Minot, North Dakota ~ TexasTea

Remember Jed Clampit from the Beverly Hillbillies? Texas Tea was his words for "Oil Boom"! Every campground is filled with workers who are working directly or indirectly for the oil companies. Minot reminds me of the old gold rush days in the Yukon. Back then, peddlers would set up shop and sell there wares. Here in Minot, things are the same except they are selling Cat Excavators, Western Star Trucks and every kind of machinery you can think of. Million of dollars of inventory on the front lawn of businesses.
The workers here at Roughrider Campground were coming in from the work sites, covered in mud and dust. I assume they do it  for the high wages, most of them coming from all parts of the country. As I write this post I am watching this young buck sitting on his pickup truck tail gate talking on his cell phone most likely to his girl friend back home. Nothing has changed except the years.
I could write several posts on the railroads around these parts of the country. Freight trains run all night long and are at least a mile long. I don't think we haven't had one night sleep anywhere without hearing a train go by and blowing the whistle. The tracks parallel US 2 for many miles and one can see railroad workers doing mainteneance on the tracks. There are usually several crews separated by a few hundred feet apart with each crew having a different type of machine on the tracks doing something different, all in all they can strecth for a mile or so.

B-52 Bomber

Small Camper pulled by VW

Our trip up from Grand Forks was long but with a few stops such as the front gate at Grand Forks Air Force Base. Impressive static displays of B-52, Intercontinental Balistic Missle, Launchers and more old bombers were well placed on the grounds.
Our campground in Grand Forks was pleasant and our neighbors next to us had this cute little camper, now that's small compared to ours, but they were just coming home from a trip to Nova Scotia having also stayed in North Conway, NH They live in Winnipeg, Manitoba,Canada.

Center of North America

A milestone on this leg was arriving at Rugby, ND which is the geological center of North America. The sign said 1500 air miles to Lubec, ME. We were dead center north/south, east/west.

That's what we did and saw today!