Our goal for today was to finish the day on the North Dakota border so we could start the following day at or close to the Canadian border in case they chose to rip everything out of the bus to check it. We continued the same morning routine but with continued efficiency. Over the course of the trip, we were good about taking turns organizing the bus and putting up the futon and taking down the window curtains in the morning. It was once again a slow start even though our intention was to get going at an earlier time; we couldn’t seem to get out of a campground until around nine each morning. When I was checking the bus in the morning I happened to notice a nail protruding from the right front tire about an eighth of an inch. I told Jess and this heightened our concern over the tires and what we should do. We both felt we were playing Russian roulette at this point with the inevitable tire blow bound to happen sooner or later. After some debate I decided we would push on, I am not sure she was on the same page as me but she went along anyway. I could feel the anxiety building. This too turned out to be a fairly uneventful day. Wisconsin had some pretty highway driving with these amazing free standing stone pillars, some 30 or 40 feet high located right along the highway. The landscape changed as we entered into Minnesota. Once again it was flat and seemed to just go on and on. There was little transition as we entered into North Dakota. Along the way we were noticing flooded farmland everywhere and because it is the land of 10,000 lakes we just thought it was a normal part of the landscape. The flooded farmland continues throughout the rest of the day’s drive.
Our animals really seemed to be settling in and Jess would from time to time go back into the cat cage and cuddle the furry critters. The dogs were perfectly content to lie on the futon and sleep away the heat of the day. The temperature did seem to get a lot cooler (maybe a lot is an exaggeration) but any temperature drop felt good. The stress of the tires was starting to build throughout the day. Throughout the Midwest there were lots of truck stops the could handle fixing our bus tires but we were now getting close to the Canadian border and we were not sure what lie ahead. We stopped at a truck stop in Fargo, North Dakota, which specialized in tires and had them take a look. The attendants were both fairly young and it was pretty late in the day by that point. At the truck stop we were informed that in North Dakota they did not work on split ring tires, the young guy said it was illegal. They also said that they thought it was amazing that we had made it that far on tires in such bad disrepair. Basically they just stressed out the situation a little more. Jess gave her parents a call and asked them if they could research some numbers we could call in the morning we continued on another hour to an RV park located in Grand Forks where we were going to sleep for the night. The RV Park was right off the highway and it seemed that most of the people there were pipeliners. We settled in for the night and let the dogs out for a run. Ella conveniently found a sewage treatment pond and went for a swim. We were not happy letting her back on the bus for the night to sleep, stinky. We had a few drinks and went bed at around 11:00 p.m.
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