Driving around North Dakota

I’ve been spending many hours writing a story set in northeastern North Dakota. I was here in late August at the height of the agricultural season, just as the harvest was beginning. I did the drives and learned the landscape– straight roads running alongside railroad tracks and a grain elevator and cluster of homes every eight miles or so.

But I wanted to see it in winter.

Not dangerous winter, but a little January “thaw” where it would be safe to drive for hours and still see the snowy plains. What I didn’t expect was the depth and beauty of the hoarfrost.

On the electric lines and on the metal gate at one of the small cemeteries and on the east side of every tree.

I saw many beautiful things. I saw churches. Oddly, there was this blue door on a Lutheran Church in Michigan, ND…

and then, one town west, this blue garage door on the Lutheran church in Lakota.

It is cold. The first day it was 8 degrees, but really it felt below zero with the wind. A woman I sat with at lunch (grilled cheese at a bar and grill in Lakota, ND) said, “You can take a lot without the wind. But all we have been getting lately is wind.”

Truth is, it’s been a mild winter by any standard. Almost no snow. No weeks of extreme weather.

But today, when it was in the 20s “with 25 mph breezes from the southwest,” it felt every bit as cold as that 8-degree day. I didn’t think about going out into the little cemeteries without my hat.

Today I had lunch with a father and son who farm 3,000 acres. Just four men, two brothers and their sons, for all that acreage. They had the special, meatballs and potatoes– everyone had the special except me. I had grilled cheese. We were at a clean and friendly bar and grill in Climax, Minnesota, just across the Red River.

And in Reynolds, ND, they were still loading truck after truck with grain.

I’ve transcribed my notes and downloaded my photos and even written a few new scenes.

Greetings from North Dakota!