Madison. WI to Fargo, ND

Wednesday, July 7

Mom had successful surgery today - praise God! Lots of prayer time while traveling sure helped.

As we were traveling our first day, I suddenly realized - I did not bring the Woodall's or KOA campground directories. As I rummaged through my travel bag later, I noticed that, if I had gotten the maps for the trip (months ago), I didn't pack them. And the Mountain Pass guide was also at home. Boy, having a GPS, Mapquest and internet access sure is making me lazy, but it doesn't help to anticipate stopping places :) Good thing the EXIT guide stays in the truck - that at least got us to the first night's KOA, where we could get a directory.

Last night, as we perused the KOA map at the campground, then did further research via Mapquest, we decided that instead of taking Rt. 90 out to Yellowstone, we could easily head north and go across North Dakota - to our FAVORITE National Park - Theodore Roosevelt NP and Medora!! Yippee! We'll get to camp with the bison, and Haley will learn some new words (bison, prairie dogs, rattlesnakes, and maybe a few others) as she tours the park in the safety of the truck!

We woke up to temps about 76 with 100% humidity - yes, it was raining. We had rain for about an hour, then wonderful clouds all day. In fact, late in the afternoon, we had a 3D sky - I love those, and we only see them out west. It occurs when there are high, wispy clouds, then lower cotton-ball clouds so close you can almost touch them. With unlimited visibility because everything is flat and wide open, it makes the sky look 3D. Awesome.

So, we left this morning about 7:45 local time, heading up 94 through Wisconsin and Minnesota. I saw a fox and cranberry bogs. Fascinating. As we drove past St. Cloud, MN, I had one of those moments when I could not speak, followed by the sinking realization that I had just missed a golden opportunity as we passed the world headquarters for Creative Memories!! I could have had a free tour as a consultant - but St. Cloud never sent up fireworks in my brain as we looked at the map and planned the route for today. AHHHHHHH!! So close! The huge building sits right along Rt. 94 - but at this point, we had many hours to go to get to Medora.

Our destination today was Fargo, ND, and we ended up stopping about 5:00 in Moorhead, MN at the Moorhead KOA - 2 miles from the MN, ND border and just east of Fargo. With the time change tomorrow (I love traveling west and getting extra hours!), we should be in Medora about lunch time. We now have temps in the 70s as highs - loving this, and glad we're not home, where temps have been high 90s to 100+. Abbie called today when her electric went out - ouch. However, mosquitoes the past 2 days have driving us inside earlier than we wanted.

There is a dog park here - a large fenced in area for dogs to play. I took Haley over while Rick was setting up - she was petrified. Stayed at the gate wanting out, or near me trembling. I walked around a bit and after a while she loosened up and wandered around 'reading messages', but was quite glad to leave. Time to put on bug spray, grab Haley and a ball, and encourage some exercise for her!

Speaking of Haley - she has ventured into 2 new states - WI and MN. She wasn't too impressed, but we were!