Some of us plan out our summer road trips to visit friends or family, or to revisit some favorite spots.
But at least a few of us make each new trip part of a larger goal: visiting all 50 states.
If you’re one of those people, the state of North Dakota has a club just for you.
Now to be very clear, there are things to see and do in North Dakota.
They’re apparently not terribly well known, given that one of Google’s suggested search terms as I researched today’s episode was “is there anything worth seeing in North Dakota?”
I guess they haven’t heard about the mural in Fargo where it looks like you’re walking through the first level of Super Mario Brothers.
Fair or not, a lot of travelers have gone elsewhere.
They’ve thought of North Dakota as too sparsely populated, too hard to get to, too cold, too… whatever.
And that even includes the 50 state crowd.
Some of the workers at the Fargo-Moorhead Visitors Center realized that quite a few people were arriving and saying that now that they’d been to North Dakota they had been to every state… meaning, we went everywhere else before here!
Rather than take offense, the team decided to turn this into a positive.
In 2013, they created the Best For Last Club.
Anyone who arrives at their welcome center and says that North Dakota was state number 50 on their travel list is automatically part of the club.
They get a t-shirt, a certificate and maybe even a round of applause from the welcome center staff.
This is still maybe not a big motivator for everyone, but the staff has also said that at least some travelers have reworked their plans so that they could save a visit to North Dakota so they could join the Best for Last Club.
I still have the state on my to-visit list, so welcome center friends, if you’re listening, I prefer short-sleeved t-shirts.
Today in 1907, a woman in Paris, Madeleine Ravier, received a patent for what she called a “bicycle for animals.”
Technically this one was a bicycle for a horse, but she figured there could be bikes for all kinds of creatures.
Maybe someday that horse could win the Tour de France!
Are we doing summer road trips again? If so, consider the Best For Last Club in North Dakota (Fargo-Moorhead Welcome Center)
Madeleine Ravier’s Bicycle for Animals (Weird Universe)
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