Day 1-3 Disney/Alaska Adventure

Day 1 had us getting up early to hit the road. We wanted to get through Fargo and avoid the horrendous rush hour traffic (sarcasm). It was very uneventful since we have only driven that road (I-94) a billion times. We did see the albino buffalo in Jamestown and also a small herd near Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Our first planned stop was going to be at the Buffalo Gap campground in the grasslands west of Medora ND. We have been to Medora many times and have paid big prices to camp. But we found this spot and for 6 dollars a night it is so worth it.

We will stay here again whenever we go to Medora. We were walking around and met a couple from Park Rapids MN, also on their way to Alaska. Lon and Theresa.  We shared some thoughts and ideas for a little while and then said our goodbyes. We said "who knows, we may run into you again somewhere up there".

Day 2 was a fiasco. Let me explain that before anyone judges us. We met a couple in 2014 just briefly at our very first RV-dreams rally down in Tennessee. Now most everyone we have met at that rally we have run into several times during our travels, except for them. Steve and Debbie.

We have come close a couple of times. Once in Quartzsite, Arizona. They left a couple of days before we got there. Once more somewhere in Illinois when we crossed paths and didn't know it until later. So we have jokingly said that we have been intentionally avoiding each other. Until today.

Our plan was to stop in Great Falls, MT but we were checking Facebook and they posted that they were in Lewistown, MT. Our path to Great Falls goes right through Lewistown. So we altered our plans a little and we stopped at the campground where they were at. We didn't want to tell them beforehand fearing they would pack up and leave before we got there. So we went into stealth mode.

We pulled into the campground and found a spot near them, but not too near, and posted our own picture on Facebook with the caption that said "We had just pulled into Lewistown,MT."

That's their fifthwheel between us. Then we sat and waited. It was like fishing. We wanted to see if they would notice. We didn't have long to wait. We saw Debbie looking around until she saw us. She started screaming "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD". At that point I didn't know what Steve was doing. They took the bait, hook, line and sinker. It was pretty funny when they realized they couldn't run away from us now.

So after all of the years of using assumed names and undisclosed locations we can finally say that hiding from them is finally over. For know anyways until the shock wears off. Then we may have to go into hiding again.

We did go out to dinner that night.

Steve, Debbie, Debbie's brother Steve and his wife Diane, Lisa and Me. Photo stolen from Debbie.

You can see from my face that I am not too sure of the situation. Or maybe I ate a bad kumquat. All in all it was a great time. We went back to the RV's and brought out the chairs and talked for awhile longer. We  said our goodbyes with hugs and handshakes because you never know when we will meet again.

Day 3 had us saying goodbyes again. We just couldn't drive by their rig hurtling rocks at them as we drove by. Not this time anyways because they were standing outside. We drove to our next stop which was Shelby, MT. Another uneventful drive except for the many antelope along the drive giving us a chance to play the antelope game. If you want to learn that game you will have to sign a non-disclosure agreement before we teach you though.

Tomorrow we leave the country. I hope all of those Canadian speaking lessons pays off for us when we get there. Learning Canadian was almost as hard as learning Mandarin Chinese.

Until then. Here's to good friends we just met again but it seems we have known for many years. Cheers.