June 10

Today we began our journey to state number 47 of 50. We traveled through parts of Minnesota that were now becoming flatter farmland with lots of pretty little ponds and lakes dapplde across the landscape. There are also various fields filled with so many evergreens I feel as though I should have packed the Christmas decorations! The sky was a beautiful blue today with pretty puffy clouds - so much prettier than the clouds they are having back home from what I understand.

As we were traveling down 94 towards North Dakota,  Nathan proclaimed that he had just seen some baby moose along the tree line. He found a place to turn around,  and we went back to check it out and try to get pictures. I had switched out to the long lens and was ready to grab a quick picture when he pulled over.  Approaching the spot he pulled off onto the shoulder, and it appeared we were in luck.  There in the field we could see about four of them.  It's always good to have a little comic relief! Turns out the baby moose he had seen were actually foam targets placed near the road by an advertisement for a 3-D archery shoot!!

Our crowd loves to eat,  so Nathan scouted out a popular local eatery in Fargo called Sickies Garage. After getting burned yesterday I was a bit skeptical,  but it turned out to be a pretty good little restaurant.  There were all kinds of interesting combinations on the menu some of which included: a glazed donut hamburger, twin cam (2 Texas toast grilled cheeses with a cheese covered 1/2 pound patty) that Taylor and Samuel both ordered, Sickies burger (buffalo sauce, barbecue sauce, hamburgers, cheese, bacon, fried egg, and an onion ring), Reuben balls, and Buffalo chicken balls to name a few! We happened in during happy hour and were able to get half priced appetizers, so we ended up with way more food than what we could eat and had some for the road. Starting back out toward the highway, we had a bit of a delay. I noticed a mother duck and about six or seven ducklings pitter-pattering out into the street. We watched nervously as they began their trek across the intersection. When our light turned green all three lanes sat and waited for this precious little family to get safely across! :)

From there it was onto West Fargo to see what we could find at Bonanzaville, an old pioneer village that sits on 12 acres and has over 40 historic buildings. We toured through several old homes (one of which housed medicine and medical equipment from the past), two general stores, a grain scale and elevator, train depot, a creamery with old equipment used for pasteurizing milk and making butter and packaging milk and cheese, the old Lutheran church, and a drug store with a soda fountain.  There were also large barns and warehouses with tractors, agricultural equipment, planes, cars, and horse drawn vehicles. But I think our favorite spot was the Telephone Pioneers Museum! This building housed phones from their inception to a 2009 touch tone payphone.  It was great to have a hands on interactive display. We had a terrific time calling each other on old rotary phones. They had wired different phones throughout the village and posted the numbers by them so that you could place calls from one phone station to another. When I explained to them that you could also make a phone call by tapping out the number on the switch hook, the fun really began! Taylor and Samuel wanted to know if we could find a phone like that for Ma -maw's house. There's just a special nostalgia about hearing the rotary wheel turn and the bells ring that are lost with our smart phones! As I said earlier,  I am a fan of simplicity.  It was great to smell the old houses and the old grease of the tractors as well as hear the old phones ringing!!

We have now made it back down into South Dakota, and are planning to stay the night in Aberdeen. We did find the other Storybook Park, but they were closed for the evening. But at least we can say we have seen part of it. Apparently this one was built after the one in Rapid City and was fashioned after the Rapid City Storybook Park. In searching for a hotel, Samuel said we should have just stayed in Bonanzaville because there was a sign in one of the buildings advertising a single room for $0.25, a double room for $0.50, and the bridal suite for $0.75. That would have certainly cut down on the cost this trip if we could have found more hotels like that along the way!