On my August road trip from Chicago to Wyoming, I was really excited about the return voyage, which took us north through the Dakotas, the last of the lower 48 states that I hadn’t visited. We first reached the Badlands of South Dakota, which I wrote about a couple weeks ago.
Next up was North Dakota. We pulled over on the side of the road so that I could walk into state #48 on foot.
We actually didn’t do anything interesting in North Dakota. We stopped at a diner in the western part of the state and then proceeded east for dinner at an Italian restaurant in Bismarck. We got stuck in a traffic jam (relatively speaking) in Bismarck, for a full 3 minutes. Then it was off to the Barnes & Noble to use their internet for a couple hours.
I couldn’t stop laughing at the North Dakota tourism guide, which called the Bismarck capitol building the “Skyscraper on the Prairie,” bragging that it stands over 20 stories tall! Coming from a city like Chicago, calling a 20-story building a skyscraper is kind of hilarious. And it wasn’t much of a skyscraper, because during our drive through town we never saw it.
It’s too bad I didn’t have more time, or I could’ve done a road trip through the Sheyenne River Valley National Scenic Byway, which has some really cool sights, especially in the autumn as the leaves change color.
That was it for North Dakota. I’m proud to say I’ve now been to all of the lower 48 states, leaving only Alaska and Hawaii on my hit list. I had a recent offer to join a friend on a trip to Alaska, but that won’t be in my budget for some time. Eventually I believe I’ll make it to all 50 states, and then Europe is the next logical frontier!
9000 Miles 