Cowgals Saloon ~ YeeHaw!
Posted on Sunday, October 19th, 2008
Tonight was spent at the Cowgals Saloon in Great Bend, North Dakota. I ended up trusting a search engine address which put us 20 miles north in Abercrombie, a nice town, but without a Cowgals Saloon. I called the owner Natalie, who kindly put me back on track and told me (for a second or third time) that she’s in Great Bend, North Dakota, a town with a population of 107. Natalie and her employee Eugene got us settled down with dinner and drinks and informed us that it may be a slower night due to the Merle Haggard concert at the casino in a neighboring city. But, within minutes of starting our young set we were met with requests for Tom Petty, Nirvana and country. And when I admitted to Amy (a local requester) that I didn’t know any country covers, she quickly let me know that I was in the wrong area…..in the friendliest way of course. A little Free Fallin and Polly made up for it and I figure I better learn some Johnny Cash and George Straight pretty quickly. We sold some CD’s throughout the evening and I am beginning to feel very comfortable playing in a foreign place. I feel like I’m getting closer to letting myself be completely me while playing music for people.
Natalie invited us to stay parked out in front of Cowgals Saloon and told us to come back in before we left for a pancake breakfast!! That was just what we needed. And as soon as we walked in for breakfast, we were invited to sit down with Craig and his father Harold (and they gave us our first batch of cakes too!). Craig is a pastor who was back visiting his hometown and never thought he’d be eating breakfast at the place that had strictly been the town bar for years before Natalie took over and started cooking her delicious food. We chatted with them about how nice it was to catch them during our short visit and Harold told us a story about a time when he was at the bar some 50 or 60 years ago. Apparently, a guy had hit a badger on the road and brought it into the bar to show off. Well, this guy was holding the badger up by its tail when he realized the badger wasn’t dead and it ran around the bar creating an uproar from the patrons. His stories had us laughing out loud and was a great way to get us started on the road to Minnesota. Thanks for all your hospitality Natalie and for sportin’ the OOP shirt! Take a vacation and come visit us in California (Natalie has opened and closed Cowgals every day for the past 400 days)!
Enjoying the delicious food at Cowgals Saloon ~ Great Bend, ND
Natalie ~ owner of Cowgals Saloon
Cowgals Saloon on the road to Knowhere
Pastor Craig and his father Harold
Hey, this was a great update. Very funny! I was in ND in 1974, in a brand new VW bus, with my husband (not Bill!), and a black lab puppy. We were traveling across the US, and had just left a wheat operation in Lakota ND, went camping in a brand new KOA. It was August. The mosquitos invaded our car and we had to leave the campground, roll the windows down, get on the freeway and drive like H__L to get them out of the car so we could go back to sleep. See what you’ve done to me — made me get all mushy! Thanks a lot!
Hugs and best wishes and many blessings on you 2. I’m really enjoying the vicarious trip.