Week of November 9th

What I know about North Dakota you can fit in half, ney, a quarter of a thimble. I picture a “home where the buffalo roam” but I don’t have a clue after that. I don’t even know why it’s call the “Peace Garden State” so I might opt for its lesser title of the “Roughrider State”, I at least know where that’s from.

By the way, North Dakota is called the “Peace Garden State” commemorating the beautiful International Peace Garden on the Canadian border.

We’ve done our research and I’m still looking for that 1 piece of exciting info that will grab you and keep you reading. I found out that ND grows more sunflowers than any other state in the union. This gives us a centerpiece but not much more. We also found out that Rugby, ND is the geographical center of North America. This would make a great snow globe but doesn’t lend itself to major frolicking. Speaking of snow globes, I couldn’t find one online for ND and I’ve never been there so I had to make one, actually 2 as it turns out. Not as good as the real thing but maybe I can replace the homespun ones at a later date.

The state quarter honors the bison so I know that, at one point, this prairie was home to herds of bison. Now, I’m not so sure.

Every year Grand Forks, ND hosts the world's largest French fry festival with something like 4500 lbs. of fries being consumed. I wonder if they hook up with Collinsville, IL, home of the World largest Ketchup bottle. ND is also the nation’s largest producer of spring & durum wheat, barley, pinto beans, honey & oats. I see a meal shaping up complete with a beer chaser.

Native North Dakotans’ include Angie Dickinson, Louis L’Amour and Lawrence Welk. None of them are invited to our state celebration but somehow bubbles might make their way in.

I must admit that the creativity wasn’t kicking in for North Dakota but the plan was to gather Sunday night and enjoy some of the goods produced in ND.

So with sunflowers in hand we arrived for dinner of bison burgers, the afore mentioned French fries and a green bean salad with pinto beans. We tried to get pictures of the bubbles but you really can’t get a bubble to pose. A local beer (I couldn’t find any beer produced in ND) helped us to forget the lack of inspiration and just enjoy the company.

Color in (with pretty subdued colors) the state in the North Central quadrant of the map and mosey back south to the Centennial State in the Rockies – Colorado. Five down - 47 to go.