Tally at Sheyenne National Grasslands

four cars
2 escaped horses
uncountable mosquitos and raindrops
15 seminarians
2 fearless leaders
1 Arnie, the happiest yellow dog
5 ticks on Donna
3 'exotic' colors of condoms at Kojak's: red green AND yellow
1/2 pound burger
3 pitchers of Amber Bock
0 veggies
1 fine adventure

Ludefisk

When revelling in the rejection of something foreign, is it fair to say I tried? I conquered? I understand the otherness of this thing? When that thing is a piece of cod that has been cured in lye to the point of jellification, I think so. So did the 88-year old Norwegian woman sitting next to me at the Hjemkomst Center. She paused the hymns that she had been singing to pinch her face, roll her eyes and say, "I never touch the stuff."

Kathryn, North Dakota

I stopped and observed the insides of the oatmeal pie, in hopes I could make sense of its delectablity. It was the end of my meal that started with Knemfla and could have ended with that bison burger on a homemade bun; but, I wanted to taste all of the things I hadn't heard of on the small menu at the Rusty Spur cafe . That is how I explore; does that make sense? Or does it make the kind of stupid sense that got me to stop eating the oatmeal pie and to look- as if that could help me understand it better.

Tourist

When, in her lilting voice, Dawn Charging talked about the people in the city who thought their burgers flew in on the buns, the farmers, in their suspenders, and the researchers, in their NDSU green laughed, and I knew she was talking about me. When she mentioned that she could sew up any calf from a young age, I realized: I may never get my hands into that kind of dirt and I would always be a visitor in North Dakota and maybe always a tourist.