Another day, another road! The temperature is a lot cooler -made all the more chilly by a strong wind which is typical of the Great Plains – there is nothing to stop the wind as is whistles across the land. We are traversing the plains and the landscape is not as flat as I had expected, there are undulations, but all the same there is little to distinguish one mile from the next. After a couple hours along I-94 we come into Jamestown, one of the larger towns along the
Interstate. We pull off to find another our the roadside attractions on my list – this time the world’s largest buffalo which is sited on top of a hill next to the National Buffalo Museum. The site of the buffalo is a small mock up of a frontier town complete with stores, jails and stage coaches – unfortunately everything is closed so we snap a few
quick photos and head off. As we leave we see next door to the Buffalo Museum a food stand called the chuck wagon selling buffalo burgers – most incongruous. Our day of surprises is not yet over for as we go no more than 50 miles along the Interstate we happen upon yet another roadside oddity – this time a giant stork, “hidden” behind a bar- come- casino (not exactly Las Vegas style!!!)We set off onwards and eventually reach Bismarck ,the state capitol of North Dakota, crossing the Missouri River, the second of the great rivers of the USA we have reached. The land is flat and I would imagine very inhospitable in the winter months. The main highlight for us on this part of the journey is our first sighting of tumbleweed crossing the highway. We pull off to explore the town a bit more. Our first call is for a bit of lunch and we stop at a 50’s diner complete with juke boxes at the booths. After this we head into the town in search of interesting sights, in particular the State Capitol building. Unfortunately the official buildings are very modern and non-descript so we leave disappointed. From Bismarck we head north to 31 miles to Washburn and then onto the small village of Stanton. At this point we crisscross the boundary from central time and mountain time, in fact we chose to eat in Stanton’s only café which is mountain time and then fill up at the garage next door which is in central time! From Stanton we head 9 miles north and turn off onto a dirt road for another 4 miles or so. It is getting dark now but we can see in the gloom the outlines of bluffs and shadows of cows. We finally reach our destination, the Missouri River Lodge. This place is somewhere Lewis and Clarke write about in their journals!!!Our room is very pleasant with two large beds, with a large but dated bathroom. We settle down for the evening – what is nice that there is common sitting room with a fire place (albeit a gas fire) where we can escape from the sleeping children.
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