"Lewis & Clark Expedition" - Pacific Northwest
	Day 4:  Tuesday, May 14, 2002

Well, the day started off poorly enough.  For the first time on this trip, the boy got up apparently quite early, leaving the rest of us in the room, still asleep.  He took all of his stuff and packed up the car, and then seemingly left.  Exciting, eh?  Stuck in Rugby, just think of the endless entertainment options we'd have to leave.  Very few, if any, really.  Fortunately, it seems he only packed and left to get gas and Pepsi, and was back a little after 6am.

Strangely enough, that worked out reasonably well.  By the time of his return, we were ready to go, and were on the road by 6:22am, heading east for the last time on this trip.  The first stop was Devils Lake, but as soon as we got into town, we found there wasn't much there, there.  So, we pushed forward to Grand Falls, where it was more of the same.  There was some arena thingy, but we weren't sure what it was (or for whom it was named), but I can't read my duck scratching on my notes, and it's not on the map, so I guess it'll be lost to the ages.

After a bit more driving, we landed in West Fargo and the more well-known Fargo.  And with any red-blooded American, a trip to the local Harley-Davidson shop really makes you feel at home.  The more interesting moment was the sign at the Motel 8; apparently, the previous owners were a bit on the filthy side, and very rude.  We popped into the gas station, where we filled the car, and managed to witness an accent pool that put the cast of Fargo to shame.  Which is always a gigglier.  Just beyond town, we crossed over from North Dakota into Minnesota.

From there we ended up in Detroit Lakes for an oil change.  And the observation that every freakin' city in Minnesota seems to have "lake" or "lakes" in the name.  In pulling in for the oil change, we found that in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, it seems even Wal-Mart is in the boat selling business.  Since we had 30 minutes to wait, we all wandered the store, listening to the various witty conversations of locals.  Of course, we all nearly wet our down (or pants, as applicable) when we heard the store employee (Kirk) talking to the woman ('customer') about going to the lake and launching the new boat.  It took everything we all took to just walk away before giggling hysterically.  

Happily enough, the oil change (for the first time in my three Wal-Mart As we were leaving town, we saw Detroit Lake.  Yup, another lake... apparently, we only need to see 9,999 more to visit every one in this state.  And before heading out of town, we passed the Amtrak train station, the chamber of commerce, and one of hundreds of cars with teeny little rust spots all over them.

Well, we've been to Fargo, so much like Margie, we needed to head back to Brainerd, all for a little bit of money.  Oops, internal monologue externalized; anyway.  So, driving around, I observed from the signs that they write the way they often talk, dropping letters off the ends of words.  The downtown was cute, and much larger than one photo (unlike some of the other towns we've been though of late).  Given the whole Paul Bunyan and Babe thing in Brainerd, I figured I should get them in on the tour action.  I'm not sure, but they boy was muttering something about a bionic buffalo; I can only presume he meant Babe.

Between Brainerd and the state line stood many little towns.  Yup.  Such as...

• Little Falls.  What town, or daily posting, would be complete without a local water tower picture?  Considering the town has the Mississippi River cutting right through the middle, it's a bit of an irony.  Little Falls was the only place with anything similar to "traffic" during the entire day (and in fact, this trip).  And the back-up was just a few blocks.
• Burtrum.  Complete with a post office, saloon, and for you real estate types, a fixer-upper.
• Ward Springs.  Just a downtown, and a couple of lads examining the local lake.
• Sauk Center, population... not many (3,930 on my map).  Downtown shot, and the entire eighth grade girls track team crossing the street.
• Morris has a population of 5,000 or so, complete with an Ace Hardware, a mother and daughter getting into their well-parked Toyota Alera (parallel parking ain't that easy, y'know), a house adorned with dozens of pink flamingos, and of course, the lake.
• Beardsley is quaint little town, complete with a very little downtown.  And a not-at-all biased sign sponsored by the Knights of Columbus.  (allaboutfrank.com is not offering any endorsement, opinion, recommendation or condemnation about this or any other topic at hand.  All opinions expressed herein are those of the author, a duck (me), age 15.)
• Browns Valley is apparently on the map for three reasons.  One, Browns Valley Man was discovered here.  Two, Carnegie founded a library here (since abandoned) as well as several other communities across the country.  And third, the people at Rand-McNally apparently put the name on the page.

Yada, yada, yada, and we're now in South Dakota.  Go team.  Of course, Minnesota presented us with the chance to see the Continental Divide, so I figured it was time to snap a picture.  What this point symbolizes, I don't know... I didn't go to school -- but I'm almost positive that you, too, couldn't define the continental divide, either.  So, let's just call this subject a tie, and move on to the next paragraph.

We made the 100 mile trip to Brookings, South Dakota, for the evening.  We arrived just after 7pm, and of course, it was still light out until after 9pm, so a catch-up evening of postings, various hygienic and personal rituals took place, and after smoothing out my own feathers, I'm calling it a day.