The Fourth of July

Day 4

 I love the Fourth of July. My favorite smell is the smell of sulfur in the air from a fireworks display. I love being close enough to the booms that you feel it in your chest and you sometimes get rained on by burning embers from the big aerials! I love driveway parties with neighbors and picnics with friends. Celebrating the 4th in a small community was our plan for today. Maybe watching a parade with the kids on their decorated bikes with playing cards in their spokes and the high school band and local tractors and firetrucks proudly passing by. Maybe a picnic in a park with the Legionaries playing patriotic music, and of course finding a good place to watch the fireworks up real close. 

That was our plan for today as we drove across northern North Dakota, to a small township called Fortuna, just short of Montana and a few miles south of the Canadian border. We (Peach actually) had heard of a well known local tavern here called the "Teachers Lounge." It is a converted old school, turned into an eclectic bar, motel, and general store. It is said to host many a camper in their lot, as they stop to enjoy the place and spend the night. It was described on the internet as a place "you got to see!" As we planned our trip we thought this would be a great place to spend the 4th. We'd arrive on the 3rd, stay a day and enjoy the place and the nearby Independence Day festivities, wearing our new 4th of July shirts. Then we'd spend a second night and head into Canada on the 5th. But first, we had to get here. The drive seemed longer than we expected. We're not using any interstates on this trip: you miss too much, and if we go faster than 55 mph, our fuel economy plunges. If we see something interesting along the way, we'll stop. Well, as we gassed up about halfway across North Dakota on Hwy 2, we saw something interesting across the road. There was an obelisk in the parking lot of a small diner, with a group of flags around it, including U.S., Canada, and Mexico. Turns out that spot in Rugby is designated as the geographical center of North America. So being good tourists, we drove over there and took our picture. As we were leaving, another camper trailer rig pulled up and honked. The woman in the passenger seat was waving a Green Bay Packers can koozie! They had seen our license plate, or maybe the Badgers spare tire cover. We went up to greet them, and take their picture for them. That's how we met our new friends Tom and Cathy. They are from the Green Bay area and amazingly are on their way to Homer, Alaska! We chatted a while, greatly enjoying their company. We're planning different routes because we have more time, but they suggested we join them where they were headed for the night and the 4th, not far up the road at the border. The place is called International Peace Park, and it's a joint effort between Canada and the U.S. to celebrate our peaceful coexistence. The brochure they gave us shows a great garden that reminds me of Versailles. Peach and I nearly headed that way, but we were already mentally committed to the Teachers Lounge so we parted ways hoping to catch up with them again. 

Bonz & Peach and Tom & Cathy at the geographical center of North America in Rugby, ND

So on we went another four hours to Fortuna. We went along a lovely old river valley from the nearly extinct Des Lacs River, where graduating seniors from the nearby high school mark the hillsides in stones showing the year and whether they won the state championship. It looks like the M on the hillside near Platteville, but there are over fifty of them dating back to the early sixties. We noticed huge fields of bright yellow flowered grass-like crops all over the place and wondered what they were. We were excited to be approaching Fortuna and were going to ask the people there who put all those years on the hills and what those yellow flowered crops were. Knowing Fortuna was pretty small, we stopped about fifteen miles from there for gas in a small town called Crosby. We found the one gas station there all closed up with brown paper on the windows. Fortunately the pumps were active. Otherwise we'd have no chance for gas until going a ways in Canada. A car pulled up full of teenage boys blaring loud music. They were obviously in a hurry to get someplace and seemed pretty oblivious to us. I decided to ask the kid at the pump where we could go in the area to see 4th of July festivities, particularly a parade or fireworks show. That's when we realized we might be headed for a letdown. He kind of scoffed and said, "Why, do you wanna buy some fureworks?" He'd apparently never heard of a 4th of July parade or been to a big fireworks show. He said the local kids all go down to the lake ten miles away and drink and shoot off their own. So we headed onward to the Teachers Lounge. To call Fortuna a town is a gross exaggeration. There's nothing here but the Teachers Lounge. The entire population of Fortuna is 19!

The Teacher's Lounge in Fortuna, ND

Note: Our camper on the far right side of the parking lot. 

That's where we spent the night alone

We pulled into the large parking lot and saw no campers at all and only three cars. Going inside was interesting. Indeed it is eclectic and is a very welcoming place. We sat at the small bar and had a conversation with the four very friendly people sitting there. A fifth came in later. ALL of them were Fortuna residents. Counting the bartender and the cook, we were sitting among almost half of the town! They told us that the high school kids from Kenmare put those stones on the hill every year the night after graduation. They told us the yellow flowers were canola, grown for the oil. They told us Fortuna and the Teachers Lounge started dying out in the late eighties after the Air Force closed a nearby radar installation. And they told us there were no kids with cards in their spokes, no parade, no band, and no fireworks. The closest festivities are apparently fifty miles away! To the folks at the bar the 4th of July is just the day after the 3rd. In fact the bar will be open and they'll be back in the same seats tonight I suppose. Fine folks, but not what we drove all the way across North Dakota for. We ended up being the only vehicle in the entire parking lot last night, and we've decided to change our plans and cross the border this morning. I just hope we don't have trouble getting across with our shotgun, our over the limit beer supply and our open lunch meat. We had planned on sharing the extra 12 pack of Spotted Cow with our fellow campers, celebrating the 4th. So much for that! I can't help but think of our friends Tom and Cathy at the Peace Park full of fellow traveler's. I bet they had great fireworks!