Center of My Universe: Graham’s Island SP, North Dakota 9/19/2009

Everyone here is so nice, like really, really SO nice. As we pulled into our campground last night, the folks hanging out in their chairs in front of their campsite all waved and said howdy. We took a bike ride last night and this morning and I felt compelled to keep waving “high” back to everyone. You can’t help but smile hearing everyone with their clipped North Dakota accents. We zigzagged between time zones (seriously check out North Dakota’s time zone line between Mountain and Central. It’s crazy!), and reached Minot at noonish. There’s a wonderful park in the middle of town that hosts the Scandinavian Heritage Center. We toured thru the miniature Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish houses and strolled through the park. It’s a bit cooler today, about 88 deg. and windy, so it felt a lot better to stroll around outside. After having lunch in Minot, we moseyed on down highway 2, our main corridor until we venture into Canada. The next town is Rugby and we couldn’t pass up a sign announcing “The Geographical Center of North America.” Today’s picture is Ned, the center of my universe, standing at the geographical center of North America. Flying overhead are flags of the US, Canada and Mexico. Classic road trip photo! Tonight’s camping destination is Graham’s Island on Devil’s Lake. It’s still pretty much prairie camping, but at least there are a few oak and elm tress scattered about. Ned’s cousin, Craig, is also doing a road trip. He’s high-tailing it from Eugene, OR to his summer place in Minnesota. He’s due to join up with us about 9ish tonight. Unlike us, Craig actually drives long distances in a day!! Tomorrow we plan on staying at his place in Remer, MN. For now, it’s happy hour so I’m pouring myself a glass of wine and signing off…