyone over 12 years of age.  Our campground for the next 3 nights is inside the International Peace Gardens, right on the Canadian border.  In fact, we have to go through the Port of Entry to the U.S. every time we come out of the campground.  And the Border Crossing is right beside the campground entrance.  The girl that checked us in at the campground said that if we crossed the border, they would turn us around.

We expected the entrance to the Peace Garden to be flowery, and beautiful.  We were a bit disappointed.  Granted, we are pushing the season as far as things blooming, but this was certainly less than grand.  It looks like they have plowed the ground around the sign, so there are probably brighter days ahead, but we won't see them.

After we got our camp set up, and we took a little rest, we drove back to Dunseith for dinner.  I thought I saw a swan in a pond along the road, so Joe tried to find a way back to the lake.  His road deteriorated into this!  We never got close enough to see through the brush, so I don't know if that swan was down there or now.

The town of Dunseith is located at the base of Turtle Mountain (not a mountain), and they have a W'eel Turtle, a giant turtle sculpture built from discarded car wheels.

We went to the one restaurant they have, Dale's.  Well, that was a mistake.  It took 40 minutes for Joe to get his hamburger, and another 5 minutes for them to bring me mine.  No mustard, except honey mustard.  They had "hamburger (mashed)" as a sandwich item on the menu.  Joe asked our waitress (it was her first day) what that was, and she didn't know, but went back to the kitchen to ask.  The cooks didn't know what it was either, so Joe didn't order it.  Coward!  Guess I'll have to do some cooking here, because I don't think we want to go back there until they get their act together.

But then, then, Joe took me to the Sky Dancer Casino 9 miles away.  I hadn't been in a casino since before COVID, so I was excited.  It wasn't fancy, but better than the ones in South Dakota that were at gas stations or bars.  They took our temperature when we went in, and most of the players and all the workers were wearing masks. We wore our masks in.  We only stayed about an hour, Joe lost $20, and I won $18.  Not too bad. 

 On the way back to camp, I took this picture at 9:20 p.m.  Sunset is 9:35 tonight.

We didn't see any wildlife driving back tonight, although it seemed it was the right time.  We drove 328 miles in the RV today, reached our campground about 2:15, even with the time zone change and loss of an hour, so it was good we got that early start.  As I said, we are pushing the season here.  This is a pretty small campground, 36 campsites, but there are only 5 sites filled.  We will tour the Peace Gardens tomorrow, which we don't think will take all day, then probably find some scenic drives to take.  There seem to be plenty in the area.  And we are 2,090 miles from Brandon, Florida.