18 August 2017, Friday

Vincent was pretty well organized by bedtime last night. This morning we have a substantial breakfast at The Chocolate Mousse and are on the road at 8:35. Only our tent and tarp are still soggy. They will have to wait until Montana to dry. We drive westward and southward through Minnesota, from the forests and lakes of the north to the rolling green prairie of the west and south of the state.

Crossing into North Dakota at Fargo, we pick up Interstate 94 and quickly exit for Fargo Brewing Company for a late lunch/early dinner around 3 pm. I enjoy a Stone’s Throw Scottish Ale on nitro and O has a stronger Doppelbock, 7^th Anniversary. (It’s my turn to drive after lunch.) Then it’s back to the highway through the North Dakota farm and ranch land. The road is straight, the land is green, the sky is blue, but hazy (probably from western fires) and the miles fly by. By 7:30 pm we are at Bismarck Days Inn. We are near the western edge of central time so it remains light well into the evening. The woman at the motel desk explains that the time zone change used to be at the Missouri River where it runs through Bismarck, but revelers would leave bars on the east side of town, cross the river half drunk, and have another hour of drinking on the west side of the Missouri. The time zone border was finally moved about 60 miles further west.