Wall, SD to Fargo, ND

This morning I was out the door and on the road at 7:30 AM. I knew I had a long drive - 7 hours nominal, that was likely going to be at least 8 hours or more with stops. And I was also going to lose an hour as I was heading east and would again briefly be back on CDT. It was a long monotonous drive through a whole lot of nothing. I passed through a few small towns, but mostly a lot of fallow fields dusted with snow.

To break up the drive, I made a few stops. In addition to fuel and comfort breaks, I made two more substantive stops. I first stopped at Autozone in some town whose name I did not even notice. It was the largest of the small towns I passed through. I noticed yesterday that one of my tail lights was out. Not wanting to give anyone a reason to stop me, I wanted to take care of that ASAP. Although I do have an appointment at the Firestone in Fargo tomorrow to get my door fixed, I know they are very busy and I thought it would be easier to take care of the tail light myself. I mentioned to the very nice sales person that I thought I could probably change it myself. He immediately offered to come out and do it for me, which I gratefully accepted. I was relieved to check off one box. Then, Lucy II needed another bath. She had accumulated a good coating of slush and mud as I was driving around the Badlands, so I took her through a car wash just around the corner from the Autozone. This is the second time I have experienced a drive through car wash in this part of the country. The actually have two guys pre-washing the worst of the grime before you go through the automated part. All this for ten bucks.

The only other thing of note was that there was a vehicle check point to see if you had been hunting or fishing and had any game or fish to declare. And I assume to check for anything illegal. As the only thing I have been shooting was photos, I easily passed through that check point.

The Fairfield here in Fargo is modest, but I was greeted warmly by Kamal. Tomorrow will not be very exciting. Mostly I will be taking care of list items; getting the car door fixed, laundry, food shopping and some other personal tasks.