Granville, ND

September 15, 2016

Well, the thunderstorm and rain came around 6:30 this morning and the rain and the thunder hollered for two hours. We, then, decided to head out and take our chances that the weather would clear enough to get to our next destination. Looking down at the gas gauge, which was resting at ½ a tank, a decision had to be made… return to Williston (about 25 miles in the wrong direction) or to proceed and hope for a gas station enroute. We felt adventurous, so we headed north and east again on HWY 2. With the tank at ½, we have roughly 75 – 80 miles till empty – but we do carry extra gas, since we are in unfamiliar territory and towns, and gas stations seem to be far and few between. We did fine… and about 20 miles up the road we found gas in the small town of Tioga, ND – this is of course, after traveling on another construction road that turned dirt for a while, which makes the driver (me) a bit nervous, but no worries… all’s well that end’s well!

Now with a full tank in Gypsy, we headed toward Minot, ND to check out the Casa Motel and RV Park to see if it is suitable for the night. Minot is a fairly large city, compared to where we have been in MT and ND. We decided to forego the big city of Minot and head about 25 miles up the road to Granville, a speck on the map, instead of bolded letters, which indicate the size of the town.

As we left Minot, it started to rain again. It’s a good thing we were not going another 100 miles before stopping for the night. The rain kept our speed about 10 miles under the posted limit, no need to hydroplane. Granville is indeed a speck on the map, surrounded by rolling hills, sunflower crops going to seed, cattle dotting the horizon and a City and County park for RV’s to spend the night with electricity and water provided – a $10 donation is suggested, “please deposit in the blue box”. We stabilized Rosalita, not unhooking, for we planned to leave for Devil’s Lake first thing in the morning. The park was very pleasant with lots of trees, a bandstand, picnic tables, tennis and volleyball courts, bathrooms and a playground. It is 6 blocks off of Main Street (downtown). Since we did not unhook Rosalita and it wasn’t raining too hard, we decided to walk the ½ mile to the Memorial Diner for an early dinner.

The diner was part of the American Legion and when the Legion had a new building built across the street, this building (which is owned by the city) was leased to Donna, who now runs it. It is a true diner; regular old-fashioned kitchen tables and chairs; “please seat yourself anywhere there is space”.

Nothing fancy, just homey and good ole home cooked food. Patti and I both had buffalo burgers (the buffalo is raised just down the road), AND they were scrumptious! I asked for tomato, lettuce, onion – but Patti opted for just Swiss cheese. When the waitress brought the food to our table, the first thing I noticed were the tomatoes…, they looked homegrown and fresh from the garden. When I asked if they were homegrown – Donna said, “YES, everyone brings their extra tomatoes to the diner”. I asked if I could buy one, and she said we could have some at no cost. Before we left, she brought a gallon zip-lock bag with 6 wonderful homegrown, “fresh picked this morning”, tomatoes inside.

The diner is a small museum of sorts. The Legion left some of it’s memories in the diner on display, and reserves a room in the back for their get-togethers and uses the kitchen now and then. I, of course, asked if I could take some photos of the memories on the walls. One framed poster was fascinating; it had statistics of all the wars dating back to the Revolutionary War – the number of soldiers served for each war and then the number of soldiers who died in each war. A lot of the other plaques were more personal to the town and to North Dakota itself. There was a uniform from WWI, a Purple Heart, a medal from the Asiatic Pacific Campaign, and other personal historical artifacts donated by people in the town, as well as, total strangers who pass through. Some of the framed work was difficult to photograph because of the overhead lighting.

We got up to pay our tab for the buffalo burgers, onion rings and the homemade apple pie a la mode Patti just had to have when the owner, Donna, said she was picking up the tab for our dinner. We objected but she informed us, she does: “one good deed a day, and I haven’t yet done my good deed for today.” We were humbled and thankful for her generosity, and for the good people we meet along the way in our travels… especially in small towns! We promised we would be back for breakfast the next morning as we head out of town.

We stepped outside to walk back to the City Park where we had left Rosalita and Gypsy, only to find it was raining quite a bit harder that when we walked to town. As we walked we passed a ‘Fire Danger’ sign, which read “No need to worry”, for the arrow was pointed all the way down to the bottom of the sign. Patti and I both got soaked to the bone, as well as sopping wet shoes and socks. At least, it is not a cold winter rain. As we settle in for the night the rain has not stopped and puddles are beginning to form in the park and on the road. Hopefully the rain will stop in the morning and we can proceed to Devil’s Lake for the weekend…

The next morning we did return to the Memorial Diner for breakfast: I had farm fresh eggs and Patti had biscuits & gravy… both excellent! We spent more time than we had planned for our breakfast meal, because Donna had brought more war memorabilia pictures of her father, his service record & medal. Donna also mentioned a Welsh woman (Rosie Swale Pope) who walked around the world and passed through Granville – Donna made a quick trip back to her house to bring Rosie’s book (“Just a Little Run Around the World”) in for us to see and pictures of Rosie with the local town folk. Fascinating what happens and passes through small towns.