There are a lot of fun places to go looking at Christmas lights. Marina Bay used to be a hot spot, but I’m not sure that’s the case any more. The limo companies used to offer packages to cruise around in a limo and look at lights, but I haven’t heard much about that lately. Hopefully it’s still going on, because there are great displays if you know where to look.
As part of Mandan’s Holiday Shop Hop, KTM Cycle Hutt offered a challenge to their 16 employees: decorate the best tree and win $1,000 in cash; 2nd place $500; 3rd place $100.
To jump-start the decorating frenzy, each employee was given $250. The 16 uniquely decorated Christmas trees will be on display from December 2nd through December 28th outside KTM Cycle Hutt located on the Strip in Mandan (3700 Memorial Highway).
Drive by to view the colorfully lit Christmas trees during this holiday season. If you would like to vote for your favorite Christmas tree visit www.cyclehutt.com or stop in the dealership 9 am to 9 pm weekdays, Saturday 9 am to 1 pm. through December 20th. For 2008 KTM Cycle Hutt will allow non-employee Christmas tree entries.
You can visit Cycle Hutt on the strip in Mandan. You can’t miss the trees, which are positioned around the lot. When you drive through, please stop to take a close look at all the trees; there are some pretty cool items hanging in them to complete each tree’s theme! When you find a favorite, don’t forget to vote. Click here to vote online for your favorite tree at KTM’s “ndracing.com” website.
If you want to see this house, simply look southwest from any high ground in Bismarck-Mandan. Seriously, though…simply cross the river and take the first right. Stay on this road until you reach the Fort Lincoln school. Continue to go straight from the 4-way stop there, and you can see the house to your right. From there I forget the exact turn to take, but I think it’s the third turn on the right. You’ll figure it out. If you get lost, you can always look for the glow!
With the NWS forecasting temperatures around 30 for the next couple of days, with the strong possibility of freezing rain, I really hope our cities can keep their white blanket intact. A white Christmas is the only kind of Christmas for this guy!
For some reason, people in Bismarck-Mandan need very little excuse to drive around and look at other peoples’ houses. A friend of mine who lived in a very luxurious home in a south Bismarck neighborhood spoke of these people with great disdain, as he felt as if he was some sort of exhibit while out washing his cars or working in the yard. Go to any well-to-do neighborhood and you’ll find them, gapers toodling along at 10-15 miles per hour, apparently living vicariously through those whose houses are gape-worthy.
Northview Lane is normally not such a neighborhood, but they certainly get the attention for the last few weeks out of each year. Once these lights go up, traffic is almost non-stop. In fact, it was pretty annoying for me to try to take a picture of it! I decided to set my shutter speed at a full thirty seconds long, causing the headlights and taillights of the cars to show up as streaks in the picture, but erasing the cars themselves.
My favorite time of the year is driving around during the Christmas season, Charlie Brown Christmas music playing in the truck’s minidisc player, with my wife by my side. She and the new baby were having a special evening at a friend’s house tonight, so little PJ and I took the trip ourselves. He dozed off halfway down Northview, so it was just me and the camera after that. If time allows, I’ll try to photograph my favorite Christmas displays this year. It’ll help me brush up on my night photography skills and share the Christmas spirit as well. Stay tuned!
You’d be astonished how many hits I get on this site from out of state. Most are folks that left North Dakota, some many years ago, and are still looking back. It’s for you guys that I knock myself out to provide a little bit of the feel of July 4th here in Bismarck-Mandan. I’ll provide a few somewhat witty captions for context.
We’ll start with the Mandan July 4th Parade:
Fred Flintstone was there. Those arm tats must have been applied after the show was cancelled – they don’t look like Hanna-Barbera work.
What could be….well, cooler than a motorized cooler? Obviously one with nitrous, but that’s probably still on the drawing board.
First of the ninth, seventh pocketbike cav. First on the ground and keeping the throttle pinned wide open.
Next year, they’re going to bring the BIG one.
Amen.
“Seriously, kid…I once caught a Gundar this tall…”
For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all. -James 2:10Now let’s shift gears to the state capitol. My wife, boy, and I arrived at the show a little late as we had other things going on this evening. No worries, we were able to hook up with our friends in time to catch the second half of the performance by the Bismarck Mandan Symphony. The show was hosted by Kent Conrad, who could walk to the festivities from the apartment building he owns (if he actually lived there). Anyway, here’s the pics:
But where do you get a guy to do flagpole repair on a holiday weekend? Good question. If I had a cherry picker I’d rig something up, but that would probably result in my arrest. I would hope that someone would go to whatever lengths necessary to get Old Glory back where it belongs, especially in time for Memorial Day. You’ve got 48 hours, folks…let’s make it happen!
By the way, it didn’t look to me like the flag pole had been sabotaged or vandalized. My guess was that the recent high winds probably broke something up top that was near failure and finally broke. Maybe the North Dakota Peace Coalition was trying to run a white flag up the pole and broke it! I don’t know. In any case, I just hope they get it fixed. It’s really embarassing to have the flag missing from the state capitol during the Memorial Day holiday.
Having successfully performed an attitude adjustment, I burned tires back to the house, grabbed the family, and went out to look at Christmas lights. We were able to ignore the absence of snow, as were many others. Northview Lane was absolutely packed with constant traffic, as were other Christmas display hot spots. Bismarck-Mandan residents, including newly reminded ones like myself, don’t allow Christmas to be determined by precipitation totals; rather, by their good cheer.
There are still a few hours of Christmas Day left…let’s make the most of them!