Four Things I Forgot.

Cut me some slack, I don't use voice recorders, just the powers of my own fractured mind. Sometimes things slip through the cracks (crevasses? ravines? canyons?) and end up here in a silly catch-all random post like this one...
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1. Buddy's owner, Norm, that I was talking to in Watford City, he said one other thing that was very interesting, We were talking about where I'd been so far in the Midwest and I told him how I accidentally went to Sturgis during the rally last summer. He said, "I went once, too. Stayed about two hours. It just wasn't for me. I like to ride motorcycles, but I also have a little thing called self-respect. I don't need to act a fool or do the things they do there. I fought in Viet Nam and made it out of there without doing drugs or prostitutes. Why start now?"

2. I found a wayward travel magazine in the cement bathroom of the Watford City fairgrounds and looked it over while the guys made breakfast. It showed a picture of a bison standing in front of Old Faithful as it erupted. The white plume of water was so wide it took up nearly the entire frame. "That's Old Faithful?" I exclaimed.
"Yeah, it shoots about 40 or 50 feet in the air," Dean said.
"Well, yeah, but it's that wide?"
"Yes ma'am!"
"Oh.... 'cause in the cartoons it always looked really skinny...."
Every single one of them paused. "Cartoons?"
"Yeah... that's the only place I've.... ever... seen it."
Everyone had a good laugh at the East Coaster.

3. While Arlen was cutting up his wife's banana bread I told him about the rhubarb bread that Darlene had given me (which, by the way, didn't make it to nightfall; I ate the whole thing between Turtle Lake and Fargo.)
"Yeah," he said. "Gotta watch out for that rhubarb! There's so damn much of it around here you leave your car door open and it'll jump right in with ya!"

4. To get to Watford City, one has to cross the Missouri River. Imbedded on the bridge are paintings of famous Indian braves that defended their land and way of life to the death, one of which is Four Bears. That circular painting is the only remaining tribute to Four Bears in North Dakota, aside from the 4Bears Casino and Harley-Davidson Shop. And so goes history...

Driving out of Watford City towards Theodore Roosevelt National Park, there is a billboard that features a fat woman in aviator sunglasses on the back of a Harley. The bright yellow font reads, "Meet me at 4Bears!"

I think not.