May 6, 2012 - Ashby, MN to Minot, ND

May 6 Ashby, MN/Minot, ND Departed at 8:19 AM in 53 degrees. This is such flat land with nothing but an occasional oasis with a house, barm, grass and some trees; a tiny little postage stamp in the middle of a “gazillion” acres. The wind has blown fiercely all day and nearly knocked Richard over while refueling somewhere in ND. He describes ND as miles and miles of black earth, blacker than charcoal. And I say the view on either side is unremarkable with breaks of boredom! Found the Roughrider Campground in Minot inhabited mainly by oil...

Jun 20, 2011 - Minot/Bismarck, ND

Leaving Hart Ranch was difficult. Nearly the perfect RV park. In caravan with Liz and Moe, we moved North to visit cousins Jim and Caroline in Kenmare, North of Minot. We had been listening to reports of flooding along the Missouri River, and now hear that the Mouse River is in danger of flooding in Minot. The Mouse starts in Canada where it is called the Souris. With new rains up North, we decided to camp in Bismarck to see what would happen. Jim and Caroline came down to stay with us and visit. After one night, we were watching the news...

Jun 16, 2011 - Minot, ND

Unbelievable how much flooding currently exists across Montana & North Dakota; so many areas where temporary lakes exist, with no appearance of nearby rivers that have overflowed!!!! We went through one stretch, still on US 2, where one of these temporary lakes was washing across the road sufficiently that temporary speed limit signs of 5 MPH had been posted. As vehicles passed through, it created a huge wake splash. We anticipated seeing miles & miles of wheat fields, but instead we are seeing miles & miles of water fields. From 25-50...

Aug 29, 2010 - "Doing" Minot

We spent the day "doing" Minot, population 35,000. There isn't much to it. We did go to the Roosevelt Zoo. It is pretty small and has the old-fashioned smelly, metal cages for most of its animals. We also strolled the grounds of the Scandinavian Heritage Park. They have a really neat Gol Stave Church. A stave church is a medieval wooden church with a post and beam construction. Being of wood, they do not last as long as stone structures. Nevertheless, 28 of the stave churches built after the year 1100 still survive. This one was built in...

Aug 28, 2010 - Why not Minot?

Williston, North Dakota is in the center of an oil boom. The oil shale area is in ND, SD, MT, Manitoba and Saskatchewan. The oil shale could produce up to 503 billion barrels of oil. We had tried to get reservations in Williston but everything in the area is sold out so we had to drive farther today than is our norm. We drove through mile after mile of ranch lands and wheat fields punctuated with oil rigs. The small towns (populations of 48, 73, 54 etc.) are being impacted by the oil boom. Most are building housing at a frantic pace....

Aug 1, 2010 - Minot, North Dakota

Short day driving through the hay and wheat fields. Have started seeing enormous wind turbine farms. Minot has a Wal-Mart and a Target! There is an air force base located here. Parking lots full of Canadian license plates - even two buses from Canada at Target. Only reason we know is hotel is located just off the parking lot. No ranger to tell us but under tornado watch - again!! Tornadoes touched down overnight just east of us.

Jul 26, 2010 - Minot, North Dakota

OMG, it got to 100 F (38 C) today. We left Havre early to get a cooler ride, but by noon, it was unbearable! We persevered, and arrived in Minot at around 5 pm. It was too HOT!!! Stayed at Grand International Hotel for the nite. They had a really good rate, and is top of the line, in our opinions!

May 14, 2010 - Minot, North Dakota

Minot located in north central North Dakota, with a population of 36,567 Minot is the fourth largest city in the state. The city is a trading center for a large portion of northern North Dakota, southwestern Manitoba, and southeastern Saskatchewan. Founded in 1886 during the construction of the Great Northern Railway, Minot is also known as the "Magic City". These days the big news is oil & gas. New methods of drilling have made it possible to tap wells and they are doing as well as 5000 barrels a day.

Aug 10, 2009 - West on US 2

Saturday 8/08 Woke up to the pouring rain, went back to bed and slept in. Hey it worked – rain has stopped and we are off to the Miner’s Castle at Pictured Rocks NP. The folks up here must be used to bad weather because the park is crowded. Folks in cars, bikers [in jeans and leather, not rain suits] who are local all having a great day. Back home everyone would stay home. The colors in the water, sand and rocks are beautiful. The pics almost do it justice. One of the castle “tops” fell off a few years ago. I checked the post card we got...

Aug 9, 2009 - Westward ho! About time in August.

Saturday, August 8: My Dennis will be 25 years of age in 20 days! If I were still teaching, I would report to work and begin organizing and decorating my room next week. Instead, I am on the road trip of a lifetime and in the Central Time Zone in the State of Wisconsin. Today was a great day, but not for weather. Woke up to rain (what else?). Geared up and had some sprinkles as we headed to observe the lovely painted rocks on Lake Superior. Just a bit of trivia: Lake Superior is the largest fresh water lake in the world. In some places...

Jul 21, 2009 - Arriving in Minot

We arrived at our campground in Minot late. It’s probably one of the worst we’ve had on the trip. Our site was near the sewer dump station and as luck would have it, the wind was blowing in our direction. Our usual nightly end of the road beer and snack was cut short because of the awful smell. In addition, internet access through the camp wifi was non-existent. Cell phone coverage by AT&T has been bad so I can’t even get to the net through my phone. This has been a common problem the last week or so which has put me behind in posting the...

Jul 19, 2009 - One last game of washers

Invited over to Tom & Melody's for lunch along with Ellen & Gerry. The guys played washers, the gals played Yahtzee. Then we all went up to visit Harris, he seems to be happy to see us & sad to see us go. Met up with Leroy & Kathie to go to Bingo, Mary won $50 so we almost broke even.