Dietz Summer Road Trip

On the second full day of our journey we headed west from Milwaukee and crossed into Minnesota. On the way we saw cranberry bogs alongside the road in Wisconsin. While we weren’t planning to stay over in Minnesota, we both had never visited it before so we decided a nice stopping point to break up the trip would be the Mall of America. Turns out it is super easy to kill 4 hours in America’s largest mall.

The parking garage had the levels color-coded and labeled by a state so you remembered where your car was. But what really impressed me when we got there was the interactive map. You could search by store, restaurant, service, etc. It would show you on the kiosk the quickest route to take to get there and even had the option to text the directions to your phone. Yes, it really is just that huge. We decided on Twin City Grill for lunch. I got the Walleye sandwich (Minnesota’s state fish, apparently) and it came with these salt and vinegar french fries that are making my mouth water just writing about them now.

After lunch we walked around a bit but were anxious to check out the indoor amusement park. It was Monday afternoon so not extremely busy. We decided to go for it and buy the pass and upgrade to include mini-golf. We road all three roller coasters, and they were extremely fun. No matter how old you are, roller coasters are still wild. The lines were not long, maybe 10 minutes at the most we had to wait. Best part? It was all inside and therefore air-conditioned! Really changes the way you feel about waiting for a roller coaster when it’s not in 100 degree heat!

On the 3^rd floor we played a friendly game of miniature golf. As expected, John won. Afterwards we browsed a little bit more before heading back to our car. We were there for four hours and didn’t even see a third of the mall.

Our final stop was Fargo, ND, which is just over the Minnesota/North Dakota border. We got in late but the Granite City brewery was still open so we hit that up before going to the Double Tree for the night. They really pull out all the stops giving us our very own rubber duck upon arrival which I know have found to be a necessary comfort.

Tuesday morning we fueled up. At only $1.92 this was the cheapest gas we have gotten to date. Tuesday was eventful, yet uneventful at the same time. We spent the day driving the entire state of North Dakota and making a big change to our original travel plans. Sometimes some things just happen and you have to adjust. While it might not of been the original plan, we decided to continue our adventure in the lower 48 and spend some time visiting some states we haven’t been too (ND, ID, KS, OK) and a tour of the Deep South (Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina) before we return home at the end of the month. Hopefully Alaska isn’t going anywhere (any time soon) so we will get there someday!

After hours of driving across North Dakota (which is flat…or what is a word that is flatter than flat?) we saw plenty of fields, missile silos, and a hill side with what appeared to be where every local “Class of” since the 1960’s left their mark. All of this brought us to Bismark, ND where we spent the evening re-grouping and planning a new travel route. First stop: Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. But I’ll save that for another blog post!!