Finally! A Good Drive

We were up early and ready to hit the road by 8:00 am. We have three and a half more days of driving to get home and today will be our first full day of towing the jeep after it broke loose. Neither one of can completely relax while driving  and we are constantly checking the mirrors for any sign that the jeep is still back there. I was still concerned with road conditions and had my fingers crossed that we did not run into any bad patches today. On the up-side, the weather was clear and the sun was shining. The weatherman was correct and the temperature had dropped to a frosty -11C but it looked like we were moving into some warmer weather.

We were heading for Oakdale Wisconsin - an almost 700 km drive through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin. Each of the remaining 4 days of driving will take us through or close to a large, traffic filled city. Today it will be Minneapolis.

As we started out, we saw a roadside sign that just said "Smile." Although our visit to North Dakota had not given us much to smile about, the sign did make me smile on this day. Of course some of that may have been that were were finally putting North Dakota behind us.

We we a little fascinated by the strong presence of the Canadian Pacific Railway in North Dakota. Many of the roads we traveled on in this state had a main rail line running beside it and we saw a lot of trains. Many of them were either CP rail cars or engines. It makes sense that there would be some crop and grain transport between the norther states and the western provinces but we had no idea how much traffic there really was. We actually saw a CP Rail van travelling on the highway sporting North Dakota licence plates. Then, when we were still wondering about that we were passed by a transport carrying a CP Rail train engine.

Early into our journey that day we went through Fargo North Dakota. If you have ever watched the movie or the TV shows about that city, you would have the impression that Fargo is just a little town in the mid-west. Not so! Fargo is a large city that sprawls along the freeway for quite some distance and is, in fact, the largest city in the state based on a population of over 100,000.

We crossed into Minnesota just after leaving Fargo. This felt like progress!

The roads were, thankfully, very good, although the signs were snow and ice covered and sometimes unreadable. This continued for about the first hour that we traveled through the state.

Thankfully, as we continued to the south east, the evidence of snow disappeared and it actually got warm! Now some of that was certainly the sunshine in the cab with the windows done up, but we will take it! My feet were actually warm for the first time in days.

Minnesota started to show us her beautiful side, with it's many little lakes, rivers and ponds and the changing leaves in the trees,

As always, I was on the lookout for interesting road signs and, happily I was able to find some.

Some other interesting road side attractions were an alien looking water tower, some chainsaw art works and, my favourite, some playful cars that looked to be demonstrating what could go wrong jumping off a ramp.

We passed through Minneapolis without incident and, while the traffic was heavier than what we have seen so far in Minnesota, it was moving well We crossed the Mississippi River and then crossed the St, Croix River into Wisconsin. We were halfway through our day!

Road signs here told us there was a problem with tailgating on some of the roads.

With the worst of today's drive behind us, we started to relax a little and enjoy the drive. Wisconsin was showing her beautiful fall colours and this was one of the most scenic stretches of road we have seen so far on our return trip.

We arrived at our campground around 5:00 pm and it was a balmy 8 degrees Celsius! Warmth! The managers told us that they had turned off the water to the campsites, though because it was supposed to go down to -11C that night but they offered to fill our water tanks from a hose at the office. We told them we had lots and headed to our site. It was warm enough that we could open our door and vents for a little while that evening. It had been weeks since that was possible. We had dinner and a shower and reviewed our route for tomorrow. Today gave us hope that the rest of our trip would be smooth and trouble free.

Back On The Road Again

We finally got back on the road around lunch time on Thursday. We were only planning to drive a little over 300 kilometers to Casselton, on the eastern edge of North Dakota. I planned for us to stay at Governors Days Inn and RV Park again this year. They were so good to us last year I will always stay there if we are in the area.

To say we were on edge would be a very big understatement. Both of us were constantly checking the side mirror, hoping to see the shadow of the jeep.

The weather was overcast when we started out but it did clear out eventually. i kept thinking about what the gentleman said at the RV Dealership about all the snow they had east of us - the very direction we were heading. all of the snow that was in Martin and Harvey when we first arrived on Sunday was now gone and it felt like the temperatures had climbed a little above the freezing mark. As we heading east, though, we noticed growing amounts of snow in the fields that we passed.

As we continued east the amount of snow in the fields increased even more.

And then we came upon this beautiful winter scene..

At this point I was a little nervous, but the roads were clear, even if the ground was snow covered. Then we came to Valley City North Dakota. We were still driving on good roads, but there were snow banks on the side of the roads. Then, out of no where, the driving lane was covered with thick, chunky ice. It is only Rick's excellent driving skills that kept us out of trouble.

Rick pulled the video off of our dash cam from when we hit it:  ***warning you may hear some cussing***

https://youtu.be/QDhsNeKyVck?fbclid=IwAR39KFC4iArkvfd3SB1y1u1EH-TFbVaOJuaVwwhd89IjtfhQkwsR7mnAdUw

This is what the ice looked like up close:

This was the only time in almost 10,000 kms of driving that we saw any kind of accident and then it was just cars in the ditch.  (while watching the video you will see a tractor trailer jackknifed in the ditch on the other side of the road)

Luckily we were pretty close to our destination for the night and we needed the break. I think it was probably the most stressful drive we had ever had and it was only for 4 hours. Happily the jeep stayed with us for the day.

Our site at the RV park was covered in about 6 inches of snow and the forecast was for it to go to -11C overnight. Not the best conditions for our rig, but we made the best of it. It was time to check the weather for tomorrow and review our route for the day. At least we are 300 kilometers closer to home.

Our Captive Time in North Dakota

I don't think there is much worse than being stuck somewhere and having nothing to do but wait.

Neither one of us slept very well the night before. An evening searching the internet did not give us any decent leads on a new tow hitch that we could have sent to us overnight so Monday we decided to check the RV dealerships in the towns around us. With some luck one of them would have the part in stock. Clearly we had no luck. We did find a dealership in Minot (pronounced my-not not minnow) who could get it for us and we asked him about overnight delivery. That being done Rick got as bundled up as he could and set off for the tow yard to see who he could find to get the how hitch welded back onto the RV.

We were directed to what we thought was a local farm (was actually an old school) so that we could get the tow hitch welded back on the RV. We met Dave, the town welder, who bumped all jobs to get us in and done. When he was finished he said we would be able to tow the Titanic now! All of the people we have met in Martin ND so far have gone out of their way to help us which soothed our somewhat frazzled nerves.

Rick called the dealership back to check on the delivery of the trailer hitch. He called back to say it was going to cost us an additional $600 US if we wanted to part delivered the next day. Now we were already paying over $900 US for the part so we asked him to check on other options. We even offered to pay someone to drive it to us. He called back an hour or so later today if we did not want to pay the $600. The best he could do was a Thursday delivery. Rick had a contract for work that started on Monday but if we had to wait for the part until Thursday there is no way we would make it home on time unless Rick drove for 16 hours each day and no way was I going to let that happen. After reviewing our options, or should I say lack of options,we ended up calling them back to order the part. he told us the part should be in sometime before lunch on Thursday. Rick contacted his boss to say he would not be there on Monday and we revised our plans.

We drove to the town of  Harvey to get some cash from the ATM to start paying some of the charges associated with pulling the jeep out of the weeds and getting the hitch welded back onto the RV. We got to the bank and found out the only ATM they had was a drive thru so Rick walked around the side of the building and walked through to get his cash. Another first! 😏😉

Right Across the road from the bank was an old locomotive. I had seen SOO Line on some of the locomotives going past the town so I grabbed a picture.

We headed back to Martin to pay the welder but he had gone for lunch, so we waited. While we were waiting we considered our options in terms of where we were going to stay the next 3 nights, We found an RV park in Harvey that had all the amenities we needed but decided to find a park in Minot, since we had to go there anyhow to pick up the part we needed. We found a place called Roughrider Campgrounds which was pretty close to the RV Dealership so we decided to go there. After making the decision I checked my list of Passport America Campgrounds and they were on the list. At last one piece of good news! It meant our first 2 nights were going to be half price. So off we went to the new campground. The new site was more sheltered than the one we stayed at in Martin so it was a wee bit warmer. Did I mention North Dakota was cold? With a brisk wind? I don't think it got above -5C the entire time we were there.

On Tuesday we did not do much of anything except to stay hunkered down in the RV. We did a quick check of our supplies and realized we would probably need to get more food to last the rest of the trip and propane for the furnace.

We decided that on Wednesday we would unhook the RV and go for a trip around town to get the supplies we needed. A friend of Rick's recommended a local diner called Kroll's. We had noticed the place on the way into town and decided we would have lunch there.  We arrived at Kroll's around 11:00 am - just before the lunch hour rush. We both had burgers and I ordered one of their milkshakes. Wow! The food was good and the milkshake was the old-fashioned kind with scooped ice cream and milk. You got the shake and the rest of the mixing container and there was enough for 2 full shakes. I ended up taking the rest of it with us and had it at supper time.

:

After lunch we picked up some groceries and headed for the RV dealership to ask if they could trace the package and make sure it is still going to arrive the next day. We spoke to a very nice lady who made some calls and was able to trace it while we looked around their store. She told us it was due to arrive tomorrow as planned but then told us it would not be there until 3:20 pm. I think you could have heard both of our hearts hit the ground. Not getting it until late afternoon would mean we would not have the jeep hitched up and ready to go until 6:00 pm at best. That would put us at our campsite at 9:00 pm. Night driving. We were going to be nervous starting to tow again and, doing it at night meant we could not check for the jeep's shadow to make sure it is still back there. As we were leaving I jokingly said to the lady "ask the UPS guy to go a little faster and deliver your packages a bit earlier tomorrow" We all laughed and then went back to the RV park.

Thursday morning was bright and clear and cold, but we should be back on the road so there was a bit of excitement as well as dread. We had breakfast and were just finishing our coffee when the lady from the RV shop called. She told the UPS guy the day before that there was a very important package coming in and she needed it as soon as he could get it there, so he delivered there first that day. It was just after 9:00 am and the part was there! We had quick showers, secured everything and were on our way to the dealership by 10:00 am. When we got the part the gentleman who brought it out to the RV for us said there had been a big snow storm the day before in the eastern part of the state and that we should check the road conditions. I had already checked the weather along the route and there was nothing there about snow either today or yesterday. The sky was clear and we were finally going to be moving again.  No worries. Well except was the jeep going to stay attached.

We arrived in Martin just over an hour later and picked up the jeep and were back on the road by lunch time. We had decided to keep our original schedule for campsites so we only had 300 kms to cover. A nice easy trip to get used to towing again. We hit the road singing "On The Road Again" with our fingers crossed.

A Day That Nightmares Are Made Of

Today we are entering the US for the balance of our journey. We entered through North Dakota at North Portal and spent some time (and money) in the Duty Free Shop before proceeding through Customs. The agent was very nice and asked us the usual questions. it did not take long to get cleared through and we were on our way. There is a gas station and coffee shop just across the border and Rick got a big coffee for the road.

We got up to fog. Very thick fog and waited patiently for it to burn off. Finally we gave up waiting and headed out on the road.

It did get better and was pretty much gone by the time we got half way to the border. I was relieved as driving in fog is not my favourite thing to do.

The landscape in this part of Saskatchewan is very hilly. Not the roads, but the areal around them. Coal is mined here and the hills that we saw were man made - the soil dug out of the mines.

By comparison, North Dakota was pretty flat. At least for the first part of the trip. There was a mixture of farm land with gas and oil wells mixed in. One of the ranches had a sign telling the world that it was a happy place.

North Dakota is only starting to show it's fall colours and it made for a pretty scenic drive.

We were about 90 minutes into our drive in North Dakota when we went down a big hill and over Del Lac Lake. This would start a trip trough what i call the valley of the moguls. These are a series of hills on either sides of the road and go on for miles and miles.

Last year i mentioned in my blog about numbers carved into the hills, particularly through the first part of this valley. I tried to find out information about it but came up blank with my searches. This year I took a picture of my GPS so that I could make a more specific search and I finally had my answer.

It has been a tradition since the late 1950's early 1960's for the graduating class from a local high school dig out and place boulders in the shape of their graduating year on the side of the hills near Kenmare North Dakota. When there is a class reunion, the group will go back up the hill to repaint the rocks. Pretty cool.

We continued driving through this valley for quite a while. It was amazing to see farms that managed  to cultivate land and raise animals among the hills. At one spot we saw cows on a really steep slope of a hill. The pictures don;t seem to make it look so steep, but trust me it was.

There was one farm that had placed statues of animals on the hills around the farm. I managed to capture the Big Horned Sheep they had on display.

As we drove out of the valley and headed east the town signs became more eye catching .

The land once more leveled out and we passed a town with a pioneer village and museum that dominated the west end of the small town.

it started to get much colder as we drove east and we started seeing snow on the ground. We hoped it was just residue from the storm that went through a couple of days ago and not a sign of what was to come.

So far we were having a great day. Just 3 hours left until we were at our campground where there was a pool, hot tub and warm showers waiting for us. Then it happened.

Now before I can tell the story in a way that would be understood I need to give a bit of back ground. First of all, the towing rig we have it top of the line and has an electronic braking system that talks to the Jeep and uses it's brakes when we are slowing down or stopping. We had a problem with this system drainng the battery on the Jeep when we were on our way to Grande Prairie and really, it just meant we had to start the Jeep when we stopped to get gas or rested up to make sure the batter stayed charged. Occasionally the battery would go flat and we got the generator out and recharged it enough to start and then we would let it run. Rick bought and installed a part that should have fixed it for the return trip, but for some unknown reason it did not work. So we were back to starting the Jeep occasionally to charge the battery. Not really a big deal. If the battery on the Jeep ran out of juice, that meant the brakes did not work and we could always feel that push, so we knew that we had to stop.

OK so we had just gone through Martin North Dakota and, about 5 kms down the road we passed a farm tractor. When we pulled back in we felt the Jeep bump kind of hard so we pulled over at a gas station at Harvey ND, about another 5 kms down the road. The situation was a little more complicated today because the Jeep was now locked, even though we kept in unlocked so Rick took a hanger and headed to the back of the RV to break in and get the batter charger out. He was back in the cab in just a second yelling  "The Jeep is gone! the Jeep  is gone!" This took a second to soak in and I repeated "The Jeep is gone??" Stunned does not come close to describing how I felt in that moment. In a panic, we turned around and headed back down the highway. We knew it had happened when we passed the tractor so we raced back that way. sure enough we found the pale farmer just crossing back to his tractor and our Jeep in the grass on the opposite side of the road. It stopped just 20 feet from a telephone pole.

So what exactly happened? Rick bought the top of the line towing gear and some safety gear that would catch the vehicle in the unlikely event that it came loose.

Now had it come lose or disconnected where the towing bar sat on the ball, (circled in red below) the safety systems would have happened and the Jeep would not have completely disconnected and gone off-roading. What happen to us was the entire towing hitch receiver on the RV broke off so the hitch, bar and all the safety systems left with the Jeep.

When the jeep broke off it passed the tractor (and a very surprised farmer), crossing the opposite lane of the highway and went into the field. At some point the hitch bounced off the hood of the Jeep and then hit the ground, wedging under the jeep and ultimately stopping it.

In the picture below you can see where the hitch bounced off the hood and what is left of it sitting on the front bumper.

So the farmer who had been driving the tractor called his son, who came over and he called another friend who owned the tow truck company. He was out of town, but his brother was available to help out. We seemed to be the day's excitement for the little town and several cars came and went, some with entire families in them. The tow truck finally pulled up, but the driver didn't bring the flatbed truck so he left again. When he arrived there was someone else with him, maybe the brother who had been out of town.

Just about the time the tow truck arrived to pull the Jeep out a Sheriffs deputy also arrived and made a report.He was a really nice young guy and looked every thing over and took down the usual information.

They towed the Jeep to their yard and it was left there over night. There was a small campground right around the corner that, although closed for the year, the owner let us stay at. There was only electricity there but that would do in a pinch. The tow truck guys said they could hook us up with a good welder tomorrow so that we could get the tow hitch reattached to the RV. With all that settled we set up our RV and sat for a long time in shocked silence.

After a while I got up and made dinner and we talked t out a bit. I had already called our campgrounds and pushed our dates out and now we needed to find a replacement tow bar that could be shipped over night to us in the middle of North Dakota.  We made a plan. We talked about how lucky we were that there were no cars coming the other way that the Jeep could have hit head on. It is a busy highway so we dodged a huge bullet. At 11:00 pm we decided to try to get some sleep. Neither one of us slept much.