Lewis, Clark and Hazzard

Day 26
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Bismarck, ND to Apple Valley, MN
442 miles

Q: Why did the Hazzard Family cross North Dakota?

A: To get to the other side.

There’s a reason you’ve never been to North Dakota.

The temperature went down with the sun last night, creating the best sleeping weather we’ve had on this trip. We took advantage of it and slept for nine hours—just what this band of weary travelers needed.

Speaking of weary travelers, Lewis and Clark were on our minds again today as we were reminded of their incredible journey across the northern U.S. to the Pacific Ocean beginning in 1803. Our route during this trip crisscrossed theirs several times and renewed our understanding of how hard it must have been to go where they went with almost no support and very little knowledge of the geography. Heck, it has been hard enough to cover the same ground on Interstate highways at 70 MPH! Frank and Emily said that they would have joined the Lewis and Clark Expedition if given the chance. Sessy and Elliot? No way.

After gassing up and buying ice, we headed east on I-94, leaving behind the land of engine block heater cords hanging out of car grills. Within seventy miles of Bismarck, we started seeing dozens, if not hundreds, of lakes along both sides of the interstate, and this continued all the way to Minneapolis. If Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, North Dakota must be the land of 5,000.

We stopped for lunch in Fargo, just west of the Minnesota border, and we must report that Fargo was a bit of a letdown. Because of our fondness for the movie by the same name, we had high expectations for Fargo. What we found was a cluttered, ugly, working-class prairie town with few redeeming qualities except for some trendy condos and restaurants right along the Red River in the center of town. Actually, the part of Fargo that we liked wasn’t technically Fargo—it was in Moorhead, on the Minnesota side of the river. All in all, Fargo, like Winslow, Arizona, is better left a fantasy.

We passed more bales of hay today and even saw places where grass in the median and ditches was being baled.  We also saw many lakes and fields that were obviously swollen and muddy due to the excess of rain the Midwest has received this spring (see the top photo).  We also passed numerous grain silos, most of which were sited along railroad sidings. 

We arrived at Lebanon Hills Campground in Apple Valley, a suburb a few miles south of the Twin Cities. Some readers may recall that we camped here four years ago on our last cross-country trip and were very impressed with it. Of the many places we’ve been thoughout this gigantic nation of ours, Apple Valley felt the most like home to us, so, naturally, we built it into the itinerary for this journey. Apply Valley is an upper-middle-class community in Dakota County which reminds us a lot of Howard County. Actually, the people here remind us of people at home, but Apple Valley looks just like the Wheaton and Kensington sections of Montgomery County, right down to the signs they use to denote regional and community county parks.

We are back in humid air. Actually, we felt the onslaught of wet air just after we crossed into Minnesota. The clear, blue desert skies gave way to overcast skies at about the same point. And as we have noted on past trips, corn started appearing along the road within only a few miles of the “humidity line.” The temperature on arrival was 84 degrees, but it wasn’t really that humid. We know that it will take a day or two to reacclimatize and then we’ll be fine, even with sleeping outside without air conditioning. The thing that we learned on this trip is that you feel warmer in cold weather as well as cooler in hot weather when the air is dry. Frank said that “some day” he was going to live at least part of the year in a dry climate.

Meanwhile, overnight thunderstorms were predicted for the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. “Bring it on,” said Sessy. We have definitely toughened up a bit over the past couple of weeks…