Buffalo Soldier

Buffalo Soldier (See lyrics) by Bob Marley seems a good title for today's post, not because of its topic but because buffaloes came to play an unexpectedly large part in today's enjoyment, as you will see later.

Last night after dinner Drew, who without internet was forced to read the Road Atlas, noted that our route today could, with about five miles amendment, take us to Minnesota one of the states he has not visited.  So while at McDonalds this morning we re-routed the journey on Google Maps so that instead of being straight up the I-29 onto the I-94 it looked like this:

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So after we entered North Dakota (my 6 of 6 and Drew's 9 of 13) we took exit 50 off the I-29 and travelled along County Road 18 and across the Minnesota state line at Red River. So Drew has now been to 10 new states this holiday (Montana, Wyoming and Utah to go). We stopped at Moorhead, MN for a coffee. 

We then travelled through the town of Fargo, for anyone who has not seen the Cohen brothers film Fargo I would recommend it, it gives a sense of the emptiness and desolateness of this part of the US while showing its attractiveness too. 

After Fargo we joined the I-94 that stretches east to west in North Dakota. I am reminded that a year today while travelling from Naples to Monte Carlo we met an American couple, from Utah, on the train and were discussing our travels. On telling them that this year we planned to do these 6 states they nodded all through the first 5 but when we mentioned North Dakota they said we shouldn't bother as there is nothing there. At a meeting earlier in the year with colleagues from our VLE provider, Blackboard, I mentioned the trip and got the same reaction when mentioning North Dakota. Well sorry folks, but I think you are wrong I am glad we came to this lovely state. 

We stopped for lunch in a place called Casselton at a Country Kitchen restaurant which was part of a complex on Governor's Drive, called such because Casselton has had five Governor's of North Dakota come from here. We both opted for skillets for our lunch-time snack. I had 'Country's Best Skillet' which was two eggs in an omelette with ham and bacon, with two sausage links and two slices of bacon on top, served with fried cubed potatoes. Drew opted for the Fiesta Skillet which was also a two egg omelette, but this one included minced beef, frilled peppers and tomatoes with salsa and sour cream over hash browns.

95 miles on from Fargo we came to Jamestown, which proudly calls itself the Buffalo City. The National Buffalo Museum is found here. We had been alerted to the museum by references to the largest Buffalo statue in the world. Though in typical American style they actually called it The Largest Buffalo in the World. As we were promised the statue and live buffalo as well as a Buffalo Museum we pulled off the interstate. 

Before arriving at the buffalo museum you come to Frontier Village, which is a set of well preserved buildings all decked out with original artifacts. It is worth going to look at the set of pictures on Flickr as it is quite special. There is a school house, a church, a bank, a jail, a saloon, a law office, fire hall and much more.

In the antiques store Drew bought himself a Raccoon Hat. It looks rather fetching on him, but occasionally he scares himself when he sees the tail from the corner of his eye. 

As we walked along we met Gabriel Johnston and his lady friend 'Miss Ginger Peach' (She was in character). Gabriel provides the music for frontier town and films the weekly shoot-outs enacted here. They stopped to talk to us and tell us about their ancestors - Irish and Scots. Thanks for making the visit so fascinating guys. 

We then went to the Buffalo Museum, yes Martin, Drew did tell the joke! The museum had a lot of details of the bison/buffalo since its origins through its place in indigenous culture and the impact of the arrival of the 'white man'. The museum also had a viewing gallery to overlook the herd of buffalo, including a white buffalo, though not all of them were visible as they walk freely around the large area behind the museum.  Even for just this visit to Jamestown the trip to North Dakota would be worth it. How enjoyable.

From Jamestown we headed for Bismarck where we are staying at the Comfort Inn tonight, Drew driving the car with his Raccoon on his head!

After settling in to the huge room in the hotel we went out for dinner at the Pirogue Grille, a high quality restaurant in Bismarck. Well we did have to treat ourselves having made the 48 states! A Pirogue, if you didn't know already, is a type of boat, it was one of the types of boats used by Lewis and Clark as they travelled through this area. The Missouri River, up which they did most of their travelling, is at the eastern edge of Bismarck 3 miles from our hotel.

For my vegetarian friends, at least two of whom I know are reading the blog, please look away now. Having met the Dakotan livestock earlier we are about to eat it. Thumper, Bambi and the Bison are all involved, so look away.

The restaurant impressed us from the start, the owner, acting as maitre d' sat us at our table and changed my napkin from a blue one to a white one, so that I wouldn't get white fluff on my blue trousers, now that's a first for me. The server asked what we were celebrating tonight and I explained about the 48 states, he, along with my sister by e-mail, and my friend Robin by Facebook asked when I was planning to do Hawaii and Alaska!! The answer is, not soon if ever. For me it was always the continental/contiguous states that was the ambition.

For appetisers I opted for potato gnocchi with rabbit confit & soffritto, a strongly Italian flavoured dish with lots of oregano and thyme among the other flavours. The gnocchi was light and fluffy and the rabbit was tender and juicy. Drew opted for venison sausage with grilled sweet onion relish, he compared the venison sausages to the ones from Middlewood Farm that we eat at home, he said they had more meat and were less fatty than them, he really enjoyed them.

I then opted to have a soup course, this was corn and bison soup, making use of two of the local ingredients. Corn is ubiquitous in North Dakota and we have already mentioned the bison/buffalo on our trip today.

For our main courses I had a summer ragout of venison with summer squash, corn, avocado & potatoes. The light fragrant broth set off the richness of the venison excellently. Drew opted for North Dakota Bison medallions with bordelaise sauce with cheesy mashed potatoes, the bison is a rich meat, but it was set off well by the flavoursome sauce.

Drew's dessert was tonight's special: a plum strudel with corn ice-cream. Yes corn, an interesting flavour for an ice-cream, Drew felt it worked best set against the sweetness of the strudel. But would, at a push, have eaten it on its own.

We ate at a pace more reminiscent of Europe than the US, so after dinner it was time to get back to the hotel and to bed. We passed the North Dakota State Capitol Building on the way back, but it was to dark for photos. However it is an ugly building so I don't think you have missed much.