We left Fergus Falls and it was a nice area of rolling green hills but few trees. We had traveled 230 miles before we stopped for the night. That was kind of a depressing number not because we did not drive as far as we wanted but because that meant we had over 3,000 miles to go yet. That seems like a lot when 230 is all that is on the trip meter! By the way, America's Motel in Fergus Falls: I wish to amend my critique- do NOT go there! The free breakfast was free for a reason and matched the hotel- poor. We decided to head down the road and stop once we entered into Fargo for breakfast. Not long out of that area we hit what I had heard about but not seen...flat land. Not a little flat but really flat. Pancake flat. See for 100 miles flat. Take your hands off the steering wheel, set the cruise control and take a nap flat. Michelle said it was like her belly used to be before we had kids- kind of flat!! (She said it I didn't!) Are you understanding how flat it is?
We stopped by a truck stop called Stamart for breakfast . 2nd mistake in 24 hours! I think they had the same cook as the hotel. It is an amazing thing to see my wife taking a sharp knife to a pancake and still cannot cut through it. It reminded me of an old Three Stooge routine where an bunch of feathers from a pillow fell into the batter and the resulting pancakes were "tough" to chew for the Stooges. I believe the "eggs" are still and will be in my digestive system for some numbers of days to come as well.
Over all it was an fun day on the road. We had some rain, some high winds and sun. Grace took the shotgun seat with me in the pick-up today and she read two of her Rainbow Fairy books to me. I listened as a dad should and asked questions- not so much out of interest but out of not wanting to fall asleep behind the wheel. We talked back and forth with mom and the rest of the crew in the Yukon via two way radios. Yesterday David read to me from his Iceberg Hermit book which I read when I was his age.
I just realized we have the ultimate in Alaskan vehicles because of their names! I drive a Chevy Avalanche and Michelle drives a Yukon. The only concern is with the Yukon is that it is white- Can you loose a Yukon in the snow????? Should I be concerned here?
We did see some cool stuff today too. We saw thousand upon thousands of white butterflies on the highway. It was kind of sad because they were blowing and dead all over the highway and also covering the grill of my black truck. it is bad enough my Avalanche which is a 2002 is black with rainbow metal flake paint on the body armor but now it is got white wings and green butterfly juice all over it too! I wonder how many of those little white wings motorcyclist got in their teeth going down the road? This migration of these white cabbage butterflies went on for at least a hundred miles. It was incredible. We also saw some crop dusters flying and one bi-wing plane out doing loop-d-loops and other air stunts.
Still one of the most memorable things we saw was the land. This was the land that Lewis and Clark traveled as part of their expedition of the Louisiana purchase. When they came out of the rolling hills one cannot wonder what they thought when they found themselves able to look for miles and miles of grassy plains with few to no tress anywhere. Green grass bending in the wind, white floating clouds breaking up the brilliant blue sky. When we reached Devils' Lake and then Minot we could see the devastation of the rains that flooded that area this spring and early summer. It looked like Hwy 29 was underwater at some point and clean up an Minot is still underway. Large areas of Minot have become temporary dumping zones for clean up projects. As we made our way through Minot the land again got a roll to it. Hwy 29 as it climbs out of Minot has a steep upgrade to it and some awesome views of valleys and hills. A 100 plus years ago you can imagine someone riding along on horse back or wagon lead by a team of oxen. As you go up one green grass cover hill and it peaks you are able to look down into another valley. What will be there? A one room sod house of someone who is trying to scratch out a living on the prairie, another empty valley to traverse through or a settlement of Native Americans camped along side a flowing river.
Today it is all mapped out. Some of it is in crops like corn. We passed sunflower fields on today's drive as well. We saw more wheat fields today. The wheat fields were not tan-ish in color as I imagined them to be. The fields were a rich gold color that stood in sharp contrast to the green fields of other crops or grass land that boarder them. We drove to Williston to stop for the night. We saw between Minot and Williston a good sight to see for an America that is struggling financially. American technology at its best was creating jobs and causing surrounding towns, people and companies to make money and get people to work. Hotels and restaurants are packed in Williston with oil workers, truck drivers, construction people, road builders and many other hard working people making money off the boom of oil shale exploration. Don't let anyone kid you, there is money that trickles down when business prosper. I talked with a really nice tanker truck driver. He works 7 weeks on and 2 off and is on call 24 hours a day during that 7 weeks on. He gets 135.00 and hour and he owns his truck. Last month he made 20,000 between on call pay and work pay. He paid off his home in Idaho and has a two year plan because this is hard work and he does not want to do it forever.He lives out of a hotel here in town but also sleeps in his truck when they are filling or unloading him. He pays the hotel $100. a night. He eats, buys gas, clothing all here so everyone is helped by this exploration. It was good to see America at work producing something. My prayer is that we see what we can do with this and begin again to do it with other things as well.
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As I think back over the day it was good to see what God created being put to use- not abused. Some areas were for crops some areas were left alone. We passed through a cattle area that give us food to heat and there were hundreds of large round bails of hay harvested to feed the cattle. Oil drilling, sunflower fields, wheat fields, corn and even some wind mills are going up in this area of the United States. We are blessed to live here and it seems to me a smart use of what God has given and I believe that is God pleasing.
We enter Canada tomorrow. Please say a prayer for continued safe travel for us.
I am not giving up the shorts and short sleeve shirts yet but I understand from reliable sources that here is termination dust on the mountains surrounding Anchorage. What is termination dust you ask- I had to ask too! Termination dust is a term for the first snows that cover the mountain tops. It is a signal that winter is on the way and back in the day of seasonal workers, that termination dust meant to wrap up the job and start the trek down to the lower 48! I know what some of you are thinking- the answer is No, we ARE going the right direction :-)
God Bless, Andy, Michelle, and the kids
