Going Home - Across the USA

 A few scenes from our trip home.

We crossed over from the 'mitten' of Michigan
to the 'yupper' of Michigan on this huge suspension bridge.

Driving on Hwy 2 past the northern shore of Lake Michigan.
It was about 97°C or was it Fahrenheit?
I can't remember.
But, there were families every 2-3 miles pulled over and swimming in the lake.
They would be either sun tanning on the sandy shore,
or standing waste deep in the blue water tossing a football back and forth.
You get the picture!
I was sooooo jealous.
I was going to meet with Michelle and Thad as you saw in the previous post
or I would have pulled over and dove in.
I made it a point to tell them,
through gritted teeth,
how much I loved them when we meet up.
haha!

 That night we stayed at a Sam's Club parking lot in Duluth, MN,
but there were no other RVs present.
We were the only operation there besides a cop car
that just pulled out as we pulled in.
I didn't feel comfortable about it so I looked up the nearest interstate rest stop.

It was 15 minutes away.
I could do it.
Piece of cake!
Piece of Sam's Cake!
Peace out Sam's!!

So, at 12:30 in the morning, a.k.a. night time, I got back behind the wheel
and proceeded to drive towards the rest stop.
I arrived to find the rest stop was under construction and closed to all RVs.

I was devastated, frustrated, and tired.
I proceeded back to the Sam's Club and went to bed about 1:30AM.

From then on, I refer to things being,
"Only about 2.5 rest stops away,"
or,
"It's less than 1 rest stop away"
Ashley understands.

When I woke up the next morning
we were kind of boxed in as that was where all the employees parked
with no concern that we needed to pull out.
It's okay... we'll buff the scratches out later.

Here's a few weird sculptures through North Dakota.

A flock of geese...

...and a giant cow watching over us.

Next we stopped at a water park in Bismark, North Dakota.
Just for a break from the RV.

 

  

All dry!

One thing to know about this day is that it was the 4th of July, and it was HOT!
It was at this point that I looked up a cool fireworks show along our route,
and it said there would be one in Billings, MT.
This was 5 to 6 hours away from Bismark and it was currently about 3 o'clock.
I then proceeded to drive towards Billings, MT
in the hopes of catching the fireworks show.
Remarkably, I pulled into an empty lot about 0.5 miles away from the show,
with approximately 0.5 seconds to spare,
with about 0.5 family members still awake,
the fireworks lasted about 0.5 hours,
and I have 0.5 jokes left about the number 0.5!

The next day we headed to Island Park to meet up with Lisa and Heath!

We stayed at a friend's property and rode some side by sides,
plus went to Yellowstone to see somethin' good.

Our campsite in Island Park.

Yellowstone 2021!

We made it home that night, and immediately wondered where we would end up next!