DAY FORTY-TWO: March 1, 2008 Travel to Hettinger, N.D. DAY OFf

We’re going south! (South North Dakota, that is.) The journey is similar to yesterday: constant streams of snow blowing westward across the road, like we’re driving through hovering, fast-moving clouds. The mild 16 degrees this morning seemed brutal because of strong winds. Frank read that Hettinger is expecting a high of 60 today! (That’s ABOVE zero!) Say what? He wanted to high tail out of our room, so I had to gulp down my coffee.

As we roll through these vast plains, we have a newer understanding of what goes on around here. After last night’s concert we had the pleasure of enjoying pizza and beer with Paul and Nancy Olson, our contact people. Nancy has taught music for many years, and Paul is an aerospace engineer. Although that alone would have been plenty to talk about, we ended up discussing the open plains of this vast state, which only has 600,000 or so inhabitants. Paul shared how he gave one of his out-of-state coworkers directions, with them ending up calling him on their cell phones way lost. That was because in his directions he said, “Turn left at the first stop sign, then, right at the light.” What he took for granted was that these moves were 40 to 60 miles apart!

We’re bumping along on this I-83 south with a giant horizon all around us. This whole trip we’ve seen lots of silos and grain elevators. I said to the audience last night that before we leave, I want a tour of one of those things. As it goes, they aren’t really elevators, but complicated series of storage areas for many types of grains. Many people approached me in the lobby trying to help me in my quest. Maybe today we can stop and see one. (Please, Frank? I’ll trade you that for a pawn shop!)
After reading about grain prices, those things are like giant gold mines! The farmers are sitting pretty this year. Also, we learned of the tremendous oil reserves in this state. When people buy land around here, the mineral rights are a separate transaction. There has been new oil recently discovered in these parts. So maybe next trip we’ll start to see Gucci and Channel stores, and car dealerships with BMWs and Mercedes along beside the Wal Marts! Somehow, I doubt it. There will be a quiet wealth, like the rural version of the book, “The Millionaire Next Door.”

Nancy and Paul also told us of all the tribal culture that exists here. I think it is the Chippewa tribe. We heard their music in the car being played on their own radio station. It sounded quite Native American, with all the drums, rhythms and chanting, but with Pop-style lyrics added like, “ I don’t wanna be your #2!”

Today, being Saturday is a big hockey day. Families travel for miles to neighboring towns for their kid’s tournaments. Just about every place we’ve visited has a hockey rink, and kids start young. There’s also something called, “curling.” That has to do with sliding big granite discs on the ice, kind of like a giant game of Shuffleboard. On ladies night, first there’s a visit to the “Snake Pit,” a furnace room where there’s some gossip and guzzling going on, then they start at those big pieces of granite.
We’re also in the heart of basketball season, with High School boys and girls rival teams beating it out for the championships, commanding the full attention of everyone for hundreds of miles.

There’s a lot more going on in these small towns than meets the eye. People’s nights are fully booked with church events, sports events and various forms of culture. Our concerts sometimes compete with other activities, and people have to make a choice. So much for us rolling into town and saving the day with something to do!

For example, when we checked into our Super 8 yesterday, we were told there were two events going on in Bottineau that night; our concert and a wedding. A big dance was following the wedding and the whole town was invited. Everyone? Including us hotel guests at the Super 8? I guess so! Even Paul and Nancy were interested in checking it out with us after our pizza and beer. We respectfully declined, because at 11:30PM I was starting to melt from fatigue.

Last night’s concert went well, although both of us were running on reserve power. Still, this audience was just as important as all the rest! So we gave it our all, none-the-less.
Frank suggested that maybe people shouldn’t know so much about what we’ve gone through; as if they’re getting us like warn out Salmon at the end of the run, ragged, ready to spawn. My brother Randy even took a picture of us before we left for this tour, so he could compare it to us on our return; to see how much we’ve aged!

All these thoughts and fears were dispelled last night, after I got the greatest complement of the tour: A handsome older man came up to me and said, ”You are about the sexiest thing we’ve had here in years!” Wow! It must have been the shoes. Maybe he had trouble seeing. I didn’t care. I was basking in the moment, and I told Frank about it in the dressing room later. He responded with, “Well Sally, you’re not the only one. I’ve had a few mature ladies hinting at more than casseroles!” We were so amused we could hardly concentrate to pack up.

Oh, my God! The ground is brown! We’re almost as far south as Bismarck, and the temperature has climbed to 46 degrees! I just wound down the window and it was balmy!
March is definitely coming in like a lamb.

We stopped in Bismarck at The Texas Roadhouse and had two of the best steaks we’ve ever had. It was crowded and bustling in there, and the mood was so upbeat it made me want to be a Texan! Maybe all the good moods were due to the now 53-degree miracle outside.

It seems that one creature had Spring fever, though, in the parking lot of T.J. Max. As we parked, we saw a beautiful Yellow Lab mix crossing a busy street near us. I gasped, knowing there was not much we could do. A nice man was then holding the dog by the collar, trying to read the phone #. I helped him decipher the numbers on the warn-out tag and luckily, the owner was home. By this time, there were four of us petting this obviously already well-loved dog. He sat, lifted his paw to shake, but was a little nervous and distracted. Then an embarrassed and thankful woman pulled up in her car, and said he had escaped his invisible fence. With this warmer weather, it may have been too tempting, being the first day for really good smells in a long time!
We were all so relieved and happy that I went in and scored a new pair of designer spring shoes!

Wowie Zowie! It’s now 64 degrees! We’re driving with our windows down now on North Dakota’s famous Enchanted Highway. It’s enchanted because some artist did major iron sculptures every few miles along side this small, barren, desolate road. To us what was really enchanted was the way the road would seem to climb up to the sky like a landing strip. The brown hills are oddly shaped and somehow different. We feel so carefree!

Uh oh. Our gas tank is running dangerously low. We’ve gone about 10 miles now, and its 30 or 40 miles until the next tiny little dot on the map. Those tiny little dots don’t necessarily mean gas stations, either. We can’t chance it, we have to turn around and try to make it to Dickenson. Darn! Well, now that we’re going the other way the sun is behind us, and it’s even more beautiful.

We made it to Dickenson after holding our breath. I asked Frank why a warning signal didn’t come on. He said maybe the needle wasn’t down far enough. Far enough? In North Dakota, gas warnings should go off at a half tank!
I really wanted to go in the dinosaur museum there, but it was closed. Apparently, this is major country for big fossils. Imagine those creatures roaming around where we were driving!
All the highways we took at that point were enchanted, because we had gas, it was warm, and there were no dinosaurs to contend with. We did see hundreds of beautiful wild pheasants and even some bald eagles all the way to Hettinger, though.

Hettinger is a small town with a beautiful lake and wildlife preserve. We arrived in time to take a sunset walk all the way around the frozen waters. The adjacent hills and grasslands were teaming with all kinds of birds, and the peaceful silence of this setting made it possible to hear their many calls. We kept walking, and ended up on Main Street. There was a man outside a small, old-fashioned movie theatre and he told us there was a piano concert there tomorrow. How about that? He showed us in and sure enough, the movie theatre doubles as a live venue! There is a nice new Yamaha waiting for me tomorrow tucked behind the double doors. His wife is the piano teacher in town, and we walked by her studio and peaked in the window. Nice. There was actually a movie playing tonight, so after killing some time at a nice restaurant nearby, we went to see “27 Dresses.” Our first movie in two months! What fun. Lots of people there recognized me from the posters, even with no makeup on, and in black fleece instead of a red gown.
With seating being only146, I think we may have a full house.
I’ve always wanted to play in a movie theatre. Now we need to come up with some silent films!

Today turned out being a fabulous day. It was the kind of day we really needed. Tomorrow should be interesting.