Fargo, North Dakota

Hello Everyone

Yesterday we went to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. It was lots of fun. We saw Wild Horses, Buffalo and Prairie Dogs. I miss everyone lots I send you my love. Anyways the car ride not great but fine. Hope you guys have a great Summer Break (when is comes.)

-Mhairi Robertson-Jones

P.S. Thank you Sara, Ken, Riley and Tegan Ceilidh and I have watched Star Wars seven times!

Well Mhairi has covered most of the events. Before we left to see the buffalo, my dad and I were thinking of all the possible ways I could be killed, and stampeded by the bison!!!!!! Nice family convos hey!?

Everytime we get to our new campsite, (everyday), we are stuck between two HUGE RV's, and then there's our little trailer, it gets laughed at by the big scary big trailers.

Happy birthday Zoe and Taylor!!!!!!

Lots of love from
Ceilidh

From Kerry:
There you have the girls' perspective on things. We (and they) are doing amazingly well considering all the driving we have been doing. Fargo, North Dakota (and, no, I have not seen the Coen Bros., Frances McDormand or a tree chipper) is south of Winnipeg, also on the Red River and also home to mosquitoes. We are making really good time, and likely will have one more night after this in the US, then cross the border through Sault Ste Marie and on to Ottawa. We left Medora ND (as Mhairi mentioned) home to Teddy Roosevelt National Park. It was so COOL to se buffalo and wild horses, and the prairie dogs are so cute the way they pop out of their holes and chirrup to each other. I can imagine farmers hate them, but they are protected in the national park.

We slept with the trailer door open (and the screen closed) one night, which the kids were NOT crazy about. They made us PROMISE not to sleep with the door open in buffalo territory, convinced that a buffalo would make its way into our trailer. When we got to Visitor Information in North Dakota, this guy asks us where we were from and then said he slept in his trailer the previous night and woke to find a bison scratching his back against the guy's trailer...Ceilidh's eyes were BUGGING OUT OF HER HEAD...and we slept with the door closed.

The road across ND is straight...I offer Dennis some helpful suggestions like "keep going straight" or "there is a bend in the road coming up". It is the opposite of driving in Britain...all divided highway, VERY quiet, and quite mentally untaxing. Dennis' back is improving and he has done all the driving. In case you wonder what adults do in the car for 7 hours, here is a partial list:

1. drive and knit (not at the same time)
2. listen to the radio. We got a free trial to XM satellite radio, and found Canadian news. It repeated three times in 7 minutes. We got bored. Now we are listening to each station for five minutes. We started with 40s music (Tommy Dorsey anyone?), went through the 50s (Teenager in Love), 60s (the Beatles, which was the only one we liked!), the 70s (Barry White), 80s (Beastie Boys), the 90s (unidentifiable), Top 20, Country, more country, and then more country, followed by Willie's Tunes (yes, more country). The lyrics I liked the best were "My man is like a train, makes his whistle stop and then moves on again").
3. talk about how far we have driven and where we are going to stop
4. explore the GPS, which is SO amazing and gets us to gas stations, camp sites, etc.
5. Try to remember the slogans on each license plate (Washington is the Everygreen State, Idaho is Famous Potatoes, Montana is Big Sky Country, North Dakota is Discover the Spirit, and Minnesota is 10,000 Lakes). Speaking of all these native names...there are highway signs in the shapes of war bonnets, arrowheads and other native symbols, but I have actually yet to see a native person. Hmmm...

Things I am grateful for:
1. the DVD players
2. air conditioning
3. having a trailer
4. air conditioning
5. the water in Victoria (it takes AWFUL in ND)

The scenery is amazing, and it is hard to believe in urban sprawl, pollution or land use issues in States will mile after mile after mile of farm and ranchland. The people in North Dakota are SO friendly, coming OUT OF THEIR STORES to say hello (?!) We got an oil change at the Honda dealership in Bismarck, where they fit us in, and only charged us $28!

We will all be glad to get a break from driving, and miss Canada. Thanks for your comments on our blog and the emails...I am assuming our house is standing???

Love you lots

Kerry

Dennis here ... what do I do? Keep the van and trailer between the lines and avoid controversial topics like chocolate chip cookies. (Kerry butting in again...The story here is that I handed Dennis a cookie..HOMEMADE...with only one chocolate chip in it...I told him since they were called chocolate chip that it was not false advertising)..we moved on to less controversial topics such as American politics and religion.