Day 13: North Dakota ... Smooth Sailing

Total Miles = 254

We had a very quiet night at Walmart in Williston, ND (see Facebook for pics) and headed out after a good breakfast. Our goal was to reach Devil's Lake and we did. Along the way we took our time and made a couple of detours to take some great photos. Somewhere on the side of the highway in ND we saw an old truck turned into art... Hamburger and french fries to be precise. It was quite a ways off but managed to at least get a shot of it for you.

Route 2 East at least allows us to occasionally pull over and enjoy the sites. I posted a question regarding the flames we saw along the way at oil refineries and why they didn't utilize the gases they were burning off to create more energy? Then we saw this amazing old church up a little side road and we had to detour to see if it really was abandoned... It was. So sad but so beautiful. I'm having difficulty posting some of the photos' here because of auto-rotation but I can share the pictures of the Old Pastor's house that was along side of the Church.

Further down we stopped to photo a beautiful old school that was also abandoned. It's almost like this whole community just disappeared.  These were some good examples of what we had been seeing with abandoned houses, farms and ranches all across the states we've been too. 

Today we found the Geographical Center of North America in Rugby, ND. It was not quite as impressive as yesterday's find in Belle Fourche but cool nonetheless. AND just for trivia use I believe every little town that we've been to may not have a Walmart but do have a Family Dollar. LOL

Along the way we saw a fire and detoured again to check it out and found this Refuge for Geese and a beautiful farm. Such hidden gems. We never did track down the fire and we hoped that everything was OK.


The fields in the refuge were all harvested leaving chaff for the geese to feed on but the farm side was all green and lush.  Its funny how two sides of the road can be so different. 

And lots and lots of long trains all day long. Some coming and going from oil country and others like this one for grain. The railroad is pretty darn busy out here and I do love the sound of a train whistle during the night... it's very comforting. 

Well we've settled for the night at Walmart in Devil's Lake and I'm going to pack it in. Jimmy and Molly are ready and I'm still sitting here typing. Hopefully I will find time and internet to realign my Kruegersview.com and post more pictures AND get those photos of the Church posted. 

Good Night for now...