Putting gas
in the truck the hard way
Friday, August 22nd, 1997
Overlooking
Painted Canyon National Park
I drive from 4:30am until about 9:00. It's pretty easy but at times I'm definitely struggling with my eyelids. The sunrise in Wisconsin is very peaceful - the terrain is very flat with low vegetation in tight clumps. Field after field of low brown grass. It gets misty and a bit foggy at times.
Sean drives us into Fargo, North Dakota while I sleep. I awaken as the truck slows when we arrive around noon and drive into the downtown area. It seems to be a small city of low buildings. We fuel up and Sean witnesses an attempted shoplifting by young 12-year old boy on a bicycle. After this excitement, we pull under a shady tree and eat fruit, then tuna sandwiches for lunch. The Fargo police show up and toss the kid in back. We are reminded of the movie, of course. The weather is warm and sunny- really quite beautiful.
Hunting for a few supplies, I get heavily accented directions to a local mall from a barrel-chested Swedish-looking blonde woman in the Quickie-mart. I say thanks and she says "Shuure." I was psyched. They talk just like in the movie.
I drive us over to the mall where we are surprised to find tall, attractive blond girls literally everywhere we look. Sean theorizes that it's because of all the corn they eat. I don't know.
The drive through Eastern North Dakota is enchanting; field after field of lush crops roll by. The truck seems to be doing well but after the driver change it complains when we accelerate up to highway speed. I fear for the transmission with all this weight we are lugging across the country.
Putting gas
in the truck the hard way
Terrain changes rapidly to canyon-ish hills as Sean takes over at the wheel. We stop at Painted Canyon National Park and get pictures (top) and watch buffalo with the binoculars. We enjoy an incredible sunset as we enter Montana. The sun is beneath the horizon when we almost run out of gas in Fallon (population 5?) and have to pull over to refill from the roof rack-mounted jerry cans. Gassing up this way is always slow and messy. We laugh when we get back on the highway and there is a huge service station literally just around the bend. We probably could have made it those few extra miles.
Later we stop to eat hot Dinty Moore beef stew in the dark while watching local kids cruise past a battered gas station. I am pretty sure that this is the only feature of the local topography available to cruise past. There is absolutely nothing else around. A deserted part of the highway with a gas station next to a turn-off. The cars approach on the flat, straight road- their headlights growing slowly. Then they pull into the small parking lot, turn around, and head back out into the blackness. I wonder at the adaptability of American high-schoolers.
I drive for a while then crash in the back. Later we stop for gas around 1:00am but there is no way I can drive - I'm dead tired. Luckily Sean volunteers to do a double shift. I sleep like a baby. I'm pleased to dream random dreams- this tells me that my mind is at ease.