Daniel Tales: Day 4-Dickinson, MT to Minneapolis, Minnesota

Saturday, July 8, 2017

Day 4-Dickinson, MT to Minneapolis, Minnesota

We left Dickinson this morning and headed to Minneapolis. Along the way we stopped at several locations. Our first stop was the Enchanted Highway. The Enchanted Highway has seven larger-than-life roadside sculptures. We wanted to do the whole highway, but realized we would not be able to. We were able to see the first two sculptures.

View from the Geese Sculpture

Can you see the girls?

Geese in Flight-2001

"The Geese in Flight sculpture was raised in June, 2001 and is in the Guinness World Book of records as the largest scrap metal sculpture in the world. It was built of used oil well pipe and oil tanks. It weighs over 75 tons. The sun ray is 156 feet long and 110 feet tall. The largest goose has a 30 foot wing span and is 19 feet long."

The Deer Family 2002

"The Deer Family was completed in 2001 and erected in 2002. It was made from old oil well tanks cut apart and welded to form the shadow design. To fit through the streets of Regent, the buck's front leg had to be cut off and re-welded onsite. The buck is 75 feet tall and 60 feet long. The doe is 50 feet tall by 50 feet long."

You can't see it very well in the picture, but off in the distance (3 miles) is the Geese sculpture.

Prairie Dog

Switcheroo on seats..Emily didn't want to give up her seat to Scott.

"Salem Sue"

The World's Largest Holstein Cow has become a landmark for travelers across North Dakota.

Visible for miles, and big enough to impress even the likes of Paul Bunyan, the fiberglass lady Holstein stands 38 feet high and 50 feet long on top of School Hill on the north edge of New Salem.

A project of the New Salem Lions Club, Salem Sue was constructed in 1974, at a cost of $40,000.00 as a tribute to the area's dairy industry.

The visitor to the Cow will not only be amazed at her size but will also be afforded a spectacular view of the surrounding countryside.

View from Salem Sue

Lauren and Salem Sue

While driving to see Salem Sue, I noticed that the battery light on the Expedition was flashing and then staying on. When we left Salem Sue Emily took over driving for a little bit.

Emily Driving

After she drove for about an hour, she decided that driving at 75 m.p.h. was not as easy as she thought and she decided to pull over at a rest stop and let Scott drive. Scott took over driving and while he was driving the car started to malfunction. The battery light came on and stayed on. Then he noticed the ABS light come on. He pulled over at the next rest stop and turned the car off. He popped the hood and looked at the engine. Everything seemed okay, but when he went to restart it, the car would not turn over. At that point, he knew it was the alternator. So..here we were stuck in North Dakota miles away from any major towns. While we were sitting there trying to decide what to do, a stranger walked by and asked if she could help in any way. She offered to jump start the car. We decided it was worth a shot. She introduced herself and said her name was Faith, she was traveling with her cat named "Shithead". She told us how she was recently homeless and she was blessed by people who helped fix her car and gave her gas money to get her on her way. She said I don't have much but if I can help I in some way..She helped us jump the car and then offered to follow behind us to make sure we made it. We got back on the interstate and were driving down the road then all the gauges went out on the car.

Driving down the highway...how fast are we going?

After we had traveled about 10 miles down the road, the car died. Scott put it in neutral and pulled over to the shoulder and let the car go for as long as it would go. We wound up stopped between two exits, still 25 miles from the next major town. We thanked Faith for helping us and passed her a little gas money. She helped us get further down the road and within the towing limits of our roadside assistance plan.

Faith driving away

Scott was the only one who had cell service. He called roadside assistance and they dispatched a tow truck to our location.

Waiting in the car for the tow truck to arrive

It was hot, but we were pretty well shaded in the car and we had the windows rolled down.

At least the view was pretty.

The tow truck arrived and he informed us that he only had room for two people in his cab. Lauren and I went into the cab. Scott and Emily planned to walk to next exit with services, but who knows when that would be because most exits in North Dakota had blue signs that said "No Services." Thankfully the tow truck driver said that they could ride in the Expedition.

Riding in the Expedition

View from the top

Arriving at the shop. Thankfully the man who towed us was at the shop working on his personal vehicle. The shop was not normally opened on Saturday. He called the parts store (which also happened to be open) and found out that they did not have someone to deliver the alternator to the shop. He left us at the shop and took off to go get the alternator. He returned shortly and repaired the vehicle and sent us on our way.

So, we had finally made it to Jamestown, North Dakota. Prior to the car breaking down we had planned to spend several hours at "The World's Largest Buffalo and Frontier Town." Due to the car breaking down, we lost about three hours. We still visited the site, but we just did it rather quickly.

"Dakota Thunder, the World's Largest Buffalo. The 60-ton concrete statue stands 25 feet tall, welcoming visitors to Jamestown since 195."

After visiting with the Buffalo, we went and explored Frontier Village as a very fast pace since we lost some much time with the car trouble.

"This old time settlement of original pioneer buildings is fulled with artifacts to illustrate the settlement of the Great Plains."

In the back of the gift shop was a building that was full of stuffed animals. There were the standard animals for the area, but also some cool ones.

Albino Ground Squirrel

One of the reasons we could not spend a lot of time in Jamestown was because we needed to get to Minneapolis before Matt's Bar stopped serving food at 11:45 p.m.