Bonafide Crazy

We awoke this morning still questioning which path to take.  We determined that the best option was to find a town and stop for breakfast at a restaurant with internet service.  There we could check the weather forecast for Minnesota’s Boundary Waters.  Hopefully we would find good news.  If so, we could travel back across Minnesota to Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula before heading south.

We stopped in Fort Francis, pulled out the laptops, and settled down for a hot breakfast.  The forecast was not good.  Rain was predicted along the lakes from Wisconsin on through Michigan for the foreseeable future.  The weather in Minnesota looked a bit better but only for the first two days, then it, too, would be engulfed in gray skies and rain.

After traveling the coast for nearly two months, we were tired of rain... and now we were dealing with cold.  If we didn't travel along the Great Lakes, where could we go?  

It had already been on both of our minds… so I checked the long-range forecast for Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota… sunny with warm days and cold nights… but it was 800 miles further west.  It was 800 miles more driving than we wanted to take, particularly if we intended to travel back east, all the way down to Orlando!

We left the restaurant still undecided.  Our border crossing was simple and swift, and it felt so good to be back in the good ole' U.S. of A.  We stopped at the International Falls visitor’s center to see if Minnesota might have more to offer inland than we thought, hoping the weather would improve the further away from the lakes we traveled.  

We were feeling lost and uncertain.  We knew one thing for certain... we didn't want to spend the next two weeks in rain.  We clasped hands and prayed for guidance.  At our “amen,” the skies opened up and rain began to pummel the truck.  Was this our answer… that if we stayed along the lakes that it would continue to rain? 

We had to don slicker suits to dash inside the visitor’s center.  The lady at the counter was ever so kind and helpful but had little information that would help us.  

We walked back to the truck and sat inside in quiet disbelief.  We looked at one another… were we actually going to drive to North Dakota?  “Let’s do it,” David said.

We are, in fact, certifiably crazy people!  North Dakota… here we come!!!