7AM Central:

We’re on the road once more, and after our bust at Minneapolis, we’re glad to be headed for consistent attractions from here on out. What little hills there were have flattened out and now the grass seems to stretch for miles… Because it does. Little islands of trees crop up in the distance, framed against fields of gradient green and patchy clusters of greying clouds, slowly returning to white after an evening of heavy rain. They lie like a blanket across the sky leading out of Fargo, the hazy blue horizon casting a stark contrast ahead of us. It heralds the arrival of the trip proper, and as we pass out from beneath the sheet it seems to reach out in desperation. It’s not done with us quite yet, which is too bad because we’re certainly done with it. I can see the sun up ahead, and with only a few hours before we pass into Mountain time and reach Theodore Roosevelt National Park, it’s looking like it’s gonna be a good day. More updates to come.

9AM Central:

We have entered the fabled lake country, a byproduct of the cataclysmic glaciers that once covered the entire northern section of the continent, sculpting the land into the mess of watery divots we now find ourselves in. Every few minutes we pass another small body of water, not quite swamp, but certainly wetlands. The grass is deceptively thick. You’d never guess it simply from looking out over the fields, but once you reach water you can see that it’s no actually grass at all, but fields of reeds some 2-3 feet tall. The occasional farming town can be seen here and there, though highway exits are sparse, and wecame within 40 miles of running out of gas. More updates to come.

Side note: Seen at least 10 times more cows here than in Wisconsin. Cmon Wisconsin, get it together.
12PM Mountain:

We’ve made it to our first National Park of the trip: Theodore Roosevelt National Park. However we have arrived to mixed results. The park is gorgeous, and our first stop was the painted canyon. Miles and miles of multicolored hills, striped red, yellow, and grey, stretch out in a haphazard maze as far as the eye can see. Small grassy plains lie in between the hills, and surprisingly, cacti line the paths. Our first excursion down into the canyon was not exactly as we expected though, as after about 30 minutes of trekking we were attacked by swarms of biting flies. Some of the most persistent and vicious insects I’ve ever encountered, they followed us for a good half mile, landing roughly every 10 seconds to attempt another affront to our persons. Expect a full write up tonight, more updates to come.
4PM Mountain:

We’ve left Theodore Roosevelt and are headed towards today’s destination, Billings Montana. I would go into our experiences from the park but I don’t want to spoil the upcoming write up. Needless to say it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life, and we ended up about 10 feet away from a dust bathing buffalo. The painted terrain of the badlands has passed, and we’re now basically driving through a Windows xp screensaver. You know the one, with the hill and the grass, right, that one. In any case, the race is on to get to the hotel and crank out some content. We’ve got an early start tomorrow as we’ll be headed for Yellowstone National, and hopefully redemption. That’s all for today in terms of travel updates, but you can expect some amazing photos and hopefully our first video by tomorrow morning. Stay tuned, or I guess just keep refreshing, either way.