Day 1: Minnesota to North Dakota
It's 8 am and I'm sitting in a dingy motel room. Last night was insane.
We left home around 4 pm, and had to take a detour around the next town to get onto I-94. But then we were on our way. We didn't stop until we got close to Moorhead/Fargo to fill up on gas and use the restroom. Then it was back to the road again.
North Dakota is empty. Except for Valley City (yeah, I'm sure you're imagining that correctly) the terrain was flat, mostly brown, and never-ending.
It was probably pushing 10:30 or 11 pm when we stopped for more gas in New Salem. I got myself a delicious Vanilla Mocha BLAST coffee to stay awake and good thing, because about an hour later traffic (what little of it there was) had come to a screeching halt on the freeway.
Police car blocked both lanes and was directing people to the nearest exit. He told us to take it, go north until we reach Hebron and then take 10 until we came back around to I-94.
So after about 30 minutes of winding around some dirt roads in middle of nowhere (and following the tail lights in front of us) we finally got back on the interstate. Turns out there was a gas leak or something and part of the freeway was blocked off. Good thing we made it back safely though....it would suck to be lost in the middle of ND at night.
Then we passed into Mountain Time and decided to get a room for the night. So now we're in Beach, ND - close to the Montana border and as soon as the boy wakes up and gets moving...we'll be on our way again.
We should be in Seattle by later today if driving is smooth and there are no mountain road closures or such. Crossing my fingers here. Wish us luck!
Oh yeah, Happy Shoot Fireworks and Burn Your Neighbor's House Down Day.
We left home around 4 pm, and had to take a detour around the next town to get onto I-94. But then we were on our way. We didn't stop until we got close to Moorhead/Fargo to fill up on gas and use the restroom. Then it was back to the road again.
North Dakota is empty. Except for Valley City (yeah, I'm sure you're imagining that correctly) the terrain was flat, mostly brown, and never-ending.
It was probably pushing 10:30 or 11 pm when we stopped for more gas in New Salem. I got myself a delicious Vanilla Mocha BLAST coffee to stay awake and good thing, because about an hour later traffic (what little of it there was) had come to a screeching halt on the freeway.
Police car blocked both lanes and was directing people to the nearest exit. He told us to take it, go north until we reach Hebron and then take 10 until we came back around to I-94.
So after about 30 minutes of winding around some dirt roads in middle of nowhere (and following the tail lights in front of us) we finally got back on the interstate. Turns out there was a gas leak or something and part of the freeway was blocked off. Good thing we made it back safely though....it would suck to be lost in the middle of ND at night.
Then we passed into Mountain Time and decided to get a room for the night. So now we're in Beach, ND - close to the Montana border and as soon as the boy wakes up and gets moving...we'll be on our way again.
We should be in Seattle by later today if driving is smooth and there are no mountain road closures or such. Crossing my fingers here. Wish us luck!
Oh yeah, Happy Shoot Fireworks and Burn Your Neighbor's House Down Day.
Wow, what an adventure, glad you didn't get lost!
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