Minnesota to North Dakota: Tornado Alley of the North

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Spent our fourth night in Alexandria, Minnesota just west of the Twin Cities. Interesting fact is we all know St. Paul and Minneapolis as the twin cities but actually, there are many in this region. For example, the twin city to Green Bay is DePere and the twin city to Fargo is Mandan. They are all separated by large rivers.

We managed to miss the tornados which hit Minnesota on Thursday, not my favorite part of the trip so far. Unfortunately, it is really hard to do any sightseeing while dodging the lightening and Bill trying to keep the car going straight with the high winds!

Friday, the 9th was a much better day. Arrived in Fargo early in the morning, yah. Do you know that Fargo is still capitalizing on the movie. Everywhere you go there are references to wood chippers (for you guys who are too young to remember, Fargo was a movie made in 1996 featuring a pregnant detective and all the characters said YAH which offended many North Dakota residents). Ironically, the movie was not even made in Fargo.

From Fargo we drove to Bismarck which is the capital. Lots and lots to see here. Stopped in Jamestown, Buffalo city and visited an old town. They actually have buffalos roaming the range. The drive was excellent with great scenery of rolling hills, not black though. The state is characterized by a huge native reserve, mostly Sioux tribes.

Stopped at Kroll's diner and had a North Dakota favourite for lunch. It is called fleischkuekle, and is basically a meat pie, hamburger in doh that is deep fried; reminded us of a Jamaican meat pie but not as good.

So far, Arthur has been behaving however, it does not help when driving through the vast lands of North Dakota, with no cell phone service and the GPS could not pick up any signals. And yes, we did get lost, took one too many forks in the road. Off today heading to Dickenson which is right near the border of Montana. Till next time........



OOPS forgot to mention the walk of fame in Fargo, which are cement blocks signed by people who have visited. See the pictures of a few worthy of mention.

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