Bang right into our first issue. There's a cop blocking the road that they have apparently closed for who knows what reason. We head down the side road that they were pointing us to and scramble on Google Maps to attempt to determine a way around this. We take our planned bypass and find that we are behind a group of people that are likely in the same boat. At the intersection that we plan to attempt to head back up to Route 2 not only is that direction blocked but the direction to continue using that road as a detour heading west is blocked. Away we go even deeper into the North Dakota fields. We are now following two FedEx trucks and after a brief period get to watch one of them pass the other one which was a strange feeling. Eventually following them we make our way back to Route 2 and start back on our way. Even better, after all of that craziness, we do finally find a gas station that offers air for free even and get the tire filled up again!
Some very interesting original alignment detours this morning too. Mostly through fields of these very pretty yellow flowers. After seeing so much of it I decide to look up what that plant is that they are growing. Apparently it's canola as in canola oil. I had always assumed that canola was some kind of hybrid of other oils or something, not its own plant. Now I cannot look at these beautiful rolling fields of yellow flowers without thinking about fried food which I guess is a win/win. On one of the older alignments the road abruptly goes to dirt and there's a bit of discussion around if we want to do it or not. The end decision is that we are supposed to be on an adventure so we should give it a shot. I am very glad that we did as there was a good opportunity for a picture with a derilict building in among the canola.
Along the road we stop at the geographic center of North America which was apparently calculated to be here in Rugby, North Dakota. There's a little stone pile monument and some other fan fare around the area but the most amusing part for me at least is that there is a Mexican restaurant in the plaza with it all. We continue to drive along and plan on stopping in Minot for lunch. Abigail's godfather spent some time here at the US Air Force base here so I reached out to see if there was something that we should make sure not to miss. We are essentially told that we might just miss Minot if we don't pay attention. We do some looking to try to find a place for lunch and I find a burger place that some of the reviewers are saying is better than Five Guys which is Gideon's favorite burge place so we decide to go there. Dakota Burger Company allows you to fully customize your burger, similar to Five Guys but has a wider varient of cheese and other toppings as well as having tater tots that are available in cajun spices as well. We each very much enjoy our custom monstrosities but Gideon has decided that these do not beat Five Guys. I disagree. The fact that they cook the tots with the cajun seasoning rather than just add it afterwards made for a very tasty treat.
We continue down Route 2 afterwards, taking some original alignments when possible, when we come to one of the alignments from the old USGS topo maps and it looks like it's just a railroad siding with some grain elevators and no road. We look around a little confused and decide that it's not worth creeping through this industrialized area and bail on that alignment. As we cruise by we can see that there is indeed a road that extends past that area but are also kind of glad that we didn't go because it looks quite rough. We start seeing some of the oil wells appearing the closer we get to the end of day, some of them doing the burning off of the natural gas build up. Some that are doing more of the burning than others can be seen from quite a distance away. Court joked that one of them on the far edge of the horizon was the sun because of how it was glowing. It provides an interesting look to see those flames going while it's already in the mid-90's outside. I cannot imagine how uncomfortable it must be to have to work around that area of the drilling site.
We reach Williston, check in and do some chill time in the hotel room while we get one load of laundry done and discuss what we want to do about dinner. The decision is made to go to a chain BBQ place, Famous Dave's. I will say that the trend of having a great lunch and a so-so dinner continues. Again the apps are pretty good but the main meal food is somewhat lackluster. Honestly the sides are better than the meal itself. The beans are excellent. We grab some Cold Stone on the way back to the hotel and do some planning for the coming days while wrapping up some of the laundry. Looking forward to a day tomorrow at the first National Park of the trip.