We had a good night’s sleep at the Jamestown, ND campground – slept in the back of the car rather than set up the tent since there were still threats of rain.

View out the back of Redd-Y

Most of our stuff is packed in bins that can be piled in the front seats for the night when we sleep in the back.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the start of the conversation with fellow road adventurer, Mark whose wife Laurie joined the conversation shortly after this.

After a lovely conversation with campsite neighbors Mark and Laurie from Green Bay, we were off to Bismarck and then heading north through North Dakota toward the Canadian Border.  Charging has been relatively easy so far.  We had a Tesla charger in Bismarck, found a CCS high-speed charger in Minot to top off and get us to the next Tesla charger in Estevan, Saskatchewan.  We decided to stop for the night in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan where we found a CCS high-speed charger that wasn’t working as fast as we liked since we were ready for bed and we then discovered there is a Tesla charger in town, so we can stop there before leaving in the morning.  The Tesla chargers are always our first choice since their direct compatibility usually means the fastest charge.  However, we’ve been very happy with the CCS converter we bought that has expanded our options – without it we would have had a tight squeeze to get from Bismarck to Estevan without a charge and would have had to drive slower and possibly without the AC to save energy.  Fortunately we didn’t have to sweat it out with the option to stop in Minot.  And thanks to that stop, we discovered the Scandinavian Heritage park that was worth a quick stop and wander through.

First test of our CCS converter in Minot
Notice this CCS charger has the washer squeegee next to it so I don’t have to walk across to the gas pumps
A Data Horse, of Course
Skiing around the world sculpture
Map of the 5 Scandinavian countries – can you name them all?

We drove through lots of farmland today.  Much of it very flat and massive farms – we could see for miles and saw very few farm houses among the farm fields.  There are also some rolling hills along today’s route.  At one point in northern North Dakota near Kenmare, we noticed large numbers in white rock on the hillsides.  It took a little while to notice a pattern – they seemed to be the graduation years that we presume were put there by the graduates in that class.  Some were more visible than others and may indicate which classes were more diligent in arranging their rocks for the long term.

I can see for miles and miles
Honker spirit?

We saw a number of coal-fired power plants and coal mining in both North Dakota and Saskatchewan.  And we saw a few oil wells in the most northern part of North Dakota and lots of them as we turned west in Saskatchewan.   This is clearly a large energy producing area in both countries.

ethanol
coal
electricity
wind
oil
the biggest transfer station I’ve ever seen

We opted for a hotel stay tonight because Paul has a stiff neck that needed a bed and pillow to see if it will cure things – and it allowed us to drive a little later before stopping since we didn’t need to find a campsite.

– Mindy

And a couple added photos from Day 1:

The world’s largest prairie chicken in Rothsay, MN

Anthony, fellow Tesla driver, as he has now completed his visits to his 48th and 49th states – MN and ND!