We are on I-94 heading across North Dakota today, the amount of road construction almost makes us long for Hwy 2 in Montana. Our anticipated day of uninterrupted four lane travel has been marred numerous times already by lane closures that stretch on for 12 miles apiece. We are hoping to make it all the way to Minneapolis today and turn in the RV about 12 hours early. If the going is too slow we can spend one more night on the road and bring it in tomorrow morning, but I think we are all settled in for the final push. Its been a great trip, better than any of us anticipated. We all agreed that there is a lot of appeal to traveling by RV.

The other night around the campfire we were reminiscing about our anniversary adventures:

  • 5 year - a week in Door County, young new parents.

  • 10 year - a cruise aboard a Carnival Funship! Once on Carnival is enough, and an infamous catamaran trip.

  • 15 year - a Mediterranean cruise on Royal Caribbean, exhausting!

  • 20 year - Cruising the Hawaiian islands on Norwegian, injuries galore, getting saved by a lifeguard, and losing bicycle breaks on the way down the mountain!

  • 25 year - Alaskan cruise on Princess plus an extended trip to Denali, whales and bears and moose!

  • 30 year - RV trip to Banff and Glacier, fun and very relaxed. (but scarce wildlife)

That is a quite a list of cool places to visit, and a lot of years of great friendship! None of us had really though about how many cruises the list included, so it was definitely time for a land adventure. Who knows where our next adventure will take us in five years. If we all make it to our 50th anniversary what will we do then? We’ll all be in our early 70’s by then, so chances are slim that we’ll make a return to mountain hiking. But, who knows by the 70 will be the new 50. Whatever the case may be we are lucky to have such great lifelong friends.

So, I’m finishing up this last post of the vacation just 160 miles from Minneapolis. Today has been a wild day of quick stops for gas, Burger King takeout (our first fast food of the trip) and switching drivers at rest stops or an off ramp. We are mostly out of the windy North Dakota, Northwest Minnesota winds, in fact we have a nice tail wind pushing along now.

As I have said many times before travel always changes me, or gives me a new perspective. My world of computer science is pretty clean and indoors. It was great to get out and appreciate the natural world. Its sad to see how the glaciers are receding and I hope we have the will to do something about climate change. On the other hand it was very hopeful to see how people in both Canada and the United States treat the national parks. You can tell that the people who visit have a certain reverence for the parks and what they represent. They are clean and free of litter, people that you meet on the trails are generally smiling and greet you in a friendly way. It definitely makes me want to continue to explore the great things our national parks have to offer.