Long, but uneventful drive from Clearwater-St. Cloud, MN to Minot, ND. Most of the trip was along I-94 but then we turned northwest onto US Highway 52--which still had a speed limit of 65-70 mph depending upon whether it was divided or not. The total milage was in the 450 range and it took from 7:15 AM until 4:30 PM (9 hours 15 minutes) with three stops for gas, two for rest stops and one for shopping at an RV supplier. (We are now ready for any kind of electrical outlet a campground is likely to throw our way!) Non-travel time probably totaled 1 hour 30 minutes.
Tomorrow will be noticeably shorter as we continue along US Highway 52 to the northwest until we reach the Canadian border. Then it will be highway 39 and others to Regina. The total mileage is only around 250 and we gain an hour crossing a time zone as we cross the border into Saskatchewan. If we get to the campground early enough, we'll do some sightseeing.
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There was a noticeable difference between The Land of 10,000 Lakes and North Dakota. In Minnesota there was a pond or lake over every hill and they usually held some form of water fowl. In North Dakota, things were a bit drier. Fewer ponds and lakes were visible from the highway but those that were contained lots of waterfowl just like in Minnesota. North Dakota also had far fewer trees than Minnesota and a lot more huge grain elevators.
Among the birds positively identified--at 60-70 mph--were Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Red-winged Blackbirds, Western Grebes, Pied-billed Grebes, Mallards, Shovelers, White Pelicans, Common Egrets, Snowy Egret, Great Blue Herons, Red-tailed Hawk, Harrier, European Starlings, and English Sparrows. We saw several other hawks in the trees or on the fence posts, but could not definitively ID them. If we had to guess, Cooper's Hawk and perhaps a Swainson's Hawk were among the bunch.
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