After our eventful Thursday and Friday, Saturday was relatively quiet. We left Hudson early in the morning on our third trip through Minneapolis-St. Paul. What we didn’t know was that a part of I-94 through Minneapolis was closed for road work. While their regular road signs were great, their detour signs were not. I guess because the road was only closed sometime between 8:30 pm when we last went through and 7:30 am on a Saturday morning, they thought there wouldn’t be many people affected so the need for signs was not as great.
TomTom, our GPS, didn’t like Minnesota at all – he lost his satellite signal upon entry into Minnesota and didn’t find it again until we got to North Dakota. Every so often he would pipe up and say “Turn left, Turn left, Turn left” when there was no left turn anywhere in site.
We had no idea which way to turn until we spotted a mini-van that was from Minnesota and that seemed to know where to go. Like sheep, we followed the van and sure enough, the driver did know where he/she was going. A few miles north of where we started, the construction workers were pulling aside the barriers so the van was number one and we were number two on a nice newly paved road.
Instead of taking a diagonal path across North Dakota, we decided to go to Bismarck, then north to Minot. About ½ way between Bismarck and Minot we went path the Falkirk Mines in Underwood, ND. We saw huge earthmovers and other equipment but nowhere did we see any signs about what they were mining. I finally had a chance to look it up and found out that they do a form of coal mining.
My maternal grandparents’ families were coal miners in Lancashire, England, so I tend to think of coal mining as being in England, not in the USA. It’s funny how we develop thoughts that may have no basis in reality but rather, their basis is in our history.
When we finally pulled into Minot, we located a Days Inn and went to check in. The clerk asked if we were in town for “The Fair”. We had no idea what she was talking about but apparently we got the last room available. She seemed quite enthusiastic that our room was near the pool and hot tub and I too thought that sounded good. The room was a bit larger than we expected and had 2 queen beds, a desk and couch which was nice.
I went into the bathroom and when I came out I told Ellie that we were in a disability accessible room. When she asked why I said that, I told her that once she saw the toilet she would understand – the toilet was about 6 inches higher than usual. We later found out that our room was usually the last one rented out in case someone needed the larger space as well as the grab bars and a higher seat.
It turned out that “The Fair” was the annual State Fair. Ellie and I believe that EVERY 14 year old in the entire state was staying at our hotel and they all were in the swimming pool outside our door. Fortunately, at 11 pm, the night security staff came by and pulled up the tarp over the pool and kicked out the kids – Quiet at Last!
Sunday was scheduled for the Minot to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan leg.
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