Upland Slummin

The time finally came. It was the Thursday before the North Dakota opening day for Sharptail. I had the room booked. I had made most my plans for the upcoming 10 days. It’s going to be a blast!

Thursday afternoon – the day began to unwind – my last patient of the day was done very early. “I think I’m going to take off and get an early start tonight and stay with my Sister in-law.” I left work early that day and headed home to get my things together and load up the dog. Of course a couple items I wanted to have in my first-aid kit didn’t arrive on time. Thanks Amazon! What’s the point of Prime when nothing ever comes in 2 days let alone the time quoted. Oh well!

I got my stuff packed. Checked my list twice. Called my wife and she quadruple checked the list to make sure the dog was taken care of. She started to cry as she didn’t want Lainey to leave as our original plan was to leave early the next morning. We took off and stopped at the Hospital to say goodbye to the ol lady and headed north.

Stopped quick in Seney for a quick pee break. Met another couple headed to the Marquette area with their newborn for a diaper change stop.

We arrived in Marquette around 8:30. My sister in-law was waiting to go get dinner for me so we let the dogs quick play before running to one of our favorite late night digs in Marquette Stucko’s.

The next morning we walked the dogs, I grabbed my required 3rd Street Bagel and coffee and then headed West on our big trip. The weather started to get pretty dark once we reached Wakefield/Ironwood area. We grabbed some diesel and kept going.

We reached Superior WI/Duluth area and needed to stretch the legs. We stopped at Barker’s Island Park to play with the ball and check out the harbor area. A Volleyball team from Nebraska Wesleyan was headed to LSSU in the Sault for a tournament and also stopped there. They said the obligatory hello to Lainey and threw the ball for her a few times.

Onward!

We kept going West, briefly stopping for some food from the Subway in Fosston. Here they were preparing food for the Friday Night football game across the street. Lainey played some ball again to stretch the legs. Further on we passed through Grand Forks quickly getting a peak of some two dozen drones they had parked on the tarmac at the Air Force base near the Northrop Grumman building. Stopping a little ways beyond Grand Forks at the Larimore rest area. Passing through Michigan ND, we laughed at the name for ironies sake. Getting to Devils Lake I needed some fuel for the car and a pick me up for the final bit of the drive.

We arrived at our Motel 6 around 10pm. Unloaded the vehicle and crashed in the bed, hoping for great weather and an early morning.