Three Really Big States: Driving, Driving, Driving

 Saturday/Sunday, Sept. 11-12, 2021

All in all, we spent 8 nights—an entire week—in Minnesota. It is a. BIG state from North to South, and I think we drove vertically for the most part. But finally we left from the middle to head west. Then there’s North Dakota. When I say there is NOTHING THERE, it’s not 100% true. But it’s definitely true of the northeast corner, where we entered the state. It was flat and completely nondescript. We drove and drove and drove. All in all, we drove about 350 miles on Saturday.

We were going to spend the night in Minot, ND, at a Walmart. We did shop there, but the lady at the customer service desk said we couldn’t stay. Then we went a few miles further to a Flying J. They said we COULD stay, but despite them having a big parking lot, the area they wanted us in was awkwardly arranged, and we couldn’t figure out how to “fit”. So we went 8 miles even further down the highway, to a town called Burlington. They have an adorable little town park with a campground loop of 12 spaces, most pull-through (meaning we would not have to detach the Jeep) and with electricity. So we ended up paying $21 for the electric, and spent a very quiet night (there were only two other RVs there.). 

We left this morning, and continued. Driving, driving, driving. After about 150 miles, we got out of North Dakota and entered Montana. We kept driving. Driving, driving, driving. North Dakota was huge (400 miles-ish, I think.) Montana is huger. We did gain an hour when we crossed the border, so we decided to use it to drive even further. I’d had places planned out for stops all along the way, for depending on where we were when we’d had enough driving. But we made it to Havre, another couple of hundred miles, i think. So tonight we ARE at a Walmart lot. Along with several other RVs, including one from New Jersey with a woman who opened her door to ask, “Where in NJ are you from?” She is living in her van for the year, after selling all her stuff, and is also heading to Glacier National Park, as are we. She’s from Madison, NJ. We exchanged phone numbers.

Tomorrow, we will be driving yet again, until we get to Glacier National Park, at which point, we will try to find a place to stay. There is only one campground open now that Labor Day is over, and it’s first come, first served. We’ve gotten lucky in the past, and we are just hoping to get lucky again. Meanwhile… I’ll be happy to STOP driving. We’ve been on US-2 across the upper part of the country for the past 60 hours, and I’m getting tired of it. But this is a huge country, and there’s just no describing the wide-open vistas we have passed. This afternoon, we finally started seeing mountains! So we are definitely getting someplace. I will try to add a photo or two (that’s all we have!) tomorrow.