Thursday morning in Fargo.  No hurry today.  We don't have to work out and we aren't driving too far today.  But we do have to have the oil changed in the car.  David talked to the front desk clerk about where to take the it and he recommended a dealership near by that had a "fast change lane."  After our usual stop at Starbucks for coffee and ice tea we drove to the dealership and got in line in the fast lane.  An employee came to the car and filled out the service request form and then escorted us inside to their lounge.  It had very comfortable chairs and some of the chairs had little writing tables attached (perfect for writing post cards on!).  She also told us they had warm, freshly baked cookies and fresh coffee for us.  You can also have a free bottle of water or a bottle of pop.  There were two little boys there with their Mom and one of the clerks called them over and gave them each a stuffed bear wearing a t-shirt with the dealership's logo on it.  So cute!  The people here could not have been any nicer.  I resisted the cookies as long as I could. 

That didn't take long and we started driving to Devils Lake.  Native Americans originally named it Spirit Lake which was then incorrectly translated to Bad Spirit Lake.  Because of the many legends of drowned warriors and lake monsters, the name evolved into Devils Lake.  It is the largest natural body of water in North Dakota.  It covers more than 200,000 acres and has hundreds of miles of shoreland.  It is a very popular fishing lake (ranked in the top five fishing lakes in the US) and in the Winter it draws a lot of people for ice fishing.  We were planning on going kayaking for a few hours.  It was a beautiful drive with miles and miles of farm land on either side of the highway.  When we arrived at the lake it was much too cold and windy for kayaking.  The lake actually had whitecaps on it!  And we are weenies so we had a nice lunch in the little town instead!  



We decided to drive on to Jamestown, ND.  On the way out of the town of Devils Lake we stopped at Fort Totten.  It is located within the Spirit Lake Indian Reservation and is the site of tribal headquarters.  It was built after the Civil War by the Army to protect settlers in the area.  Later it was adapted for use as an Indian boarding school run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  It is an interesting historic site and we enjoyed reading about the experiences of the Native Americans attending school there.  It is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places and one of the structures is used as a bed and breakfast and one is used as a community theater.  We were lucky to be there on a slow day and David was able to engage the historian there in a long conversation about being a member of the Dakota tribe.  You know you can read all the brochures and plaques in the world but nothing replaces conversations with knowledgeable people!  We had a great visit there.  Here are a few pictures we took there -- the historic marker, the school room and the general store.
































On to Jamestown!  We found our hotel and it was right next to Wal-Mart so we stopped in to buy some bottled water and breakfast bars to have before working out in the morning.  Now we are relaxing in our room watching TV.  

Tommorrow is a VERY exciting day and I can hardly wait!  Good night.