Long day.  Began SE of Minneapolis.  Check on traffic said 24 minute jam getting into city.  Pass.  Drove west 12 miles, thought I’d check again.  1 minute.  Okay!  Stopped at Fort Snelling.  One more fort that was never attacked.  Very impressive defenses, considering that at the time of construction the potential enemy used bow and arrow.  The state did a masterful job of reconstruction.  The friendly staff give me a free five minute overview, while they waited for a flood of students.

Mill City Museum documents, in the remains of an old mill, the flour production history of the city.  Excellent, though focused mostly on grade school students.  Gorgeous view of the river from the top.  It is a beautiful city.  The arena is a work of art.

Visited REI.  I’m now loaded for bear.  Literally.  Bought a bear can and bear spray.  Plus waterproof gloves (the one thing I should have had from the start).  Plus mosquito netting for my head.  Now I just have to begin camping again.  More on that later.

Every single person in Minnesota was kind and generous.  It was a little unnerving to be greeted warmly by other customers in a mini mart.

Decided to go on the interstates westward.  Rolling hills in Minnesota, slowly flattening out.

I’ve now visited 49 states!  Fargo, ND, was much larger than I expected (>100,000).  Had a fantastic pizza at Rhombus Guys. The city probably has things worth looking at, but I was on my way to a state park to camp.  “Ignore GPS!!”, the web site says.  They are so right!  The mapping guys spent limited time in North Dakota.  At times dirt roads are favored over paved ones.  The state park was open in a limited way (no water).  And empty of campers.  I felt uncomfortable being the only occupant, so I  checked other places.  Nothing commercial was open yet for the season.  Wait until May 1st.  So I (again) checked into a hotel in Jamestown, ND.  Birthplace of Louis L’Amour! Who knew?  I’ve got things to see tomorrow.

North Dakota is flat.  Ocean flat.  High points are highway overpasses.  Roads straight everywhere. Numbered roads:  East-west are streets, north-south are avenues.  Corner of 54th street and 110th Avenue sounds more like NY City than a corn field.  Farmer working his field after dark with headlights.  Had a brief image of Donald Trump and spouse in a remake of Green Acres.  Beautiful sunset, stretching north to south along the flat horizon.  Innkeeper warm and friendly.  A long day.  440 miles.