Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Minot, Rugby, Grand Forks

From Jose

At the end of  my last update our four fearless adventurers had arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota, the Juniper campground in the north unit to be exact. This was a welcome change from the hustle and bustle of Williston. The campground is about 5 miles inside of the National Park and all the trucks and traffic stay outside.  One of the highlights of the park was the  Little Mo Nature Trail, a self-guided nature tour. You pick up a brochure at the beginning of the trail and as you go along numbered signs refer to numbers in the brochure to explain what you are looking at. We rode our bikes. That evening a park ranger gave a very interesting talk about the animals that live in the park.

From there we headed to Minot where I had the appointment to fix the chip in the  windshield. We had planned to stay at a campground called Roughrider, but after viewing the place and finding out the rates I decided to pass on it and go to our old friend, Walmart.

The company that fixed the windshield is called Safelite Auto Glass. It is a national chain based in Columbus, Ohio. They did a great job and I would recommend them.

With a fixed windshield and after an involuntary tour of Minot looking for propane for the RV, we headed for Rugby, ND. Rugby's claim to fame is that it is the geographic center of North America. There is a pretty impressive obelisk near a busy highway pointing out this fact. For those of you that need to know the technical details of how to determine the geographic center of a continent and the political ramifications of such a quest, look here.

After a few uneventful days we arrived at
Red River State Recreation Area in East Great Forks, Minnesota. We were not ready to officially cross into Minnesota.  Great Forks is half in North Dakota and half in Minnesota and that's where the campground was. This campground used to be a neighborhood that was wiped out during a huge flood in 1997. From their website :

"The creation of the Red River State Recreation Area was a grass roots effort that came about as a result of the flood of 1997 that devastated the communities of East Grand Forks, MN and Grand Forks, ND. After the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers redrew the floodplain, the Federal Emergency Management Agency bought 500 homes and other buildings in East Grand Forks along the Red and Red Lake Rivers.

Various structures and homes were removed and the land -- now a 1,200-acre greenway -- became a state recreation area."

We were sad for the people who lost their homes but thankful for the great campground. Fortunately the flood caused no loss of life.

Grand Forks is very bike friendly. There are tons of bike paths and you can get almost anywhere on a bike trail. On Saturday we went to a cool farmers market. Not too big but they had actual produce and baked goods, not just crafts.

As of today we have been out for 125 days and driven 6,706 miles. Next stop: Fargo, ND.

Stay tuned.