We had a bright and cool day as we headed out of Southern Saskatchewan to begin our trek south for the winter.

My featured image is of the landscape near Roche Percee, SK, Canada. The village is situated near the Canada-US border and just a little over an hour’s drive from our home. Near the village is a designated Provincial Historic Site with large sandstone deposits in which caves have formed. The name of the village is of Metis French origin and means “pierced rock”. 

Our route plan for our entire trip south was to stay off the Interstate Highway system as much as possible and to only drive during daylight hours. Hubs had traveled the Interstates almost all of his career as a professional driver and we decided that now, we wanted to see more of the small towns and rural areas that are largely missed when using Interstate Highways. The other advantage is much less traffic and avoidance of the big cities. 

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Obligatory stop at North Portal Duty Free
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The hills coming in to Minot, ND are decorated with stones indicating the year of the graduating class that placed them there
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Many types of agriculture in North Dakota
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North Dakota is a leading US State in wind power generation – This looked to be a new wind farm, as none of the blades were  turning on any of the windmills as far as the eye could see
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There are 6 Coal Mines in ND, mining 32 million tons of coal annually.  This one, at Beulah is the largest lignite mine in the USA
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Abandoned farm Houses & buildings , as well as abandoned Schools & Churches are intriguing to me . Oh the stories they could tell.

We ended our enjoyable Day 1 drive at Bismark, North Dakota.  We decided to boon dock at a WalMart parking lot as we’re self-sufficient to dry camp and we had a few things we needed to pick up before our morning departure.

When my parents first arrived there, North Dakota had just been admitted to the Union, and the country was still wild and harsh.

Lawrence Welk