Day 3.8: Fort Frances, ON to Fargo, ND

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

Day 3.7: Fort Frances, ON and Voyageurs National Park

We slept a bit late since we didn’t have far to drive and took the motel owner’s recommendation to walk across the street to the Harbourage Restaurant. We were very happy with our choice, both in terms of the food and the price, which was even better since it was in Canadian dollars. Arielle ordered the Leaky Canoe, which was a cheese omelet (she got egg whites) and brown toast (she had asked for an English muffin but was perfectly happy with what came instead). Abe got 3 slices of French toast with the pan-fried potatoes on the side, which were somewhat plain but tasted great with a little salt.

Arielle was amused by the fact that we were the only co-ed pair in the restaurant, which had mostly older patrons. We walked back across the street and got in the car to head back across the border. Crossing back into the United States was considerably simpler and quicker than coming into Canada, though it’s interesting to note that there is only one line to get back over rather than divided by citizenship.

We drove about twenty minutes to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center of Voyageurs National Park, where the very friendly ranger Lester, who had a fantastic Minnesota accent, told us that we should hike one trail there but then go to the more worthwhile Ash River Visitor Center about forty miles away. We put on sunscreen and set out to hike the Oberholtzer Trail, which all told was about 1.4 miles, taking us through the woods and to two overlooks of the water, which weren’t all that majestic.

We left and drove a little less than an hour to the Ash River Visitor Center, which was considerably more rustic. We got some recommendations from a ranger, put on some more sunscreen while overlooking the water behind it, and drove a few minutes to the Kabetogama Lake Overlook. We set out on the Blind Ash Bay Trail, which took us deep into the woods on a nice hike that felt considerably longer than we had expected. The overlook we ultimately came to was pretty incredible, but we couldn’t stand still for long because of the number of bugs buzzing around us. The 0.7-mile loop section of the trail that included the overlook took us far down and right next to the water, which of course meant we had to go back up after that. We returned to the car thoroughly exhausted but satisfied with our nearly ninety-minute hike.

We drove a few more minutes to the Beaver Pond Overlook, where we ended our exploration of the park with a short .15-mile walk to a view of the calm pond which had a swan peacefully sitting in it. We drove about eight miles back to the main road and stopped at Jim’s Ash Trail Store, a gas station with a big convenience store. We chatted a bit with the clerk after we bought two Gatorades about what to do in the area. We drove about 45 minutes back to International Falls along the same route we had traveled the day before, heading first to Coffee Landing, a breakfast place that had been recommended by the owner of our motel, so that we could check out the menu for the next day. It was closed, but we were able to walk in and determine that we might be interested in the chai milkshake. We continued on about ten minutes to the Chocolate Moose Restaurant Company, the top-rated restaurant in International Falls. We were immediately happy with our choice since it smelled great, and the food turned out to be fantastic too. Arielle ordered the specialty salad with romaine, strawberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, and poppy seed dressing. We got waffle fries to share, and Abe took advantage of the 80-cent wing special, ordering four with sweet chili sauce and four with barbecue sauce. Upon trying the barbecue wings, he found them extraordinarily spicy but opted to forge ahead, only later finding out that he had accidentally been given buffalo sauce. The waitress was apologetic and replaced the remaining two with the correct ones, which were very good, and Abe ordered another four wings with honey-garlic sauce, which was good but the least fantastic of the three. We also got another order of waffle fries, which we probably didn’t need.

After a great dinner, we drove back to the border, paying the $7 toll to cross the bridge and getting through quickly and easily. We returned to the motel, got some work done, watched some TV, and went to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 93

Day 5: Wisconsin Dells, WI to Sioux Falls, SD

We repacked our car - hopefully for the last time before we get to Denver - before setting out on our big drive. Arielle set up a very efficient clothesline in the backseat to dry the bathing suits and water shoes that were still wet as we drove. We drove three hours straight to Albert Lea, Minnesota (state #33 for Arielle), where we filled up gas and tried two vegetarian soups - broccoli cheddar and tomato basil Parmesan - at local chain Erbert’s and Gerbert’s Sandwich Shop.

We looked at our directions and decided to do something crazy - reroute slightly to make it to both Iowa and Nebraska (states #34 and #35 for Arielle) on our way to South Dakota (state #44 for Abe and #36 for Arielle).

We went south into Iowa to visit Sioux City, passing by the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor, a must-visit for our next trip here, to go to the Jolly Time Koated Kernels Store, which is half popcorn museum and half very functional shop with many, many popcorn flavors to sample. While a slow-moving freight train threatened to make us miss the store experience, we were delighted to find that Robbie Rohlena, the great-granddaughter of Jolly Time founder Cloid H. Smith, was more than happy to stay past the 5:30pm closing time to tell us all about the history of the family business, including a tour of the kitchen with unbelievable quantities of popcorn made daily. We tried many flavors, and ended up purchasing small bags of the Root Beer Float (for Abe), the Salted Caramel (for Arielle), and the Cinnamon Roll (to share). This is absolutely one of those very worthwhile roadside stops on any cross-country tour.

We drove less than fifteen minutes over a bridge to South Sioux City, Nebraska to visit Freedom Park, a half-scale replica of the Vietnam War memorial in Washington, DC that includes the names of 99 soldiers from Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota. A quote entering the park read “All gave some, some gave all.”

Our directions took us straight over the bridge back into Iowa, where we drove the hour and twenty minutes or so to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We were shocked to see the speed limit rise to 80 mph, which meant a quick trip the rest of the way. We went for dinner to Roll’n Pin Cafe and Grille, where Arielle had fried haddock with steamed broccoli and a garden salad to start, and Abe finally tried the regional walleye fish with Cajun seasoning and baby red potatoes and green beans. It was a great meal! We checked in to the massive and beautiful Sheraton Sioux Falls and Convention Center, the first official USY on Wheels hotel that we stayed in on this trip. We took a quick drive to Parlour Ice Cream House, a fancy place that smartly shows pictures of each of its flavors on a screen. Arielle got the Teddy, which is caramel ice cream with chocolate fudge and chocolate pecans, and Abe opted for the simpler Frozen Chocolate Mousse, which is dark chocolate gelato.

We returned to our hotel wishing we were staying longer because of how big and nice it was, but alas, further adventures in South Dakota and beyond await.

Approximate number of miles covered: 513