We set our alarms for 10am since we weren’t in a rush to get to our destination, but that didn’t work out too well. Abe woke up naturally a bit before 9am, and Arielle was woken up by the loud knocking of housekeeping just after 9am. Our motel room had two doors, and she knocked on the one that didn’t have the “do not disturb” sign on it. We gave this feedback to the motel owner, who apologized, and this was the only negative aspect of an otherwise great and very affordable stay. We packed most of our things up and went across the street to eat breakfast as the Harbourage again. Arielle’s food wasn’t quite as good – her omelet came out smaller but the waitress brought another egg to make up for it. Abe enjoyed the potatoes even more than the first day, and it was nice that the price was exactly the same.
We drove back over the border, passing through quickly, and straight to the local SuperOne Foods, one of thirty supermarket locations in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan that we had seen advertised extensively on the drive in a few days earlier. Abe was thrilled to find some Wisconsin-grown Macintosh apples, purchasing a few, though he was disappointed at the extensive Sunbelt Bakery granola bar display that included all but the flavor he likes, the banana oat. We drove three minutes back to Coffee Landing, where Abe got the chai milkshake and Arielle got a coffee milkshake. Blending them with condensed milk sounded appealing, but we both decided they were a bit sweet and probably something we could have skipped (though they were inexpensive, which was good).
We followed our GPS along a series of relatively deserted roads that twisted and turned, hardly the proper service-providing environment for a phone call Arielle had scheduled which was quickly dropped. We made pretty good time getting through Minnesota, stopping for gas along the way earlier than we needed to since stations appeared to be rare. We reached a tremendous milestone just minutes from our destination: North Dakota. This was Abe’s 49th state, leaving only Alaska, and Arielle is just a few behind him, with Kansas, Oregon, and Washington to go along with Alaska. Excited, we checked into the Wingate, eagerly eyeing the pool and sampling some of the vegetables and crackers from the manager’s reception.
We walked through a few parking lots to get to the Fargo-Moorehead Visitor Center, which features extensive memorabilia from the “
Fargo” film and TV series. Abe enthusiastically filmed a
special edition of his Weekend Movie Recommendations with Abe video while wearing a hat provided by the very friendly employee at the visitor center.
We walked back over to the hotel and set out to go for dinner, though we couldn’t resist walking just next door to Space Aliens, which smelled delicious and turned out to be exactly the bizarre arcade-type venue than we had anticipated it might be, sort of like a Dave and Buster’s for people who are high. It did smell phenomenal, but we decided to eat somewhere else. The woman at the front desk at the hotel, who was a vegetarian, had raved about the veggie burger at Lucky’s 13 Pub, which Arielle found to be unusual thanks to its red bean mushroom patty. Since it was 90 degrees, we were enticed by the idea of sitting outside. Arielle was able to get the veggie burger on top of a salad, and, when Abe asked if he should get a steak or the bison burger (just meat and bun, of course), our waitress, Mel, said that it was hot so a burger was the better choice. While we waited for our food to come out, Arielle obsessed over whether the guy sitting at the table across from us was an actor, and she later realized she was picturing some combination of Edward Herrmann, who died a few years ago, and Harrison Ford. Arielle was extremely pleased with her salad, and Abe’s burger was delicious. The teriyaki green beans he got on the side were good but a bit too covered in sauce. We debated whether Mel was local – Abe thought she was, Arielle didn’t – and we ultimately discovered that she was from deeper into North Dakota. Mel was so excited to hear that we were on a road trip that she insisted on hooking us up with dessert. The brownie she brought over with a humongous scoop of ice cream and drizzled with caramel sauce (not so exciting for Abe) was intense, and definitely more dessert than we needed.
We nonetheless indulged and said thank you, driving about three minutes back to the hotel. We spent a while getting some work done and then ventured to the pool, which we tried for a moment before heading instead to relax in the hot tub. We returned to the room, watched a little TV, and then went to bed.
Approximate number of miles covered: 292
