When we left the Grand Forks area, we motored west through Devil’s Lake (and a little south) about 100 miles to the small (population 2,075) agricultural town of Carrington, where Barb had gone to school while living on a nearby farm.  Out of 12 children, Barb’s brother Tim is the only one of her siblings still living in the state.  Tim has three  energetic, industrious and admirable sons who have also remained: Tyler, Preston & Austen.  In every sense, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.

We parked our camper in the municipal campground, a pleasant enclave in an attractive park adjacent to the main highway that bisects the town.  Tim and his sons joined us for dinner (called supper in this part of the world) on the camper one evening.  On another night, we heard loudspeaker and crowd noises.  When we went out to investigate, we realized that the city park was adjacent to the Carrington High athletic field, and that a football game was underway.  Barb is a former cheerleader for the Cardinals, so of course we had to bundle up — it was cold — and go see a bit of the game.  There were no cheerleaders to be seen.  Barb asked a bystander, and learned that there had not been cheerleaders for the high school for many many years.  Guess things have a way of changing.

It took us two attempts, but Barb and I finally succeeded in getting to the Chieftain Cafe early enough to order their famous caramel rolls to supplement our breakfast.  Standing outside the cafe is a Muffler Man, in this case a Native American.  (Follow the links to learn more.)

Barb visited one of her aunts while we were there but that was about all we had time to do.  We had planned to go out to visit Tim’s cabin at Lake Juanita and to spend more time with Tim, but on Sunday morning we learned that a big windstorm was going to hit the area later in the day.  So we cut our visit short and almost made it back to Bismarck before the wind hit. The wind was only 30 to 40 mph that afternoon but in the 60s that night, during which our camper was doing some not-so-restful rocking and rolling.

See our next blog for an account of our third 2015 visit to Bismarck.