Running Out of Gas and Into Trouble At Fort Abraham Lincoln...

The morning started out fine enough. After our great stay at the overpriced Willow River State Park we barreled into North Dakota. For all you keeping track, this was Justin Bull's final state to conquer. I can now cockily report that I have set foot in all fifty states. Perhaps not nearly as impressive as our friend Adam's quest to run a marathon in every state but hey, I thought, "I'm not a masochist."

Ironically, I ended up running a mini-marathon for anyhow.


That tiny dot up ahead is me.

Let it be known that our user manual clearly states that the gas tank retains 2.3 gallons of reserve gas once the fuel warning light goes on. Subuaru, you are on notice.

Despite the bad judgment on fueling stops, we were pleased to discover that Barnesville, ND lived up to it's promise of "Welcoming You".


While we did miss the Potato Days by a few months, the local watering hole was a lovely sight to be seen. On my long walk back from securing a tank of gas the friendly gents at Rick's Towing offered me not only a ride but a cold brew to boot! I opted out of the beer seeing as how we had miles of travel left to do that day.

Having burned an hour over that little fiasco, we began to hunt for an alternative camping spot since our first choice was now out of reach. After numerous fruitless searches we ended up defeated and cranky and crashed at the beautiful "Wagon Wheel Inn" in Valley City, North Dakota. Here's our sadly unused Scamp on day two of the great adventure.


Note the mosquito breeding grounds in the tire pile to the left.

The next morning we started out bright and early, determined to hit Theodore Roosevelt National Park by mid-afternoon but the alluring signs for Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park pulled us into a long pit stop where we, no joke, received a tour of the Slant Indian Village from none other than a man named Dakota.


Apparently the women did all the construction in this tribe. Dakota liked to point that out again and again as he tried to get a chuckle out of the men over the irony of it all. Ahh, interpretive tour guides.

Maisy was impressed enough to attempt her own interpretive tour of the visitor center. Here she is explaining how this place is considered a State Park even though there are no hiking trails.

Fleeing our lunch break we hit I-94 again in time to capture some beautiful thunderclouds.


Which cleared up in time for our final destination of the night and tomorrow's story: Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the night Maisy decided that sleep was optional.