Wisconsin and North Dakota

 So we made it to Wisconsin.  It has been a huge drive for Mary Ann.  I cannot take turns to relieve her as I have no insurance on the car, and in America you have to have insurance in your name. So she is doing all the driving, which is unfortunate.  But I am keeping her on track, which is fortunate.  She struggles to follow the GPS at times.  She takes the GPS advice as a suggestion sometimes and I have to put her back on track, it is hilarious... 

We crossed Wisconsin quite quickly, from Ironwood to Duluth was only a couple of hours.  

We saw a dead black bear that was road kill, I sharn't share the pics as it might upset your senstive souls.  But it was fascinating. 

We saw Lake Superior and a lot of amazing scenery, but we did not stay overnight in Wisconsin or Minnesota.  We travelled on to North Dakota.  we were getting tired by the time we hit Jamestown, but there was no inn for the travellers, I know exactly how Joe and Mares felt.  So we back tracked for 30 minutes and stayed at a rest area at Oriska.  A large insect hit the open window and landed on Mary Ann, she freaked out, she said it was wet, in the morning we found this in the front of the van.  It was about 5 to 6 cm long.

The rest area was actually quite good, very clean, all tarred and nice toilet facilities. No bears, so bonus.  But the sleeping in the van had some disadvantages and we were both quite uncomfortable.  I got very little sleep, but Mary Ann had a good slepp.  I woke with cramp.

We drove through Duluth in Minnesota and as we coming up to a Road Closed sign I suggested we turn off as the road was closed.  "But is it?" said Mary Ann and kept driving.  Once we get there she is peering through the windscreen to see if she can see any reason we shouldn't continue.  I was reminding her it was closed.  She looks over to the other side of the intersection and sees another car.  "I'll see what he does." she said and he went around the barricades and turned right, so she goes around our barricades and follows him, then the car on our right follows us too.  So apparenelty Road Closed signs are just a suggestion and don't need to be obeyed.

We then travelled on through North Dakota and went to a Walmart in Bismarck to buy a foam topper for the bed, mind you the bed is two foam chair covers laid side by side on the floor of the van.  So the topper was required. We then visited the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It was really amazing.  Lovely back drops of mountains.  We saw some praire dogs and some deer.

                                           

                                             Praire Dogs, there were hundreds of them

Mary Ann is concerned that I keep falling asleep on our journey, she thinks I have narcolepsy. I just have had very little sleep to date, since I left Aus. We travelled again, through some lovely countryside, a lot of pastures instead of forests. We arrived a Billings and booked into the Holiday Inn, Mary Ann had a heap of points she used, so that was our cheapest accommodation to date at $66 USD.  We are using the SPLID to enter all of our costs and who paid them,  It works out how much each has paid and at the end it will settle up and one of you will owe the other.  So far we are keeping it pretty even, so there will be no big surprise for one of us at the end.  We had dinner at a little bar and the bartender was really sweet and the customers were really friendly, giving us advice on what to see and do.

From there we headed for Livingston and had lunch in the park.  We were heading for Yellowstone National Park.  We went in the north entrance and out the west entrance.  There were information packs on all of the animals you can see within the park. 

                                            All the animals we could see in the park

The map of the park

Guess how many animals we did see........... yep, that's right, none, NONE!!  After we left the park, my facebook came up with bison running down the roads, 26 minutes ago.... I was pissed.  Today, more facebook posts of bison everywhere, we didn't even see a deer.  We saw a couple of raven.  Not happy Jan.... 

We headed to Bozeman, as Mary Ann had heard it was a lovely town, we weren't impressed.  It is full of hundreds of new houses, all looking alike.  Apparently it is a collage town and is increasing rapidly.  We stopped at a pizza restaurant for dinner, it was so expensive, $21 USD for an 8 inch pizza.  When it came, it was inedible.  We weren't happy and as we didn't eat it, the waiter asked if we wanted a box for it.  NO, no we don't.  Mary Ann still left a tip, and we went to McDonalds drive through for dinner.  As I have already said my job is to keep her on track.  We come out of McDonalds and she turned the exact oppostie of what the GOS said, and I thought okay she has a plan.  She did it again at the next intersection, so I am like is the GPS just suggestions too?  She is hopeless and we both started laughing as I put us back on track.  I just need to keep my eyes out.  I only nap on long stretches where we have no turns.... 

We headed north and spent the night at another rest stop. at Three Forks.   We were heading for St Mary in Blackfeet country.  Near the Glacier Nartional Park.  We have a camp site for 2 nights.  Today we plan to drive around the park, do some laundry etc.  We are taking a chill day.  That's all for now guys.