north dakota: no where near as shitty as some would lead you to believe

I would have liked to write this blog entry our last day in ND, but I've spent a considerable amount of time--and money--at bike shops recently. But, it's important to say that despite any rumors you hear about ND being flat and boring, the state turns out to be a lot prettier and interesting than people give it credit for.

For the sake of the North Dakota Tourism Bureau, so the operator no longer has to answer the phone, "No, we don't have Mt. Rushmore. You're thinking of South Dakota," here are some of my favorite parts of the state.

1. The Badlands-Hills and canyons composed of alternating layers of sedimentary rocks and red clay. Quite beautiful. It's very hard to bike through the region without singing "Badlands"by Bruce Springsteen even though I hate him. But since I hate him, i don't really remember how the song goes and end up singing it to the tune of Downtown. "When you're alone and life is making you lonely you can always go... BADLANDS!"

2. Fowl- Many varieties of interesting birds that fly out at us as we bike on less populated roads. I don't know anything about ornithology so I can't tell you what type of birds we see, but I can tell you they aren't penguins, ostriches, or dodos.

3. BAGA-the acronym stands for Bismarck art Gallery association. They had a lovely gallery opening one night that we stayed in town and the women were so pleasant, they took much of the left over food--fresh fruit, brownies, cheese, cold cuts, sausages--and packed it up into tupperware for us to eat during our entire stay.

4. The Missouri River- granted I did not swim in it, but I don't really swim much anyway. It was just pleasant to walk along it, watching families load up boats with food and coolers to enjoy a sunday afternoon on the water.

5. Clamdigger-at a bar called the Broken Oar on the Missouri, they serve this drink made of vodka, tomato juice (i think), worcester sauce, olives, a dill pickle, banana pepper rings, and a whole mess of other ingredients. Actually, I didn't like it much myself, but Ross hated it and watching him suffer trying to finish it was mildly amusing.