Uncharted Territory

11am:
Last night went much better then I had originally forcasted. My headache went away with 3 IB-profen and dinner and we were able to play some games and spend some quality family time together. It's funny that we are almost complete strangers but because our parents are related we try to find common ground. If you had walked in on our conversations last night you would have thought we had known each other well and were just catching up. I guess that's a good thing considering how awkward this visit (and my next) could have been.

We played 'Ticket to Ride', 'Catan' and 'Carcassonne'. It's always fun to play boardgames that you don't know as long as you have someone who is willing to teach you and answer all of your stupid questions. We even had dessert with our games! Brownie cookies with ice cream and chocolate syrup (Jamie says that Joe and I are family because we both like our dessert the same way). I went to bed earlier then the rest of them, I was beat and ready to hit the pillow!

When I got up this morning Joe was already at work and Jaime was up on the computer so we spent some time comparing how we grew up and our college experiences. Joe was telling me last night that North Dakota is a grid system and every town is 100 miles away from the next. New Jersey is not that way at all! North Dakota is 70,000 square miles and New Jersey is 8,000 square miles but we (NJ) have about 16 times more people living in the state. It's interesting to hear how life is out here...so different. I found myself wondering if I could live in North Dakota. I don't think so but it was fun to think about.

Joe comes home for lunch at 11am so I will get to see him one more time before I head to Julie's later this afternoon. I will be going to yet another time zone (Mountain Time) so the 3hr drive will look like a 2hr drive...won't feel like that though :( So we will have lunch shortly and then I will bust out the camera :) oh, and Jaime and I will watch GLEE. I plan on leaving around 2pm so I can make it to Dickinson, ND by 4pm Mountain Time. Then the next part of this adventure will continue.

9pm:
When Joseph went back to work Jaime and I ventured out to the Jamestown Reservoir. It was very high so the access road out to the island was completely under water. But it was such a pretty area in the fall! Then we went over to the Buffalo Museum and saw the world's largest Buffalo. His name was Dakota Thunder and was built in 1959! We also walked around the little town there where the buildings seemed to be my size...so small!

Dakota Thunder and myself :)

The drive to Dickinson really wasn't that bad. At some points it almost felt like you were on a treadmill, you knew you were moving but the scenery around you never changed. To the left there was a field and to the right there was a field. In front of you there was open highway and even in your rear view mirror there was that same open highway. But I have to admit that when you have nothing on all four sides of you, the windows down, radio blasting, shades on, you just feel free. The drive to most may have been boring and long but to me it was my path to pure freedom. North Dakota also isn't as flat as everyone has told me! It had more hills then Minnesota did :)

Can't miss that cow!

I made it to Julie's with no problems. I followed Jaime's instructions through Bismarck which were to stay right ON the interstate and to watch out for the giant cow (I think the cow found me though because it was so big I could see her miles away!). If you can imagine turning the corner and seeing a giant cow standing on the side of a hill then you are imagining what I actually saw...so strange. I made in to Julie's right around 4pm MT, or 6pm ET so I made great time. I was on one road the whole way and I got way to distracted looking at things out the window (that currently has half the states bugs on it). My distractions and lousy driving would not fly on the east coast but out here I had the whole road to myself almost! One of my really cool distractions was a windmill propeller. You know the ones for energy purposes...there are lots of them out here but I had no idea how big they were up close! It probably was 4x my car length! So cool!

Another road-side distraction on the Enchanted Highway

Joe came home right after I got there so we spent the next almost 2hrs just catching up. It's funny because I also haven't seen Julie since 1988 but I feel a lot closer to her then her brothers. At 6pm we went to meet John and Kristy for dinner at Pizza Ranch. I have never been to a pizza place that has a drive-thru, delivery, and an all you can eat buffet all in one! It took John a bit to warm up to me and I don't think he was super excited that Julie and Joe offered him up as a tour guide tomorrow since he only works weekends. But dinner was great and all 5 of us had a good time. John and Kristy are coming over for dinner tomorrow night too so I will get to see them again :)

Then it was off to Julie's volleyball game, Joe dropped us off so he could go make dinner for tomorrow and I got to meet her team. She told me they were going to lose so not to get too excited but I was just happy doing something different. They won too! Julie said I was a good luck charm but they won all 3 games! Watching Julie play volleyball made me miss it a lot! I forgot that once upon a time I was really big into volleyball. Maybe my next residence I will look for an intramural team myself :)