Tour de Tornado Alley: Mission Accomplished

This was a big week for accomplishing goals. Nebraska ✅, South Dakota ✅, North Dakota ✅.

A week of pretty good weather helped us on our quest.
Here is where we are with our state tally. The most recent are in lavender!

We had two goals for Nebraska, eat meat and ride the bike! We did both, more on the meat later.

Nebraska has lots of connecting, well maintained bike paths. We were impressed with the infrastructure and enjoyed our time riding on the Keystone Trail which followed Big Papillon Creek.

Nebraska taxpayer dollars at work.

Most of what we saw was corn…they don’t call them the Cornhuskers for nothing!

What did we do when we needed corn? We plowed and we sowed til the early morn…

It was chilly and kind of rainy when we arrived in South Dakota. It was also cool the next morning when we went riding, but fortunately the rain had cleared and it wasn’t wet as we navigated the Sioux Falls Greenway system.

I’m wearing lots of layers…later this day we added rain slickers!

Arm warmers were needed for this ride.
Yes, there are falls in Sioux Falls and they are right in the downtown. Pretty cool!

We continued north to Fargo, North Dakota. A city which truly impressed us. Many breweries, great restaurants, fun rides and a store called Scheels – part sporting goods store, part amusement park, part tourist destination!

Fargo WAS far more than we expected…well done!
Lots and lots of soy in rural Fargo.
We passed through downtown and rode into Minnesota on our second ride.

Beer at lunch, and before dinner.

And we managed to squeeze in some Gelato before we left town.

Speaking of leaving town, on our way out we decided to check out Scheels- apparently it’s where everyone goes for Saturday afternoon family fun.

Maybe it’s because of the Ferris Wheel (it’s a buck to go for a ride).
Photo Ops abound, and the other shoppers are so friendly and quickly offer to take a pic.
He’s stuffed and approachable now…but wasn’t always!

Just over the state border from Fargo is Moorhead, Minnesota. This is important because the second oldest Dairy Queen in the country is still in operation here and we HAD to visit. It opened in 1949 – that makes it eight years older than Roger and me!

You walk up to the window, there is no indoor seating area.
This soon turned into a “lick and turn” emergency situation…and then a mess!

Before I wrap up, I must share the best meals of the week. We went to a steak house in Omaha, Nebraska called The Drover and it was terrific.

I ordered the Whiskey Filet (medium) – like buttah!
Roger had the Whiskey Rib Eye – we shared the asparagus and baked potato.

One more thing…raise your hand if you have heard of Chislic…and keep it raised if you have ever had it! This is a “delicacy” or staple of South Dakota…it’s cubed meat or poultry or pork which is usually deep fried, and it’s not bad!

This is chicken Chislic which was pretty tasty.
This is called the “Buff Bowl” with pork – it’s sold as a healthy option 🤷‍♀️!

Coming up in our next post – we make the big right turn and start to head back east (and south).

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5 thoughts on “Tour de Tornado Alley: Mission Accomplished”

  3. Really appreciated the map in shades of purple. It has been a long time since I passed my state test for Geography class.
    Looking forward to seeing you next month in sunny CA.

  4. I don’t remember the context, but there was a photo of a Nebraska vanity license plate that read: The “NEBRASKA” identifier at the top, with the vanity message “IS FLAT”. Was this your finding?🤔😂

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