First Lady Inn Keystone

Havre, Montana to East Grand Forks, Minnesota - are you kidding me? It was a very stressful day for yours truly. Someone let a fly into the truck, and I sat on it or something and it buzzed just terrible and scared me half to death. I thought it was a bee! I tried to get into the front seat and into Val's lap but no go. Dave wouldn't let me ride on the console so I was forced into the backseat with the ...

... part where they catch the wrong shark. it was so nice to be able to have a fire again. On our way out of the park we actually saw a bear. We figured it was most likely about two years old, too young to tell if it was a grizzly or not. The campground we're at now is ginormous. we think it has around 650 sites. This is, by far, the largest campground we've ever been at.

... bit, it was great to see but was in the shadow of our badlands experience. Tough life huh? Then we went back down the mountain a while to check out some underground caves. This was just like you would see in a film, wildly surreal and super fun. I would do it again if we weren't on a schedule to keep going.
And to wind down our day we drove to what seems to be one ...

... was my baby, too, so the feeling of awkwardness was mutual. I took her to a side road off highway 90 that seemed pretty desolate. A perfect place for a beginner to learn first gear. Most students of manual transmission are quick to get their feet off the clutch, thus throwing the car forward and stalling out. Once we got past that stage, she learned the balance of clutch versus gas, and after a few rocky attempts, we were cruising and I was crashing (asleep).

Thursday morning dawned with more cloud in the sky, but we soon drove out of the clouds and few snowflakes into sunshine, which continued the whole way to Grand Forks. We stopped several times at rest stops for a stretch and a washroom break. The design of the North Dakota rest stops is quite beautiful, with relief carving in the brickwork of the building façade. We drove the entire day on freeway, first I-94 and then I-29, so the miles went quickly. In the office of our ...

... We notice there will be a light show at 8:00pm. We soon come across the hotel we had booked online, The Roosevelt Inn. This is a family owned hotel near the centre of Keystone. It is a good choice for us and provides a large, clean room with good bathroom facilities. It is a little expensive (US$ 87.00) as we were there on the ...

... local Cabela's store. Don had complained about pebbles getting into his walking shoes and also about the sun burning his neck. The Cabela's manager donated a hat with a neck shade and gaiters. Don mentioned in his call to me today that he had observed something about rainbows as he passed through North Dakota. "It seems," he said, "that the colors of a rainbow are brightest when the clouds are the darkest."

... came to the visitor center and met some very nice people that worked on the refuge. The refuge has about 20 miles of road that the visitor can travel to see wildlife. Lots of deer,duck,geese,moose,wolves,eagles. The only thing that we didn't see was a moose or wolf. We had a fun day slipping and sliding and looking for the mysterious moose. When we got back I had to give big red a bath. Ray and Christa

... acres of sunflowers just makes you want to laugh. An amazing sight. Lodging Too Good to be True...? We were in Grand Forks by 5:30 that afternoon and booked into a very inexpensive motel chain called "America's Best Value Inn". Chere's sister had tried one in Orlando and it worked out pretty well. WiFi, laundromat, clean, safe, quiet - only $38 bucks. We've paid more for some of our ...

7:30 - Woke up and Devil's Tower staring at us. It looks huge. My calling card still doesn't work. That sucks. Well, we have a long day ahead of us so we should get started soon. 8:32 - Driving up to Devil's Tower. 8:55 - Saw Devil's Tower. Walked up to it, took a couple of pictures, and we left. There wasn't much more to do there unless we rock climb it but we decided not to. Onto Mt. Rushmore in ...