In the morning there was a field in the distance that looked like it was shimmering a light blue. I thought it might be flax in bloom because I had noticed I would be riding through the town of Flaxville today. Then eventually there was a field next to the road that was blue so I stopped, it was flax!
It took a long time to get across Montana, I guess I didn’t take the most direct route but it is a long state West to East.
I hadn’t rode into North Dakota very far when a UPS driver pulled up next to me while I was riding and asked where I was headed we had a brief conversation and he wished me good luck.
I was getting close to the town of Fortuna, North Dakota and was thinking that I wouldn’t mind ending my day there, so I looked on Google Maps at what my options might be and I saw a place called The Teacher’s Lounge. That sounded familiar and I realized I had read a book by David Goodrich called “A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean” (about a bike tour predictably) and attended a speaking engagement about the book with my author friend, Greg.
The town of Fortuna was the home of an Air Force radar Station from 1952 to 1984 that increased the population and stimulated the economy for those years but when the station was closed the population and economy took on a downward trajectory. The school no longer had enough kids to keep it open and was subsequently sold off to a local person who transformed it into a bar/hotel/connivence store/ RV campground. Gotta love creative adaptive use of old buildings. The bar is called “The Teacher’s Lounge” and the whole place is called “The Old School Center”
I called the place from the last town before Fortuna and asked if they might be open to letting me camp there. I told them I would patronize them by having dinner and a beer and they let me camp for free! I enjoyed talking to the locals at the bar and not having to cook dinner.
Slow and Steady 
Leave a comment