Some thoughts, looking back at our Winnipeg-North Dakota trip
We didn't really know what to expect from this vacation, it was all new land for us, and a lot of flights. But it couldn't have worked out any better.
The absolute highlight, of course, was our time with our dear friends Carleen and Doug. Carleen and I have known each other 40 years (which somehow does not seem possible). She was responsible for Norbert and I meeting, and was at our wedding. Over the years, we have had close contact, no contact, loose contact, and now back to close contact.
They took us many places and showed us many of the attractions in the Winnipeg area, such as Lake Winnipeg, the horse races, the giant Viking in Gimli, and the incredible starry sky over their lake cottage one night.
But best of all was just being together. It is so wonderful to have such good relationships with friends. We all look forward to our next meeting!
Now, to North Dakota: we were told there was nothing to see or do there, it was very boring, best to drive though as quickly as possible. Also that there are no lakes at all in the state
None of this was true. I think that if you do your research, you can find something almost everywhere that is of interest, but it does depend on your interests, We are far more interested in nature and wildlife than, say, big cities. So we had no problem. Were we satisfied with everything we saw? No, but we don't regret any of it, because it may also have been due to our false expectations.
All in all, the weather cooperated. The exception, of course, was the heavy rain at Devils Lake. But other than that, it was neither too hot nor too cool, with lots of sunshine.
We were in absolute awe of the Badlands, and the extent of such landscape. Far, far more than we had dare to expect. As to wildlife, we saw longhorn cows, prairie dogs, horses, and bison in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. All wild, of course. We have long been intrigued by bison, and were ecstatic to see as many as we did, and so close, too.
North Dakota is politically very conservative, and an open-carry state for guns. This worried me b beforehand but we did not see one single gun anywhere. Nor did we see any campaign signs for the upcoming presidential election in ND. We did see some in Minnesota, the home of the Democratic vice presidential candidate – Trump signs, but all on one property.
We saw more sunflowers and lakes than we could count, oil pumps, the world's largest Holstein Cow and Bison, a huge Viking, a huge Moose, and so very much more.
Some of our motels/hotels were great, others were just satisfactory – in other words, as usual. None were bad.
It was our first real “road trip” in years, and we enjoyed it. AS often as possible we had hotels with elevators, or requested rooms on the first floor, to reduce the difficulty of lugging suitcases up and down stairs. It usually worked out. I would be willing to do another such trip, but think I would try to stay two nights (or more) as often as possible. And always look for accommodations with guest laundry!
In summary: a wonderful trip, great people, beautiful landscape, and the thrill of seeing somewhere totally different and new to us. So much better than sticking to the tried-and-true every time.
And now it is time to start thinking about future trips....
No comments:
Post a Comment