Friendship Inn Minot

The weather cooperated today and I had some time so I took myself on a little walk around our home. Just wanted to share some pictures with you..hopefully they will help you understand why I like the Corps of Engineers parks so well and why we wouldn't trade in this gypsy life for anything!

... visited the fort to trade corn, beans and squash. They also shared information with the Corps of Discovery. Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian trader who was living with the Hidatsa, came to the fort to ask about being hired as an interpreter. Charbonneau brought along his Shoshone wife, Sakakawea (also commonly spelled Sacagewea). Lewis & Clark knew that Sakakawea's translations would be invaluable in their travels west. They also ...

... early start, tried for 7am, and managed 7:30am. Not bad! Both man and machine needed fuel, but I wanted to tuck a few miles under my belt first. We rode 30 minutes from Cut Bank, MT to Shelby, MT, and ate at "The Griddle". I ordered two eggs over easy, two link sausages, and two pancakes. All good, except...the pancakes were roughly the size of a friggin Viking shield or something. They were enormous. This doesn't happen to me often, but... I left some food ...

We spent another day on the road, hitting some new states for most of us. We had lunch in South Dakota at a diner called Z'kota, which had great burgers. We got into Steve's before dark. Soon, we'll be headed on a mini-trip over to Mount Rushmore for the holiday weekend.

... 424 miles ago back in Wyoming) and paid a second visit to Wall Drug.  I thought long and hard about the spurs, chaps and Stetsons, and most of all, whether I had any male relatives who would appreciate one of those braided leather neck-tie things with a metal clip, but eventually escaped the mad place empty handed.  After Wall the roads were long and very straight ...

... the road she noticed Dave was talking to a policeman. What's the deal here? Well turns out he had pulled over a truck driver, and when he had finished giving him a ticket he decided to use the facility. When he came out Dave strikes up a conversation with the guy. Turns out he has lived in Michigan - went to high school in Michigan in Rudyard in da UP. Small world. Well he didn't have any patches, or coins or anything to trade so we cut him loose pretty fast and ...

... themed park. apparently, there are a lot of norwegian and swedish folks in the area, and they even host an annual week-long fair that draws people from around the world. the most exciting things in the little park were a large scale replica of a viking castle and a huge swedish horse. julie and i had to stop to take pictures because we knew our mom and her swedish pride would kill us if she found out we rolled right past. when we ...

Our goal for today was to make it to Minot, ND. We were on the road by 7:45 am and headed west. The traffic was light and the weather was overcast, threatening to rain all day. We did get an occasional shower, but hardly enough to wet the road. I believed we passed about 1,000 of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes. They were all along the highway ...

... The only plausible excuse is the rhythm of this car trip. Calendar dates and even time of day has been absent from Chere's life. Her old structured life of living by a calendar and a clock has been tossed out - and with it some of the truly meaningful calendar dates that deserve remembrance. /Chere hangs her head in shame. Rory deserves better. /Waves Goodbye to Montana Moving from Montana ...

... the next day. It had a cool jungle/rainforest and aquarium. Just hung out at the house again in the evening. We drove the short bit to Lincoln and met up with Josh's cousin, Mark, and his wife. Mark took us on a tour of the university. Went to Grand Island to see another uncle. We were treated to a steak dinner and more tv watching. May 15 we headed west through Nebraska and north into the Dakotas. On our way we passed by ...