North Dakota, Here We Come

So, I think we may have finally signed the last piece of paperwork sometime last week to make our appointment as a physician in the clinic in Dickinson, ND officially official. Yes folks, in 2013 we will be moving to the Peace Garden State. Now, you may be asking yourself "What is a peace garden?" or maybe "What?!? Are they crazy!?! Isn't it like freezing up there? I have seen the movie Fargo and people died in that movie. Their deaths may or may not have been weather related..."
Don't worry, I will attempt to answer all of your North Dakota-related questions in one handy post, and I will even include some pictures.
Q: How did you guys even find out about a job in North Dakota?
I admit that when we got an email about a job that seemed pretty amazing but didn't list the location I was a little worried about what they were hiding. Usually, this means the job is in the middle of nowhere Alaska or in the deserts of east Texas or the swamps of southern Alabama or something. So, actually, when I heard it was in North Dakota I didn't think anything of it except, "I don't know anything about North Dakota."
After some brief research and looking at pictures I knew two things. 1. North Dakota is the "Peace Garden State" and 2. North Dakotans like to hunt. The clinic sent us pictures of the area meant to entice. There were pictures of beautiful vistas, but also a lot of pictures of dead pheasants.
Q: So, what, you were won over by pictures of dead pheasants? (And really, what IS a peace garden?)
Although the dead pheasants were impressive, it took more than that to win our hearts. They flew us out for an interview at the beginning of May. My parents graciously agreed to watch all four boys while Marc and I went to check it out. (The Peace Garden is a 2,000 plus acre garden that crosses the Canadian border and is maintained by both sides as a symbol of international peace. It is supposed to be pretty cool, and I think it is currently the only way you can visit Canada without a passport. We did not get to visit it on our trip.)
Anyway, we flew into the capitol city, Bismarck. It was a charming airport with just one terminal and four gates. Bismarck is home to just 61,000 people. From there it was a 90 mile drive due west to reach our destination of Dickinson, ND. The drive was lovely and fast and surprising. At one point we said "Holy cow!" and then started laughing because we had spotted Salem Sue:

http://www.realnd.com/salemsueindex.htm

Yes, that is a giant holstein cow. She is 38 feet tall. Like Texas, we got the feeling that things are bigger in North Dakota. Also on our drive we could see one of seven giant steel sculptures that line the "Enchanted Highway". It was really beautiful and quite impressive, entitled "Geese in Flight".

http://www.enchantedhighway.net/

It is listed in Guinness as "world's largest metal sculpture" and weighs in at almost 79 tons. Anyway, as I was saying we had a lovely drive into Dickinson and were met with friendly hospitality. We toured facilities, ate out for every meal, were put up in a lovely town house and were given an awesome gift basket which included some amazing chocolates. Frankly, I think it was the chocolates that won me over. Forget about the great people, awesome schools and incredible community center. They know the way to a woman's heart.

Q: Do North Dakotans have an accent?
Yes, yes they do. It sounds like a mix between Canadian and Minnesotan accents, which makes sense seeing as they border on Canada and Minnesota. Also they use charming phrases like, "Oh, it's about a horse a piece."
Q: Isn't North Dakota far away from... well, everywhere?
Oh, no. Any resident can tell you. "Oh, Dickinson is close to everywhere. It's only 8 hours to Minneapolis, 4 hours to Mount Rushmore, 7 hours to Yellowstone, and 8 hours to Winnipeg! We're just in the middle of everything."
Q: Is there anything to, uh, do? There?
Actually yes. We drove to the badlands which are part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. They really are close, only thirty minutes away and they are breathtaking. I have a couple of pictures but they just don't do the colors justice. The badlands are populated by roaming bison and running herds of wild ponies. We didn't see the ponies on our trip, but we absolutely saw bison. We also visited Medora, ND home of the Medora Musical. They have some great shops and we sampled some awesome homemade taffy and drooled over some stylin' cowboy boots. Anyway, here are the pictures:

That last one is buffalo chips. We failed to get a picture of the bison, but we have proof he was there!

So, yes there are a lot of outdoorsy kind of opportunities. Also, the city map lists the following on their Dickinson points of interest: Patterson Lake, Dakota Dinosaur Museum, Joachim Regional Museum, Ukranian Cultural Institute, Roughrider Outdoor Arena, oh and also Super Walmart. 

Q: Are you sure?

We are sure that this is where we are supposed to go next and we are looking forward to the adventure. The staff of the clinic Marc will be working for are thrilled to be getting him. They even sent us flowers on our anniversary. We hope our friends and family will also be adventurous and come visit when we move to the "Gateway to the West".