Slippery Little Suckers
Leaving the hotel this morning, we decided the smell of the food was enough to make us eat somewhere else, instead. We hopped on into the car and after a little debate decided on Panera for breakfast. They have the best bagels.
Soon after (close enough that I had to leave my half-eaten bagel) we stopped for our morning fill-up and candy grab. Me and Mom left with a mission of finding Dad 'something new'. Well, we took this mission to heart and got Dad just about every new thing we saw. Now I'm not saying that we don't sneak a bite here or there if Dad says it's good, but mainly they're Dad's. I can't even remember some of the things we got Dad, but I remember we got him some chocolate covered cherry candy, a soda that was flavored citrus and berry and some old fashioned taffy we found by the register. He had a pretty decent time testing all those out over the morning.
As we were trying to make our way to Route Two, police cars blocked it off everywhere. This has happened to us a lot so far this trip, so Mom and Dad were a little irritated. They took the detour, but even the route there was closed off. It took a while to find a route parallel to Route 2 that was open to travel. Eventually we found it, though, and we were rocking and rolling smoothly once again.
Mid-Morning we stopped for a bathroom break in a fairly upscale gas station. While waiting for Mom to wrap up, me and Gideon were talking about hypothetical strategies of how to win toys from a claw machine. This is where the magic happened. Our former claw machine addict Mom saw us discussing strategies and permitted us to try, to which Dad passed Gideon a dollar bill. Gideon tried to insert it into the machine, but it wouldn't go. Dad and Mom tried, but neither of them were having any luck. Instead, Mom found some quarters in her purse. Gideon inserted two, and the game began. First try, Gideon had a new friend. We named it Sparkles. Because it's one of those viral reversible octopi, Gideon decided to make the inverse a different entity. Her name is Star. I wanted to try too, so Mom gave me her last two quarters. I inserted them, but the game didn't start. I was tasked to run into the van and grab more quarters. I put those in too, and played the game. Sadly, because Gideon got the easy prey, I left empty handed. Settled in the car, Dad had an epiphany. "What if the only reason it didn't take our bills was because it already had two quarters?" A frantic rush ensued to re-try with bills. No matter what, the machine wouldn't take them. Mom decided to go to the cash register and exchange two more bills into quarters. I used one set and with the help of Mom and Gideon, I got my prize! I got a similar reversible to Gideon, except mine is all one entity. Their name is Glimmer and they use all pronouns. Mom tried once with the remaining change, but she didn't get anything.
New friends in hand, we headed off towards our main destination for the day: the geographical center of North America. Dad explained it to me as if you were to cut North America out on a piece of paper and the only way you could balance that paper was to rest it on this town in North Dakota. I didn't really understand, but there you have it. Anyway, there was a cute little rock monument in the parking lot of Planet Fitness. The monument also had the flags of Mexico, The United States and Canada. I was about to ask why they were discluding so many small Central and South American countries, but then I realized how stupid that was.
After that we headed off to pick up some lunch at The Dakota Burger Company. On their menu were things like grilled cheeses or burgers with grilled cheeses for buns. Obviously, I had a hard decision to make. I love grilled cheese. I ended up with a gouda and cheddar grilled cheese topped with pepperoni and sauteed onions and peppers. It was delicious. The even better part of that meal, though, were the cajun tater tots. They didn't taste too different from regular tots at first, but the spice built beautifully. They were so amazing but I'm also a wimp so I had to stop because I was too busy crying and blowing my nose from the spice to actually finish them. Don't worry they didn't go to waste. Mom took them.
During the afternoon, we had a lot of times where we took a path that was more historically correct but differed from the current Route 2. That meant a lot of travelling through random fields. This whole trip has been a lot of corn and grass, but this afternoon the road was lined with a plant that was as yellow as a highlighter. Dad looked it up, and apparently it's canola. It's very pretty, but the roads were stretching for a while, and at this point it was dirt. I voiced my concern for never getting off this road. Gideon commented about the abandoned state of every house we'd passed. To which Dad responded "It's the children of the canola. They're greasy, they slip through your hands. You can't fight 'em."
We stopped again for a bathroom break at another larger gas station. There, I got some gummi butterflies from my favorite brand of gummies.
Later, on a similarly abandoned road, Mom thought of an amazing picture idea. Sit me and Gideon in the middle of the road, by one of the painted lines. And, of course, play cards in the middle of the street. We found a fairly flat stretch of road where Dad could check for cars, and then executed the picture. Mom said it was one of her favorite pictures she's ever taken. They're incredibly cool.
We got to the hotel earlier than expected, so we even got some time to video chat with Guggie! We missed her so much, it was really great to talk to her. And of course, her doggo Thor was welcome too. The room was so cold that I decided to try on my new sweatshirt from the headwaters of the Mississippi. Verdict: it's super fuzzy and comfortable.
For dinner, we tried a local chain, Famous Dave's Barbeque. It was . . . well, barbecue. The appetizers were amazing. Me and Gideon had crispy, creamy cheese curds and Mom and Dad had fried pickles. We both got the same dipping sauce, which honestly, was my favorite part. I got brisket for the entree, which I didn't end up liking much. I ate my own mac and cheese, potato salad, toast and corn muffin. I also stole half a corn muffin, a few fries, a chicken tender and some beans from everyone else. All in all not an awful meal. We stopped by Coldstone Creamery on the way home and I had some delicious Oreo and MnM mint ice cream. I know, it's so unique from my usual order.
Possibly the best part of today, though, isn't even in today. Dad found a breakfast place for tomorrow that sells some real original options. The excitement is building.
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