Yesterday we just drove and drove and drove. We took one nice rest stop in Wisconsin at a road side rest with an overlook - pictures will come when Mike loads his pics. We also found a cheese shop. Yum. Last night we stayed in a very dingy motel in Bismark, ND. We had a great breakfast at a local diner there, though, called Krolls. It was very German and very delicious.



Today was a really full day, and in many respects the first day of actual vacationing! After our fantastic diner breakkies we drove North to the Audubon National Wildlife Refuge and did some birding. Mike and Si were in their element!

I was taking notes for them, making sandwiches when I saw they needed them, etc. Mike saw 4 more life birds, and Simon saw many more. It was fun!

Prairie Chickens, Magpies, Bared Sparrows and Hudsonian Godwits are a few of the highlights.







After driving the car tour of the prairie there we backtracked a little bit so we could see the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandan. It was great! They have a perfect replica of the fort where Lewis and Clark wintered before embarking on the really new part of their exploration. Very cool! Our guide was very knowledgable, too, which we greatly appreciated. We didn't spend nearly as much time as we could have because this was a side-trip and not one of our state priorities for our trip.


After that we were back to driving and driving.

We passed through Minot, ND, birthplace of my dear friend, Ann W.




And we reached the Canadian border and got to use our Passports! It was a little anti-climatic but fun, nonetheless.

Tonight we are in Moose Jaw. We've treated ourselves to a little nicer hotel so we could soak in a pool and hot tub. We've met people from New Brunswick and chatted with them. We've seen license plates from all but about 6 states, and we've gotten about 6 of the provinces, too. We've seen about 96 bird species as well as antelope, jack rabbits, roe deer and ground squirrels. Tomorrow is our first Dinosaur Day! We're still listening to Gaiman's American Gods. I think we're on about disc 10.