Road Trip #9 - Jamestown, ND and Moorhead, MN

Monday, June 22nd

We left the family reunion and started driving to Minnesota. First stop was in Jamestown, ND to see White Cloud, an albino bison and the statue of the World's Largest Buffalo.

White Cloud with the World's Largest Buffalo statue.

We continued on to Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, where I went to school. We stopped to take pictures at my favorite places and raided the bookstore!

My girls with the college mission statement.

The girls with the Chocolate Man - former President Joseph Knudson. Sorry Eight, he's not really made out of chocolate.

After the quick tour of my college, we went to Dairy Queen on 8th and Main. I had many great memories of walking through a blizzard to get a Blizzard, and getting a free sundae every April 15th. This Dairy Queen is unique in that it is the home of the Dilly Bar. It still has it's 1949 contract that allows the restaurant to go "off menu" to create what the customer wants, instead of being confined by franchise standards.

Walk up ordering at the Dairy Queen on 8th and Main.

We went for different types of dogs and different Dilly Bars.

While fast food isn't normally known for being exceptional (with few exceptions), the Moorehead DQ was a pleasant experience.  The building itself harkened back to old-fashioned burger joints with a simple menu of all American fare - hamburgers, hotdogs, fries, and of course ice cream! The Dilly Bar was the main attraction that brought us to this particular Dairy Queen, and it didn't disappoint.  There were three flavors that we went for, with Eight and Tim getting traditional chocolate, Kyla getting Toffee (Heath Bar), and Six getting mint.  The Dilly Bars were traditional DQ soft serve on a stick, and satisfied our sweet teeth after a full day of driving.

We were in the need of more sustenance, so hotdogs were also ordered.  While our youngest always goes for a traditional hotdog without toppings, Eight and Tim went for chili dogs, with Kyla getting a bratwurst with the works.  I don't know if we were that hungry after a long day of driving, or if the hotdogs were that good, but I will have to say the chili dogs were some of the best I'd had in a while.  I know mine didn't last very long, and Eight mostly got her chili dog into her belly instead of all over her face.  The seating for the Moorhead Dairy Queen is all outside with picnic tables and umbrellas, which made for a pleasant outdoor dining experience.  I highly recommend heading to Moorehead in the summer months though, because winter can be quite brutal and definitely not ice cream weather.

With our bellies full and energy back up, we got back on the road for the second half of the day's drive to Faribault, MN to stay with Kyla's parents.  After a full day of driving we were all very tired and ready for bed.  The nice thing about road trips though is that there is always an unexpected surprise waiting for you.  This time, our surprise came with Kyla checking facebook, and seeing her aunt post from Montana that a massive northern lights show was expected to be seen as far south as Kansas that night.  I had never seen the northern lights before, and neither had the girls, so after walking outside and seeing a faint glow to the north, we raced back in and rousted the girls from bed to witness this phenomenon.

With the light pollution and tall trees in Kyla's parent's neighborhood we relocated to the small airport outside of town and got a spectacular light show.  I found myself just as awestruck as both our girls watching purple lights dance across the sky, and barely noticed the Minnesota State Bird (mosquito) feasting all over my legs.  Next time I'll remember the bug repellant.  We watched the northern lights until well after midnight, when we finally decided to head back to the house and get the rest we so desperately needed.