Hello. It’s me!

Well, the big news is that we deviated from our US-2 strategy early this afternoon. It was time to check out NATIONAL PARKS!! And when you check out NATIONAL PARKS, you lose touch with US-2. So we’re resting along I-94 in Dickinson, ND tonight.

First, let’s have a moment of silence for Dad’s SiriusXM connection, which loosened this afternoon and caused a genuine lack of listening options. Now Dad has to listen to the radio, and that’s not a situation that is going to end well for anybody.

Ok, back to the story. After entering North Dakota …

… we deviated from US-2, and visited Fort Union Trading Post. This was quite the place back in the day … if you were trading pelts, this is where business happened. Sort of like modern e-commerce in Western North Dakota more than 160 years ago.

Turns out I could care less about how people traded pelts centuries ago. Know why? Because outside, there were approximately 22,493,948 Prairie Dog Poop Pellets … or as I now call them, “Nature’s Nachos”. I became obsessed with the little nuggets … to the point where Dad sent me back to the rig for punishment.

When Mom and Dad returned, we drove past the Fracking Fields … the places where large companies inject water into the earth and pull black gold aka “Texas Tea” up for consumption. For the small price of a couple thousand earthquakes and tens of thousands of poisoned wells, we all get to enjoy $2.29 gasoline. How else could we afford to drive an RV across the country and back?

There are a lot of mobile homes on the landscape. In fact, the campground we are staying at tonight is populated with a hundred or so semi-permanent workers in travel trailers.

Mom wanted you to see a video of the excitement (visit the website if you cannot see the video).

Up next – Theodore Roosevelt National Park … by this time, we’re a good 80 miles south of US-2 … it’s becoming a hopeless task to return to the desolate thoroughfare.

We took a 20 mile round-trip drive through the badlands … it sure was a pretty place, though I wasn’t exactly thrilled with Mom having to take pictures of me.

See what Dad did? He put his hand right around my brisket, and then hung a nine ounce leash weight off my neck to keep me in place. Thanks. Dad.

Instead of focusing on nature, I wanted to sample more of Nature’s Nachos … in this case, buffalo chips.

I asked Mom and Dad to take me to the source of this delicious waste product snack.

Mmmmmmm … buffalo.

It’s quite a place to spend an afternoon.

Finally, we headed south toward I-94 … our new home for eastbound travel. We arrived at our campground in Dickinson … and then Mom and Dad introduced me to PIZZA RANCH … nom nom nom nom (visit the website if you cannot see the video).

We started the day with visions of a US-2 trip … the day was muddled with my incessant desire to sup on animal waste … and then the day ended with a belly bloated with PIZZA RANCH goodies.

From here, we take the path most traveled by. We’ll listen to FM radio as we drive to or beyond Fargo tomorrow. I hear we’re going grocery shopping in the morning. With luck, we can pick up a fresh batch of nature’s nachos for the trip #sayaprayerfordash.