North Dakota

We stuck to Route 2 across North Dakota, which was pretty much the original plan, although I had hoped we'd have time to swing south through Teddy Roosevelt NP (the ND badlands are more extensive and more interesting than the ones that most folks visit in South Dakota east of Wall Drug).

We drove past the old Schulmberger shop and the Super 8 in Williston and I even found the "Chateau" apartments in Minot where I spent a good part of 1982 while the bottom was dropping out of the oil market. The area around Tioga and Stanley was buzzing with activity - apparently they've found a way to squeeze oil directly out of the Bakken shale and there are new wells were everywhere. D politely tolerated my convoluted explanations of how oil and gas are located and extracted.

The Minot train station has been fixed up since I was last here - when D & I were returning from Chicago on the Empire Builder in April, 2005.

In Rugby, we marveled at how the Geographic Center of North America happens to occur right at an intersection along Route 2. Convenient. We stayed near Grand Forks and crossed the Red River the next morning, where it was actually drizzling.