Editor’s Note: I spent September 19-26 of this year with my immediate family (my mom, dad, and Taylor/Kyle/Wyatt) at Glacier National Park. This was the first leg of my parents’ six-week-long tour of the Northwest to celebrate my mom’s retirement. It was the first time I’d gotten to travel over a long period with Wyatt ever, and it felt like the first time in a very long time with the rest of my family. I kept a journal over the course of the week. It started out with meticulous writing and note-taking, especially since the first three days of the trip featured a whole lot of driving. As the trip went on, the time to write page after page in my journal decreased, as did my will to stay up late into the night forcing it. In the future, I’ll have to bring my laptop or something to make journaling more feasible. Or maybe I’ll have to get more concise, but I doubt that’s happening. Anyway: the first several days will feature light editing or none at all from what I wrote at the time, with the last several days featuring some post-writing and post-processing.
6:10 am – Had some storms overnight in Norman. Choosing to look at that as a positive omen – the night before I left for Alaska last year, there was also a big storm, and that trip turned out amazing. We got a bit of a late start mostly thanks to me, but there was no traffic and no line at Delta baggage. Pam came with Elizabeth to drop me off. Honestly, I’m very glad that Elizabeth will have her there while I’m away. We do have that Europe trip in two weeks, but it’s never easy to be at home while someone else is having fun.
Direct flight from OKC –> MSP at 7:15. Just waiting on my Starbucks order befre boarding. My parents stayed in Wisconsin last night and will be in Minneapolis to pick me up. Should be a fun travel day!
3:30 pm – Greetings from my 42nd state! As I write this, we’re about 15 miles west of Fargo (editor’s note: the 42nd state is North Dakota, if that wasn’t obvious). All 3 of us have taken turns driving; Rich is currently behind the wheel. It’s incredibly gloomy outside. For about 2 hours, there were moderate to heavy showers along I-94 through Minnesota and now we’ve got low clouds and fog/mist. Good to get it out of the way today, in my opinion.
The flight this morning was a comedy. Delta has an 8-group boarding system, and somehow I was the only person in Group 8. It was a tiny Skywest plane (only 20 rows with no middle seats). I have a duffel bag and a camera bag in addition to a checked suitcase, and Delta didn’t ask me to gate-check anything. Of course there was no overhead space, so guess who got to shove two personal items under their seat? Finally, it’s peak allergy season in Oklahoma. I was in rough shape this morning. Flying while congested has never been anyone’s idea of a good time.
8:30 pm – Writing this update from the Days Inn in Mandan, North Dakota. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful. The weather cleared up some for a while but was gloomy again by the time we got to Bismarck for dinner.
Does Bismarck even have interesting options for dinner, you ask? A little surprisingly, the answer is yes. The Walrus Restaurant was popping – every table and booth was packed (it is Friday night). Rich and I each got beers – mine was a spiced apple lager – and I got Cajun tetrazzini. Mine was pretty good. 7.5, maybe 8 out of 10. The only issue was that we got Culver’s for lunch (and they gave us extra custard!) so nobody was terribly hungry.
The hotel is okay (editor’s note: this might be overselling it a bit). It’s a Days Inn. You pay Days Inn prices and spin the roulette wheel to see if it comes up fine. I’ll probably sleep really well coming out of mids 36 hours ago and with a 4:30 am wakeup call this morning.
Tomorrow we drive to Glendive, MT to Makoshika State Park. Jason is meeting us there; he’s staying in Sidney, MT tonight. But first, sleep.
