July 30 – Grandpa’s Exclusive Club -Fargo, Fargo movie props, script, Def Leppard, Cutest Trailer Ever, Fargo Air Museum, Couch seats at the theater,

BEST. DAY. EVER.

There’s a song on our ipod called “Best Day Ever” bySpongebob Squarepants.

This was Grandpa’s best day ever.

You may not know this, but there are so many people that visit all 50 States and leave North Dakota as their last visit that the North Dakota Visitor’s Bureau has a special certificate for these people.

Grandpa has joined that club.

Also in the Fargo visitor center: signed walkway with lots of 80s and 90s rock bands and Bill Gates - no idea why really but the explanation is below. Fargo movie props - eg, the Chipper and the script.  Took photos below.

Also, some people walking by our trailer as it was parked in the HoJo parking lot, "That's the cutest trailer ever!"

We also went to the Fargo Air Museum and bought souvies and then saw a movie at a brand new movie theater with couch seating...

July 29 – driving to Fargo, Pioneer Auto Museum, ammo on the counter, wild rice by the Interstate

We were sad to leave Badlands, or at least I was sad to leave Badlands. Certain teenagers and soon-to-be teenagers were itching to get home.

Maybe it was sleeping in the camper. Maybe it was the parental oversight. Or maybe everyone just wanted to stop living out of duffel bags…

We enjoyed Badlands a lot. In the next site over was a French family, driving from New Hampshire and headed for Yellowstone. We shared a coffee in the morning and chatted camping tips.  In the site across from us was a family with a 1962 Winnebago. It was in original condition and was roomier than ours. They were on their way to the Black Hills.

So we said goodbye to the Badlands and started our first long drive in a few days – to Fargo.

We were tired of the car so instead of stopping at places like the Corn Palace – we skipped it and simply drove.

However, since we had to stop for gas, we stopped at the Pioneer Auto Museum, which has a pretty awesome collection of old cars...

On the way we stopped at a rest stop where, on the counter next to the Snickers bars, were boxes of ammunition - just in case you get a craving I guess.

As we entered North Dakota, we started seeing endless small lakes covered with wild rice, which is pretty cool since Binh and I both love wild rice...which has to be hand harvested....

Even with fewer stops, we still didn't arrive in Fargo the Howard Johnsons until 8pm or so. My dad was already in town at the Radison.

The pool at the HJ is huge with a 10 foot deep end. Audrey and Danny had a great time and we went to bed.

July 28 geology walk at the Badlands Door Trail, paleontology walk at the Badlands Ranger Paul

Got up early and went for a ranger-guided walk on the Badlands Door Trail.  The Ranger was a pretty funny dude from Minnesota who used to be a television engineer.  Badlands is an open park – you can walk anywhere you want – the natural erosion is so great that humans can’t really damage the rock formations any more than nature does each year.

A lot of the photos below are from the day before at Notch Trail.

We liked Ranger Paul so much we followed him to the his Paleontology talk later that morning – Badlands is home to the largest collection of mammal fossils on Earth – folks find fossils everyday there.

The evening was again awesome. We went to a night program and saw satellites in the sky, the milky way and shooting stars.