Thief River Falls, Minnesota

Today, April 20, we drove from Minot, ND to Thief River Falls, MN. We covered over 300 miles due to road closures/detours due to flooding around Grand Forks, ND.

It has not been the greatest of days. It started out slowly as we hunted around Minot for the AAA Office. We wanted to pick up some maps that we now need since changing our travel plans. Well, we couldn’t find the address, and when we called the phone number we learned that the office has closed. At that point we hit the highway and figured we find AAA somewhere ahead of us. We were told there would be an office in Grand Forks, ND.

Driving thru North Dakota and into Minnesota we were surprised to have seen a huge number of oil wells.

We were also surprised, as we passed thru Rugby, ND, that we were on, or at, or in (?) the geographic center of North America. It wouldn’t have occurred to me being so far north in USA, but I supposed I never thought about it before.

Another couple of unusual observation are that the ‘Rest Areas’ on the highways in ND and WI have all been on the left as we drive South and East. You’ll either find the Rest Area in the middle of a divided highway, or you’ll cross directly over the highway to the common Rest Area on the other side.

They also don’t have any overpasses on the highways as we have back home. Rather they have small roads, sometimes dirt, just coming up to and often crossing the state highways. There are right and left turning lanes on the highways at the intersections. Vehicles on-coming to a highway will wait at stop sign to gain access to either direction.

There aren't any guardrails along the roadways either. I guess all of the above these things save alot of money.

Of the hundreds and hundreds of miles of farmland we‘ve gone by the last few days, the vast majority of it has been wet, alot of it totally flooded, so much so that none of the soil has been worked anywhere, so no fields are planted yet.

There are tons of large farm implements being transported around on the highways, probably on their way to be tuned up for the upcoming growing season. The seeding and fertilizing machines are massive, consuming the breakdown lane as well as the travel lane on our side of the roadway, definately a challenge to pass out there. They do move over as far as they can when they see you coming up on them.

Like in Canada, we’re still in big time grain growing territory, and some cattle country. There are huge facilities all over the place with giant grain elevators and loading shoots. The railroad tracks run directly along side or near these facilities.

In northern North Dakota and Minnesota there are lots and lots of Indian territories, and their Tribal Centers. You might think you’re passing a large High School complex only to learn it is a Tribal Center. There are a lot of activities and facilities there for the youth, etc.. I was impressed.

As we approached Grand Forks we made a phone call to find out where the AAA office is. After much effort on the phone we learned that this AAA office has also been closed. We find out there is one in Duluth, MN tho, and we get the address and phone number. We’ll be there in a few days. The Road Atlas will have to do for now.

Today as we approached the Minnesota border Anne noticed what looked like a shortcut, so we took Hwy 29 North before getting to downtown Grand Forks. Plan was to take it 10 miles north to Route 1 East which will take us directlyh to Thief River Fall’s. Well, after on Hwy 29 for three miles we were detoured off of it due to flooding. At that point we didn't know how much of Hwy 29 was closed, we just followed the leader. The detour took us on to adjacent Hwy 81 N which took us well out of our way. Looking occasionally at the GPS I noticed the distance to Thief River Falls increasing more and more. As this turned out, we drove at least 60 miles out of our way.

We arrived at TRF’s and as usual we are the only ones in the campground. The park is set up nicely, but all of the gravel pads are pretty wet, quite soft. We took what we thought was the driest site. I feel like we’ve christened half the campgrounds in USA this spring. Not much socializing going on as we’re pretty much the only campers where ever we go. Not many RV’ers out this time of year in the North.

Once we set up here we found out that the cable TV hookup didn’t work. We adapted and pull in the local channels over the air. Then, as Anne made supper and plugged in a few other things, the power went out. We worked thru the power issue. It's close to freezing and the water is not turned on here. It’s supposed to be in the 50's tomorrow, so it won’t be long now.

We're hoping tomorrow will be a better day. I think we’ll move on from here in the morning. We plan to stay near Deluth, MN next.