We wake up in the morning and get ready for heading out. After check out we look in on the breakfast for the hotel and it's not that impressive. We decide to head out and get some food on the road. I find a local bakery place with good baked goods supposedly, Johnson's Bakery so we decide to stop by. We pick up a half dozen of some pretty darn good donuts and when speaking with the guy behind the counter find out that he had spent about 20 years in the area around our home! What a small world! Away we go again though.
The time for tickets into Glacier comes up again and we are in the middle of no where. No WiFi to be found but at least some cellular service. Court pulls over and we get everyone in the van into the site and ready to try to get the tickets. I keep failing miserably but suddenly I hear from Gideon that he's got the ticket in the basket and while I try to determine what he needs Court is able to confirm he has it in his basket as she gets an error message saying it's already in the basket. I take the phone from Gideon to complete the transaction and we finally score a ticket! After a brief celebration, it's time to move on again.
After some good amount more of driving, we pull into Itasca State Park which contains Lake Itasca and the headwaters of the Mississippi River. I remember being here as a kid and thinking how neat it was that such a mighty and large river came from a small stream at the outlet of this lake. We enjoy some nice views but as it was last time that I was there, there were a lot of people around so it made for some interesting times trying to keep our distance and such. After we have our fill with people, we head back up to the welcome center area where there is probably the largest puffball flower that I have ever seen. While Abigail and Court are getting pictures a kid comes up from behind and asks what they are taking pictures of and then continues to talk to Court about the bag of rocks that he has. Clearly he is picking up on the mom vibe.
From there we start driving to Bemidji to meet back up with Route 2, grab a picture with another Paul Bunyan and Babe and hopefully get some food. While on the road however we meet with near disaster. Court pulls up behind a honey sucker hauling a couple of Port-a-Potties as we wait for cross road traffic to clear. A semi from the intersection attempts to pull down our road but woefully miscalculates and needs to stop so that he doesn't hit said honey sucker truck. The honey sucker driver attempts to back up to give the semi the space it needs but doesn't look behind him so he's backing up into us. The momentary panic sets in because at this very moment, after being clear behind us for some time, someone is now approaching us from behind so Court can't back up either. She lays on the horn and we all prepare to have poo all over the front of the van. Luckily the driver stopped and instead of backing up more pulled his truck more to the right to let the semi go by. The semi driver was having a great time with all of this and drive by with a huge smile on his face. The honey sucker driver was less amused but also very nicely got out to make sure that no damage occurred. We gave him the thumbs up and waved him on.
Now in Bemidji we visit the park on Lake Bemidji with the statues and do a quick walk to the lake, fed by the Mississippi River, to get some more of the local sights. Once done here, we decide to go to a local hot dog place called Lucky Dogs because they had an interesting selection of some crazy hot dogs like one with peanut butter, jalapeno jam and sliced banana and I was able to sell this kids since they had hot dogs with mac and cheese. Court and I opt for our own variants with the winner in my mind being the dog that had essentially a whole cookout picnic on it. It was topped with baked beans, potato salad, diced onions and a little mustard. It was so good! Court liked the potato salad on it so much she went up to get a side of it extra. Gideon's mac and cheese dog he adds ketchup to which concerns me for that kid but he seemed to enjoy it all the same. Abigail found her next mac and cheese soul mate for the trip. All in all a very succesful and enjoyable lunch.
For the closure of the day we drive out to Grand Forks, ND for our hotel, Country Inn and Suites. I've had a mixed back with this brand. One time to Costa Rica for work and it was a very nice place to say but the first night our last sabbatical road trip was at one and it was terrible. Since we could get a room pretty cheaply that allows us all to get a bed we decide to give it a shot again. On the drive in I am reminded that there is a drive-in eatery that serves sloppy joes and locally brewed root beer here! I try to get the car excited for the possibility of that for dinner and no one really bites other than Abby. Oh well, on to the hotel for now. The person working the front desk as soon as we walked in had quite the attitude but calmed down some by the time we were done with the process. We chill for a bit and I am able to convince the family to go back to The Keg for dinner. This place is layed out terribly for a drive-in and we couldn't really find a place to park at first. Eventually we end up in a spot that's essentially parking on the sidewalk but since there's a speaker there we decide it's okay. We attempt to order the root beer and are told that they are out of it for the day. Crap, strike one. The rest of the order they can handle though. We get the food, the onion rings are just okay, same with the patty melt that Court got. Gideon seems to enjoy his corn dogs though and while they weren't the best that I've had, the sloppy joes were decent. Kind of a bust though considering the lunch we had.
Back at the hotel again and with the time left in the evening we decide to go to the pool. Everyone gets changed and gathers what they need and we head down to the pool. The pool arae here is actually quite nice. There's a shin-deep pool for the younger kids with a little slide and a mushroom thing that drips water off the sides and a normal pool next to it with each of these pools having their own little hot tub areas. The only issue is how many people are in the room with us. There are, from I could tell, three distinct groups of six or more people in here already! We decide since we are here, we will make the most of it and find an area in the main pool away from most of the other families and hang out. At one point Abby comes over after playing with Gideon with what I am hoping is Gideon's snot on her head because if it wasn't Gideon's then I don't know whose it was. Meanwhile Court and I are both a little worried at how cloudy some of the pool water appears and are wondering what percentage of the fluid we are swimming is actually water rather than the "other option". We decide we're done there when Court and I are both concerned that Abigail might actually succeed in what appears to be her mission to attempt to drown Gideon in the pool.