North Dakota--Oil, Oil Everywhere!

On leaving Fort Peck, Montana, we headed into North Dakota. We intended to stop somewhere before Minot. However, road construction, lack of pull-offs, and 'man camps' everywhere prevented us from sticking to our plan. As we drove along US 2 in eastern Montana, we started seeing oil rigs everywhere.When we crossed to North Dakota, we saw even more! Along with the rigs were portable housing units (man camps) in all the towns and even in between. The only rest area marked on our atlas had been closed for quite some time--the gates were locked and the pavement was overgrown! Even the gas stations that had large enough areas for us to pull over and eat lunch were very crowded. Add to this, road construction on US 2 and we were ready to head south! No, we didn't, but we were tempted.

We finally found a place to pull over and eat lunch. After looking at the map, we decided it would be a long driving day as we continued on to Minot, North Dakota which is about halfway across the state. Since we are members of Harvest Hosts, we stopped at Dakota Territory Air Museum near the Minot airport. As members of Harvest Hosts, we can stay one night at any of the participating hosts. Most hosts are wineries and farms, but there are several museums and breweries on the list, too.

 We arrived after the museum closed, but were looking forward to touring it the next morning. We were parked in the parking lot with these planes.

The next morning, we went to the museum, but found that it didn't open until 10. We really wanted to get on the road so we will have to visit it the next time we are in the area. Minot looked like an interesting area, but we were looking forward to spending time in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Much to our surprise, about every 50 miles along US 2 in eastern North Dakota there were very nice rest areas! Now why weren't there any in the western part of the state? We made our way to Grand Forks AFB about 14 miles east of Grand Forks, North Dakota. As we were readying to turn into the commercial gate, a global hawk flew over us to land on the nearby runway. It was a sight to see! It didn't make any noise at all!

Our original plan was to spend three nights at Grand Forks, but we extended it to five due to weather. It was overcast and windy everyday. It isn't any fun to drive/ride in a tall unit on an extremely windy day. Luckily, we found lots of activities to keep us busy. We made a geocache 'run for the numbers' on a country road south of Grand Forks. Another day we went hiking and caching at Turtle River State Park which was about 5 miles west of Grand Forks AFB. The trails were wooded and there were a few caches along the way.

 On Saturday we went into Grand Forks, North Dakota and East Grand Forks, Minnesota. In 1996 the North Red River flooded and washed away many businesses and homes along its banks in the Grand Forks area. Instead of rebuilding, the area was turned into a Greenway. There are hiking and biking trails with parks along both sides of the river. We parked near the Veteran's Memorial in East Grand Forks....

 and walked across the bridge to Grand Forks. After exploring the city and the Greenway, we had lunch on the boardwalk in East Grand Forks. The lady at the visitor center recommended Boardwalk  Blue Moose Pub and Grill. I have to say it was an excellent recommendation. Bob had a chipotle pulled pork sandwich that was huge and I had walleye fingers. Walleye might just be my new favorite fish!

 The leaves were just beginning to change in the area, but most were still green.

 The day before we left Grand Forks, we visited The National Wildlife Refuge at Kelly's Slough. The birds were having a great time waiting to migrate further south.

 From the observation deck we could see four different types of birds, all keeping to themselves in their own areas.

 While in Grand Rapids we began our search for new bicycles since we left our others in Whitehorse on our way to Alaska. We found one in Grand Forks for Bob, but they didn't have the same model for me. We will continue our search and if we don't find new ones before we get home, we will get them once we arrive.

We left Grand Forks and moved on to Minnesota. Bob made reservations at a Corps of Engineer campground southeast of Bemidji, Minnesota. We usually don't make reservations, but the weekend was approaching and we wanted to have a place to stay. A lot of campgrounds start closing mid-September to late October and unlike Alaska, there are no pull-outs where you can stop for the night!