Road Trip: Part 7 "The final day"

Finally, the last road trip blog! I had a great time and enjoyed so many parts of the trip but I think the stop in Watford City was among my favorites.  I didn't even ask if we could stop because it is sixty miles off the interstate, that adds a minimum of two hours onto the trip without accounting for the time we spent there and the traffic, oil field and construction.  My dad said we could stop and I didn't argue.  It meant another all night drive for him and my brother-in-law and I do feel bad about that.  I was just so excited to see my home and friends and see how the town had changed in a year and a half. 

The kids and I woke up parked in the parking lot of the church we used to attend in Watford.  Soon after we moved away, they built on almost tripling the size of the church.  I had contacted a good friend of mine (who happens to be the children's pastor) and arranged to spend some time with her and her family right away in the morning.  It was a little early but the welcomed us with smiles and breakfast.  Their little girls have grown so much since we last saw them, it was fun to see them running around and talking now.  They took us on a tour of the new and renovated church building and we got to see the pastor and his wife before we left. 

Dad took us around town a little to show my sister where we used to live.  So many things changed while we were living there, it was a little surprising to see how much could still change.  The truck bypass was almost ready to open on the south and west side of town, they were in the process of widening the highway leading out of town to the east and many new businesses were open on the old bypass.  Things downtown had changed a little too, there were some new buildings and businesses.  Even our old street had changed.  All of the skid shacks had been moved out and the lot was filled with trailer houses.  It looked like every open slot was filled. I'm so glad we got to detour through town to see all the changes. 

We took a little bit of a scenic route down to Dickinson, Dad took us east out of town and down through the Killdeer mountains.  I always loved going that way, however after coming through Yellowstone and the Rockies, the Badlands were not nearly as impressive.  There are new oil rigs popping up everywhere.  I knew they were trying to drill more wells on each pad and we saw some pads with four or six pump jacks going instead of one like there always was.

My dad's sister lives in Dickinson part time and happened to be there when we were going through so we had to stop.  She is usually in Arizona so we don't see her very often.  It was fun to see her for a little while and see where she lives.  There are no little kids in the house she lives in so our kids had a great time running around finding exciting things to play with. 

 

After that it was back on the road for the last part of the trip. We made it almost to Fargo when Grace threw up.  She gets sick if she watches movies or looks at a screen while we are driving.  We told her she couldn't and tried to entertain her otherwise while some of the boys watched a movie.  Before I knew it, she had snuck over to watch the movie and got sick.  Seven days, three thousand miles, six little kids and that was the only stinky mess, pretty good if you ask me.  We split up in Fargo and after getting gas and finding something to eat we didn't get out of there until almost 8pm.  That last couple of hours were so long, a couple of the kids slept and I tried to stay awake.  We finally made it home sometime after 11pm.  I know I was glad to sleep in my own bed after a week of being gone.  Grace had to get up for school the next morning so we didn't get to sleep in that first morning. 

 

I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go on the trip and my dad pretty much made it possible for us to go.  Any other travel option would have been just too expensive.  Riding in the RV with him and my sister's family was a lot of fun.  Now that we are all grown and don't live close to one another we don't get together as much as I would like too.  It was so great to see my out-of-state siblings as well, who knows when I will see some of them again, hopefully it won't be three years again!