Mission: North Dakota

[Offroad]

It was an honor to tag along on this monumental occasion.

Congrats to Mickey for completing all 48 states!

Thanks to Matt and Cheryl for planning and executing all the details (except next time maybe leave the 30mph cross winds out LOL)!

Thanks to Glen and Laura for being such gracious hosts to bookend the trip!

Thanks for watching your mirrors, you never know what silly things you might see LOL

All - Thanks for following along and your kind comments

On trips like this to and through unfamiliar areas, I’m often busy navigating or thinking about navigating and I forget to take photographs. Thank you, Ferret for filling in the blanks.

As to finding “gems” and avoiding u-turns: research and a great co-pilot are my secret weapons. I enjoy planning the routes on trips like this and I “virtually” ride as much of the route as possible via Google Street View in advance. I try to pick rest/fuel/meal/lodging stops based on how long we can ride before needing each one of those, but also the quality and/or value of those stops. So, I’ll try to pick a food stop with a view, one that features a local specialty, or one that has good online recommendations over the chain restaurant across the road because I think that adds value to the trip. While I prefer to take rest breaks at a park or other point if interest, sometimes the better value is to stretch and snack at a gas station. On this trip, the “World’s Largest” and Tour of Honor attractions were value-added rest stops and were worth the cost (in time) of a second nearby stop for fuel.

I pay as much attention to my Nav screen as I do to my mirrors and that keeps me generally on track, but my sweeper and life-partner also has the route in her phone and reminds me of upcoming turns/stops. I doubt I’d have arrived at our desired spot without a U-turn nearly as often without her assistance.