I Made It!

Cashwise, a grocery store in Bismarck had water damage
after the floods in 2009, so they're not taking any chances
this year!

First, I want to say thank you to the two people who actually read my posts.  You know who you are :)  Though its a little embarrassing that you are both related to me.  Oh well, it's a good thing I can get past things like that and go on to pretending that I am relevant in the world.
I finally made it.  This trip has been long, but I am where I intended to be.  This morning I woke up early to go to the airport.  I was worried there were going to be delays, but there weren't, thank heavens.  I made it to Bismarck on time, as well, but my ride was a little late :)  We drove by the river to see the flooding.  The flooding is pretty bad in North Dakota right now.  They are having to release water from the dam due to the excessive precipitation from Montana that is flooding the north part of the river.  Releasing the water from the dam is causing flooding in the south.  I think they're just trying to mitigate the flooding in the whole state by controlling the water release.

The river is swollen past its banks.

Then we stopped by Erin's house to pick up some shoes.  It was a good thing we went back because Erin forgot something important.  Plus I got to see her kids.
Then we got on the rode.  We were late meeting up with Heather because we had to go to Erin's house.  But Heather had time to see the flooding in Medora, which she wanted to see.  When we finally met up, we ate at the Trapper's Kettle in Belfield.  The decor was fun, but the food wasn't so great.  They had borsch for soup, but it wasn't good.

Erin with her present from Nicaragua.

We drove south towards Belle Fourche (pronounced Bell Foosh) and just beyond to a little town called Spearfish.  While we were driving, Erin shifted in her seat and all of a sudden lost power to everything.  It was crazy, and kind of creepy.  She just stared at the gauges perplexed as to what happened.  After we pulled over to the side, we realized that the key had been turned to off.  It was weird.  But at least there wasn't a problem with the car.  What with everything else that has gone wrong this trip, it was a relief to not have THAT problem.
After getting settled in to our hotel room, we went to get dinner.  We went to this authentic Mexican restaurant called Guadalajara.  It was really nice.  I talked to our server in Spanish, and because of that ended up talking to her husband in Spanish, too.  It made me feel good because they asked how long I had been studying Spanish.  I told them 5 months.  They asked again.  I insisted 5 months, so the wife asked, no, how many years have you been studying Spanish.  I said, I started in January.  Finally they understood.  You should have seen the look on their faces!  It was utter astonishment.  It made me feel good though.  Plus we had an interesting conversation about language learning that followed.
I am really beat.  It has been a long trip so far.  And I want to have a full day tomorrow since it is really the only day I have.  Then we head back to Bismarck early Monday morning before I have to go back to the grind of Washington DC.

Heather with her present.

The women's bathroom at the Trapper's Kettle.
Two stalls out of order.

An old cop car parked to scare travelers into slowing
down.

Our hotel room.

Inside the Guadalajara

Not sure what this giant ape is for, but we decided to get
a picture with it anyway.

Yum, and very nice family, too.