Day 3: Dickinson, ND to Bloomington, MN
Day 3: Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Dickinson, ND to Bloomington, MN
Well, we had a rotten sleep last night because it was so freaking hot in the room! Daryl had turned the fan to cool air and forgot to turn it back to the air-conditioning until 4am. Needless to say, neither of us slept well. I got up at 6:45 to shower because I knew that Daryl wanted to leave by 8, as we would again be losing an hour as we crossed another timeline. Daryl was able to book a hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota just by the Mall of America for us on the internet so we wouldn't have to stress about that. We packed up our things, checked out the 'free' breakfast (which sucked, consisting only of toast and donuts) and went outside to the car to find it's horn honking. I guess Daryl must have pressed the panic button by accident. A very grumpy Daryl packed up the car and we were on the road by 8:15. It was warm but overcast so it, combined with the lack of sleep last night, made me very sleepy. I dozed until we stopped at a rest stop near New Salem where we could hear a kid screaming in an orange Mazda, even before we got out of our car! He/she continued to scream and throw a huge tantrum until they finally left - neither of us envied his/her parents! The funny thing was that later on, we kept passing the same car on the highway and we could see no sign of the kid - maybe they had tied it down in the backseat! We were determined to take more pictures and get out of the car more today so we stopped at a scenic viewpoint near Mandan,which is apparently a key place on the Lewis and Clark trail. We flew through Bismark, which seemed surprising small and Daryl continued to drive while I slept until we stopped at a rest stop near Crystal Springs and I took over the driving. Let me tell you, it is very frustrating passing and repassing the same cars but it happens everytime you stop to take a break! I drove about 50 miles at which point, I got bored so I pulled off on a rarely used exit ramp and switched with Daryl and the game started all over again! We went to Fargo for lunch and filled up with gas there too. Daryl informed me that “they have accents down here” after paying for the gas so now I have to watch for people making fun of the way I talk. Just after Fargo, we crossed the state line into Minnesota. It's funny cause we haven't seen the “Welcome to...” signs to these states like we did last time. Oh well. We stopped at Iverson Lake for some silly pics. At Lake Latoka, I decided to play on the tire swing at the playground. I would have gone down the slide too but some annoying kid came and started playing too so it wasn't so fun anymore. We headed toward Minneapolis and traffic got super heavy around exit 10 when we needed to get off at exit 7. It took us about 20-25 minutes when it was supposed to take us only 4! The GPS guided us to our hotel which turned out to be the same Days Inn that we stayed at last time we were here! We checked in to an awesome, quiet room on the second floor - much better then last time. I guess that's why it's good to reserve in advance. We headed for the Mall of America but instead of getting back on that horrid highway, I took Daryl on the backroads. I knew which way I wanted to go but just wanted some back up from the Tomtom (GPS unit) and the stupid things wouldn't turn on! Finally I got it working again it guided us to the MOA where we spent about 2 hours shopping. It's not that great of a mall - there's a lot of hype for it and it's just not that special. I got some sunglasses and Daryl got 2 cool shirts but that's it. Most of the stores can be found in Canada or down in Bellingham and things weren't even cheaper here like they were last time. We went to Tony Roma's for dinner and it was good but cold in there. I was exhausted so we headed back to the hotel and were surprised to find that they were showing Corner Gas down here - gotta love good Canadian programing. Off to bed by 11:30.
Daryl at the Mandan Scenic outlook.
Trying to make the photo more interesting....
I love the endless blue sky down here.
Peeking out from behind the sign, caught in motion.
Just in case we forgot where we were!
Daryl and Iverson Lake.
Me on the awesome tire swing at Lake Latoka.
Daryl with a Lego guy at the Mall of America. There's a picture of me too but I don't look very happy in it. :)