Accommodation

by

One More Night in Hankinson

I’ll be heading over to the hotel shortly to renew my RV spot for another night. This delay will give me some time to tend to chores so even with having to really get a move on, I am quite happy to spend one last night in North Dakota. I can’t believe that four nights and a seafood dinner will have cost me $50!

These last few days on FHU have really given me a chance to feel at home in Miranda again. It’ll be nice to set off on the next part of my journey with a full water tank and empty holding tanks, plus I have time to do laundry today and I can also vacuum the rig. I may even get ambitious and figure out the next step in the office set up to start taming my crazy nest of wires.

This is my first morning since I left Lethbridge that I awoke to SUN. I hope that this trend continues when I am back on solar power. 🙂

Tabitha enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Tabitha enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Neelix enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Neelix enjoying the sunshine Sunday afternoon

Dakota Magic Golf Course

Dakota Magic Golf Course

Dakota Magic RV Park at dusk

Dakota Magic RV Park at dusk

by

Using Tension Bars in RVs

I love the shelf I put up in the toilet room, but it hasn’t been that useful since I haven’t been able to secure anything up there. I ran a tension curtain rod across the opening, but the slightest bump would dislodge it and everything would end up on the floor.

Fast forward to The Apartment. It had a long hallway to the main part of the room. I wanted to hang a heavy blanket across it to muffle noise and to block my view of the front door from the desk. My maintenance guy suggested I hang the blanket on a tension rod. I replied that the blanket I had in mind would be too heavy for one. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me to go look at shower curtain tension rods.

Shower curtain tension rods?

I ran over to Walmart, poked around the bathroom stuff, and found nice big adjustable tension rods that sure looked a lot sturdier than the flimsy curtain rods I was familiar with. Small hiccup; they were $20. It was one thing to pay that for 80 square feet of flooring, but I was not paying that to block a hallway! But then I had an epiphany and did some mental comparing between the width of the hallway and the width of the toilet room. I wasn’t looking at spending $20 on The Apartment but rather buying something that would serve me in the RV.

End result:

That this is not going anywhere! I can now feel comfortable storing the ginormous extra bag of cat food up there!

by

A Crabby Kind of Mood

Since I’m paying for my RV spot, I don’t feel obliged to spend money at the casino, but I decided to check it out anyway and discovered that they offer a buffet every night. I checked the list and went Mexican, meh. Chef’s, huh? Surf and Turf, pass. BBQ ribs and chicken, hmm. Snow crab and seafood, what day?! Today! So I headed over around 5:30 and paid the $20 for the buffet. This amount included soft drinks, too.

Except for the garlic shrimp and crab cakes, the deep fried seafood offerings (clam, oysters, calamari, shrimp) were pretty meh and tasted the same. The side dishes were pretty basic, but there was a really nice chicken Alfredo and the salad bar was splendid. The star of the show was the endless mountain of steamed crab legs. YUM. They were so good! I pretty much gave up on the other stuff and sucked and picked my way through as many crab legs as my belly could hold. It was a lot of work to get a meal out of those succulent morsels, but worth the effort.

I had a pretty decent slice of apple pie for dessert with a really good decaf coffee. It wasn’t the best buffet I’ve been to, but I feel it was worth the entrance price.

Next, I decided to try my hand at the penny slots, putting in $10 and cashing out at $20. So dinner cost me only $10!

by

Heaven, I’m In Heaven

Today’s travels took me from Minot to Hankinson by way of Bismarck and Fargo. Google Maps had a more direct route, but my GPS kept arguing with me and I decided that an extra few kilometres weren’t a big deal. The roads were good and clear, but I had rain and grey sky all the way to Oriska.

I have to share a story about the last time I was in Fargo. It was like being in a Mr. Bean movie. I came into a mess of construction and got stuck in a roundabout with no idea which way to go. This was in the days before GPS and I didn’t have a detailed map of the city. I must have driven around that roundabout 50 times before a construction worker took pity on me, flagged me down, and told me which way to go! Today’s travels through the city were uneventful.

I am now parked at the Dakota Magic Casino and Resort, which has a full hookup RV park on the edge of its parking lot. I had expected power only to be on at this time of the year, but nope. I’m so excited that I’ll be able to take a long shower tonight. 🙂 I have tons of stuff to catch up on, so I’ve decided to stay for three, possibly four, nights. The rate is $31.50… for three nights. That’s right, FHU for just $10 a night!!! And my internet connection works here. What a nice respite this will be! Since I’ve gone through half a tank of propane in the last week, I hooked up Gary’s present since I’ll be here for a few days and save the on board propane for when I’m moving down the road.

I had planned to spend a couple of nights here and am only a couple of nights behind schedule since I left Lethbridge early, but I am going to have to start boogeying if I want to get to Virginia for May 1st. I have a couple of itineraries in mind and not being in too much of a hurry to cross the Mississippi, I am tempted to keep going due south to Kansas City and then straight east to Virginia. The slightly more direct option is to get back on I-94, skirt around Minneapolis, detour to Cedar Rapids to avoid Chicagoland, and then shoot eastwards. The first option is barely longer and more appealing since I have done most of the second option already. I am concerned about the the severity of the current tornado season in the mid-west, however. I welcome any thoughts on both options and, yes, I know that I need to get a weather radio. 🙂

Ooh, I almost forgot. I actually took pictures today!

grey sodden prairie; sick of the first two, but never of the third

grey sodden prairie; sick of the first two, but never of the third

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

Apple Creek Rest Area

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

the Oriska rest area is in the middle of the divided highway; you have to exit left

this section south of Fargo reminds me of autoroute 10 in Quebec!

this section south of Fargo reminds me of autoroute 10 in Quebec!

parked at Dakota Magic facing the casino

parked at Dakota Magic facing the casino

parked at Dakota Magic facing the prairies

parked at Dakota Magic facing the prairies

by

Why Not Minot?

I am at the Applebee’s in Minot, North Dakota posting from my iPad. I’m off to Verizon next to see about getting the US cell phone activated with a data plan.

As I approached the border this morning, the last words spoken to me by the customs supervisor last year echoed in my mind. I made some notes in your file. As long as you’re back in Canada by April 7th, your next crossing should be easier.

He wasn’t kidding. Had the agents not struggled with getting the front door opened, I would have been through in under four minutes. My having to get out and unlock the door for them delayed the process by a whole 30 seconds. They rummaged around for a bit and then the lady handed me my passport and told me to move ahead. I asked her where she wanted me to park because her instructions seemed vague. “No. You’re clear. Have a nice trip!” Yahoo!!!

Miranda is parked at the Walmart, one of the worst lots I have stayed in, hard to get around in and on a slope. But there aren’t any obvious alternates and it’s just for a night.

I seem to have changed time zones as my iPad says it’s 12:45 and I distinctly remember pulling into Minot at that time. It’s been a short driving day having left Estevan less than four hours ago, but I’m beat and glad to call this drizzly day done.