Bismarck, North DakotaSep 8, 2009
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| We get very little sleep this night, and decided to leave this morning. Unbelievably, the Canadian parked next to us said he heard neither the trains nor the storm. We are astounded, wishing with all our hearts that we could sleep like that. We head towards Bismark, where we plan on staying in the Super Wal-Mart there. We are in the flat-lands again, driving down the roads with wheat and grain as far as the eye can see. We are now in Central Time, two hours different then Oregon. The days are getting noticeably shorter, and our walks at night are not able to go on as we are accustomed to in the summer – the dark comes upon us so early now. Bismark has a population of 82 or 89, 0000 people, I can’t remember what the lady said at the Visitor’s Center, and it is a “regular “city. They have ND accents here, and as we head east we can detect the Scandinavian and Canadian combined influences. I love to listen to the same words spoken so differently as we travel around the country. We walked along the Missouri on their River Walk, but the park was closed just a little ways up, and our walk was cut short. We found a car wash and managed to wash some of the dirt off of the little Hyundai, but it is still not clean and shiny. The RV is filthy too, but water is too precious and too expensive in most parts, and we aren’t allowed to use it to wash vehicles. It has been our experience that every once in a while a park will let you clean your vehicles, and it is a god-send. Hate to drive around in a dirty house. Of cause we shopped at Wal-Mart, and pick up the odds and ends we need. There is always something that we run out of or will soon run out of, and we don’t always find a place to buy groceries in our travels. We park close to the store for the night, and there are other fifth wheels and motor homes nearby. We don’t open our slides until evening, and also don’t turn our generator on until most of the shoppers go home. We like to be considerate to others, and we are grateful to Wal-Mart for allowing us to park there for free. We always go into the store and ask permission before we find a spot for the night. So far, they have been very nice and we are welcome. Once again, the train tracks are nearby, and the trains do not stop all night, blowing their horns. At five in the morning, the lot cleaners come, with their loud blowers right outside our window. Beggars can’t be choosey, but we didn’t sleep the night before, and I am ready to move on and spend tomorrow night in a nice quiet RV park in Minnesota. I forgot to say that we picked up a rock along the road when we were in Montana, and got a new chip in our front window on the driver’s side. While in Bismark, we found a mobile glass guy, who came out and repaired the chip before it could spread across the whole window. He told Dick that he fixes a 1000 chips per year, at a minimum of $40 per chip, if you pay cash. $60 if you pay with your insurance. We also picked some additional information up about North Dakota, which is that they have not been overly affected by the recession. They have only a 4% unemployment rate, which is unreal, even during the best of times. Although we learned that the Bob Cat Manufacturing plant is closing and 500 workers will be unemployed very soon. Anyway, we are out of here and on to a new adventure down the road! See Ya! |
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