From the plains to the forests

June 7--Bemidji, MN

I slept really well last night, and woke up this morning with a sore throat. Well, if I'm coming down with something, that would explain a lot. Still, the sun was out, the air smelled fresh and wonderful, and it was a good morning. I fed the cats and we were out on the road by 7:50am.

I drove through the construction in Minot (lots of construction in ND--one place east of Devils Lake they had taken the road out right down to the dirt, which made driving fun) to Rugby, where I had to stop to get a picture of the Geographic Center of North America. Well, no, it isn't really, the actual center is a few miles away in the middle of basically an empty field, so Rugby had usurped the honor, but still. The monument is in a restaurant's parking lot, and it does amaze me: Canada must just be huge, if the distance from the Panamanian border with Columbia to Rugby is the same distance as that from Rugby to the northernmost part of Canada. I mean, we're not only in North Dakota, but northern North Dakota!

The land had changed from rangeland to farmland right about at Minot, and most of the hills went away as well. So we cruised through the farmland past Devils Lake (which was indeed really high) to Grand Forks, where I stopped and got diesel. Over the Red River (not too high at the moment, even though Grand Forks gets seriously flooded every year, seems like) to Crookston, MN, where I got lunch. The sky had begun completely clear, but by the time I got to MN we'd caught up with the clouds.

The plains changed over to forest right about Fosston, and it was rather abrupt. I turned south at Bagley, because I wanted to see the source of the Mississippi. Well, to get to the actual source, I would have to pay $5, and there weren't any parking spots since the RV spots were full of cars, so instead I stopped right outside the park, at a canoe launch. The Mighty Mississippi was about the size of a good creek--about the size of the creek at the entrance to Seneca Trail after some really good rain. Not too impressive.

It had begun to spit rain off and on, so I continued on. I was going to stay at a particular campground, but I couldn't get the usual discount and it was out of the way, so I lacked imagination and am at the Bemidji KOA. I have electricity and cable and Internet access (obviously) and plan to use all of them. The sun just came out, the cats have been fed, and I'm about ready to read and/or watch TV. Just another evening in paradise!