Summer 2007 Road Trip: One girl. One car. Over 8,000 miles.

Whew! It’s been a couple of crazy days. I swear, if you ever need to clear your mind and really become at peace with yourself, take a loooong road trip alone. It truly helps.

As of this moment, it is Friday, July 6th at about 10pm Mountain time. I just got into Mountain time right before hitting the town I’m in (which is Dickinson, ND). Now, in case you’ve never been to North Dakota, let me tell you, it’s mostly a LOT of nothing but fields and hills. Even the two major cities - Fargo and Bismark, are tiny. But this state has charm.

I’m going to do this update by day so that nobody gets confused. Although I myself might get confused, considering the fact I didn’t even know what time zone I was in until a very nice (and cute) gentleman informed me while waiting in line at the front desk of the hotel I’m currently in.

Tuesday

The last time I updated, I was in Chesterton, IN - at the Hilton Garden hotel (the one in the photo). That was Tuesday night. I don’t mind revealing the hotel since I left it already!

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday (the 4th of July), I drove to Minneapolis and checked into the Radisson hotel in Plymouth, MN. However, before hitting MN, I had to drive through Wisconsin. I stopped in Madison to eat lunch at IHop and visited the East Madison mall. (I bought some books on tape for the drive which seriously help with boredom!) I finally got to see Wisconsin and Minnesota - for the first time! I stayed Wednesday and Thursday nights in Minneapolis because I needed the rest - badly. I went to the Mall of America Thursday.

The Mall of America was breathtaking. Tons and tons and tons of stores. I was there for four hours and nearly keeled over in exhaustion by the time I drove back to my hotel. I was feeling pretty lousy that night and stayed in, watching TV and reading. I couldn’t even muster the energy to get on my laptop to do work! (Which is why there were no posts yesterday evening on TheSkinnyWebsite or this website).

Friday

This morning, I woke up extremely early with a fever. I also had a slight sore throat and still felt lousy. Let me tell you, I was NOT happy. Getting the flu on vacation!? Is that not unheard of or what?!

However, I have this stuff that is supposed to fight infections and sickness, called colloidal silver. (Silver Biotics). I took a teaspoon or two before leaving the hotel this morning. It seemed to have worked - right now, I feel OK. No fever, just a slight cough.

So, this morning before leaving MN, I went to Midas in Minnetonka to get my car’s fluids changed and tired balanced, although it really didn’t need it. (I just wanted to be sure that I can get over the Continental Divide with no problems). Damn Google maps gave me some bunk directions and I ended up going in circles. However, I finally found the place and got my car done quickly. I had a nice conversation with the guys there. After all, it isn’t often that they see a car with New Hampshire plates in Minnesota! The mechanic was cute, too.

So I quickly hopped on 94W and drove. And drove. And drove. When I got to Bismark, ND, I decided to stop for the night. It was about 7:30pm and I was a little tired. At that time, I was still in the Central Time Zone.

Well, I was in for a rude surprise. Apparently, there is some sort of convention going on this weekend. And there was NOT ONE ROOM AVAILABLE in the entire city of Bismark, ND. I called hotels.com to help me, and they said Bismark was completely booked. Geez, who knew so many people went to North Dakota?! Then I had the hotels.com rep set me up in a hotel that he said was 75 miles west of Bismark, in a town called Jamestown. I said, fine, I’m heading that way anyway.

Well… an hour later, I had not reached Jamestown. I was in the boondocks somewhere - fields in every direction, no towns to be seen anywhere. (See photos below). The speed limit up here is 75mph, which means I go about 85 mph. In an hour, I should have reached Jamestown. I also didn’t see signs for Jamestown at all, so I was suspicious. I called the actual hotel he had set me up in (which was Days Inn in Jamestown), and guess what? They are 90 miles EAST of Bismark!! Not West! Grrr!! So here I was, in the middle of nowhere, with no place to stay for the night. Not to mention a low gas gauge.

I started to panick. I finally found a gas station in Rickland (or some other boondock town in ND) and asked the girls in the convenience store where there were actual hotels. They said in 20 or so miles, I would reach Dickinson, and that there were a lot of hotels there.

So… I reached Dickinson, ND in record time. I called the Holiday Inn - they were full. I went to the Country Inn (or something similar) - they were also full. I had the woman behind the desk call a couple of hotels for me. She said that the Days Inn had something like 2 rooms left. I ran to my car, jumped in, and raced to the hotel. Thankfully they were right across the main highway. And guess what? I grabbed one of the last 3 rooms in the hotel! Probably one of the last rooms in the town. The next town - and hotel - is probably like 30 miles West of here.

Normally I wouldn’t reveal the actual hotel that I am in for safety reasons, but honestly, there are so many people here that I don’t care. This place is completely packed. There are 2 restaurants and a bar and a ballroom - all packed to capacity. Tomorrow is 7/7/07, and about 38,000 people are getting married in the USA alone.

Now

So, here I am in Dickinson, North Dakota, at the Days Inn. This is one of the oddest hotels I’ve ever been in - my window overlooks the indoor pool. So I can’t even look outside! Not that it matters - when I got here, it was like 8:45PM Mountain Time and 98 degrees and the sun was still out. These upper plains states are really strange. (But somehow I like it).

Photos

As per usual, the pics are lame.

The Mall of America:

The Chicago Skyline:

Wisconsin Scenery:

I will post the North Dakota pics first thing tomorrow tomorrow night!