Bismarck, North Dakota

I knew ignorantly traveling like I am on this #workabout that I’d eventually run into a dud. Bismarck is a dud: not pretty; not much to do; uninteresting people. Nothing bad happened to me, it’s just that…nothing…really happened. Still took some pics, though, so let’s get into them.

The first thing I noticed upon getting into town and walking to my motel from my fun bus was how big the streets were. Like, every street, even in the neighborhoods, was like a 4-6 lane highway:

So, when judging distances looking at Google maps, I was always wildly off with how long it would take to walk to places.

Bismarck really is just neighborhoods of stand-alone single family homes, and every single house is neat & tidy & clean. They weren’t big, but 100% of them were perfectly kept up:

The only high-rise and building of note in town is the state Capitol building, 20 stories of…plainness:

This is where I can finally be positive: The inside of the capitol building was beautiful! It was built in the early 1930’s, when Art Deco was popular, and it’s a great example of that architecture:

I took the free tour of the building, and it was actually a pretty great lesson on what Art Deco is. I honestly didn’t know much about it before, but I’m now a fan.

And there was a nice view from the top, where you definitely realized you were in the prairies, with 35+ mile visibility:

It really did seem like a small town, though. I mean, the neighborhoods were right next to the Capitol grounds!

Obligatory photo from my time in the library there, which was nice, but nothing special (I’m clearly spoiled with the other amazing libraries I’ve been to on this trip)

Downtown was nice enough:

And they’re clearly trying to make things happen:

But there just wasn’t many people on the street, no matter where I went. The most surprising thing to me about Bismarck, however, is how not friendly the folks are. I mean, they’re not unfriendly, they’re just not friendly: No bartender was chattable; no other patron ever even looked at me; no checkout person ever gave a shit about my super-energetic & clever banter.

Honestly, the only person I ever had what resembled a conversation with in the two+ days I was there was this bingo caller at a pub, and she was on the microphone the whole time, and ended up publicly heckling me for not playing:

So, no need for you to ever go to Bismarck. If you ever end up there, though, take the free Art Deco tour of the Capitol, and eat at my burger place: