I’m a little late writing this post so can only hit the high points. I have found that writing the blog when we are only staying a night or two in a place is hard—not enough time in the day. We stay pretty busy wanting to explore each town or city we stop in.
After leaving Minnesota and the beautiful lake, we headed back West (that wasn’t in the plans) and stayed a few nights in Grand Forks. Grand Forks AFB campground was a bit challenging for camping; the hookups for the site were way in the back of the site so we had tried two different sites before finally settling in. Grand Forks was a short 2 night stay on our way back to Minot. So day one was most relaxing at the campsite and of course visiting the commissary.
On Sunday, it was a beautiful day to explore the area and visit some wineries…who didn’t figure that was coming!! We drove south on some back roads through corn fields and wheat fields and who knows what fields—it would be nice if they labeled their crops for us “driver-byers”. There was a code on one of the crops and when I looked it up, I found out it was genetically modified. And not a protester in sight!!
Well we finally arrived at the address of the 4e Winery and it was like driving up to someone’s house for Sunday brunch. But it truly was a hidden gem. Lisa was our hostess and she was divine. She treated everyone there like they were the only guests to her home for a sip of wine. She was very knowledgeable about the wines and told us how she came to ND (her husband teaches chemistry at University of ND) and how their hobby became their job. Her husband worked both at the university, and did the wine making in his off time. She worked full time in the winery. It was a casual, relaxed place where you could just sit and sip. No rush. We hate having to stand at the bar while the person pours wine after wine. We purchased a few bottles of her white wine for later and as we were walking out the door, she gave us some home grown zucchini and yellow squash to take with us. Free food—we were all over that!! Cooked it up that night for dinner and it was delish!!
We also wanted to make sure to drive back through Fargo, not far from the winery. You have to say Fargo, ND—been there!! Curt watches Fargo on TV, and he said that the town was much bigger than it looks on the show. I’ve never seen the show, so I have no comment here, it was a little big town with all the essentials, and we just drove on through. The return trip we decided to take I29 back toward Grand Forks, we had enough of the back roads, and even the highway was a boring ride.
After this we headed back to the campground for a quiet dinner, where I already mentioned we ate some of the fresh zucchini and squash with our meal.
The next day we were on the road again and headed to Minot and on the way to Minot, we passed right through the “Geographic Center of North America” in Rugby, ND. Photo-Op!
The town erected a monument in 1931 saying they were the “the spot”. But, a bar owner in a town about 100 miles away recalculated and found his bar to be the center and has since copyrighted the term (the Town of Rugby’s copyright had expired when no one renewed it). Now the two are at odds and in the meantime another fellow has come along and said a completely different place called Center, ND (I kid you not) is the geographic center of North America…drama is everywhere. If you are interested you can read more about it at: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/science/north-america-geographical-center-north-dakota.html
Since the base was 17 miles outside of downtown Minot, we camped at a campground right in the city at Roughrider campground, nice staff, but not much grass for Daisy to lay in, mostly dirt and rock, but only 5 minutes to the shop. We were there on business, so wanted to make it convenient to get from the campground to the RV shop (we had to drop off the camper on Thursday at 0800—today was Tuesday August 1).
1 August was an important milestone—Day 1 of Retirement. It was a day of celebration, right?!?! To celebrate this grand day, we headed out to Roadhouse Steak House for some Flo’s Filets. Dinner was divine.
Wednesday was supposed to be a very rainy day—100% chance of rain. It would be the first rainy day we have seen in weeks. Our weather has been very pretty, sometimes hot, but mostly sunny with an occasional afternoon sprinkle, but nothing to complain about. The next morning after breakfast, we headed up to Minot AFB in the pouring down rain. We were headed to the base for a specific reason…it was Blue ID card day!!
So for the military folks out there, this is an emotional day. Being an AD Colonel has some privileges written and unwritten and I thought by giving up my CAC card and becoming “just another DAMN retired Colonel” as my friend Bill Moore would say, things would be changing. I guess we will find out. I entered the Customer Service area just ahead of 5 young active duty Airman. Curt quickly directed me to the sign in computer and I was able to get signed in before them…but…I signed in as “retired” needing ID card. Surely the AD in uniform would be called first?? We waited about 15 minutes and we were called back before the 2nd AD was called back. The gentleman who took care of us, was very nice and pleasant but in no big hurry. We were with him about 25 minutes. Granted he had to update the system with my retirement orders and make 2 ID cards. He and Curt talked about golfing—Minot has a golf course! But of course with the rain and tomorrow being booked, we would not be able to get out on the course. Getting the new ID card was emotional for me. My picture was taken, I approved, but when it printed out it looks like I’ve been baking on a beach for the past 2 months. But I guess I’ll fit right in when I get to Florida.
We next headed to the commissary to fill up our small little freezer with some commissary meats. One thing we found out from our last trip over the border, was food was very expensive and they have huge taxes on everything. So we stocked up on steak, chicken, and pork chops, as well as canned goods (we go through tomatoes and mushrooms pretty fast). Back home, I decided it was a good idea to rearrange the food storage. One thing with downsizing to a 29 foot camper, I gave up my pantry. Although there is plenty of inside storage, it is scattered and hard to organize (lots of little cabinets). But I did the best I could and we were ready to go celebrate the “Blue ID Card” day.
Where are we going you ask?? First guess wins the prize…wine bar. Yes, would you believe the little town of Minot has a pretty cool wine bar? I guess you have to have somewhere to go during those long cold winters. But with the bartender’s suggestion, we purchased a nice red blend wine and a charcuterie plate and bruschetta and talked about where we were going next. WE do a lot of that, what should we see next? We have been making our reservations just a few days to the same day and have been very lucky. It lets us be more flexible to go off the beaten trail to see something of interest. We are out to see all the road side attractions and tourist traps we can.
The next day we had to have the camper to the shop by 0800. We made this appointment at least 3 weeks ago for them to fix our slide out. Our original dealer found an issue during our yearly checkup, but had to order the part. By the time the part came in, they were unable to get us in before we were leaving. They gave us the part and told us to go to any dealer. When we checked in, we asked them to fix a few small things and the list started to get a little long—nothing too crazy but when you are living in it full time can become annoying. One item is our black tank (the one that holds the toilet waste) leaks when you drive. We purchased a temporary valve that we were using and it was working well, but we wanted it fixed. We asked him to fix our screen door which was misaligned and didn’t close properly and left a gap for bugs to come in. Then we asked him to fix a broken latch, then he said, wait a minute, you made this appointment for one thing, if you want this other stuff done you will have to make another appointment—WOW!! Where have you heard that before? Reminded me of healthcare…
Sorry says the doctor, “Only one problem per appointment”. What great customer service! So as a pediatric nurse practitioner, I have had to listen to patients/parents bring their laundry list of issues in, but I on the other hand would listen attentively and then assist them in prioritizing the biggest issues. It’s all in how you talk to your customer!! I felt belittled and irritated by his response and treatment. I had to walk out and let Curt handle the rest of the conversation.
Since it had rained yesterday, the temperatures were cooler it was 62 at 0830, so we treated ourselves to breakfast while Daisy stayed in the car. It was going to be a long day to find things to do that were dog friendly, but we didn’t do too badly.
After breakfast we headed over to a Farmers Market at Oak Park, but knowing we were headed over the border the next day, we didn’t want to buy any produce, so instead we just walked around the park to let Daisy get exercised. Next we headed to the Scandinavian Cultural Center. Below are some pictures of our visit there:
Then we went to Walmart (yes again) and by then they finally called us at 2 pm to tell us that they put the piece in the slide, but if we wanted them to fix the black tank issue (that should have been a warranty issue) they would have to keep the camper for another day. This would mean we would have to get a hotel room with Daisy. Since we had a temporary fix, we decided to tell them never mind and we would be by to pick up. Upon picking it up and going over the issues we stated did you fix the latch on the door on the slide? “You never told us anything about that.” We looked at one another and said I know we had a 5 minute conversation about it this morning with this guy, forget it we’re done with these people, we’ll fix it ourselves. So we hooked up the camper, secured puppy and we were off to the next adventure.