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. \u00a0Out of 12 children, Barb’s brother Tim is the only one of her siblings still living in the state. \u00a0Tim has three \u00a0energetic, industrious and admirable sons who have also remained: Tyler, Preston & Austen. \u00a0In every sense, the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree.<\/p>\n
We parked our camper in the municipal campground, a pleasant enclave in an attractive park adjacent to the main highway that bisects the town. \u00a0Tim and his sons joined us for dinner (called supper in this part of the world) on the camper one evening. \u00a0On another night, we heard loudspeaker and crowd noises. \u00a0When 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. \u00a0Barb 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. \u00a0There were no cheerleaders to be seen. \u00a0Barb asked a bystander, and learned that there had not been cheerleaders for the high school for many many years. \u00a0Guess things have a way of changing.<\/span><\/p>\n It took us two attempts, but Barb and I finally succeeded in getting to the Chieftain Cafe\u00a0early enough to order their famous caramel rolls to supplement our breakfast. \u00a0Standing outside the cafe is a Muffler Man<\/a>, in this case a Native American<\/a>. \u00a0(Follow the links to learn more.)<\/p>\n Barb visited one of her aunts while we were there but that was about all we had time to do. \u00a0We 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. \u00a0So 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.<\/p>\n See our next blog for an account of our third<\/em> 2015 visit to Bismarck.<\/p>\n\n\t\t