Day 2 - Indianoplis, IN to Bismark, ND

Yeah, long day on the road but we logged some good miles and made it to Bismark, ND!! YAY! We started in Indiana with me driving around 8am Eastern Time and slowly made our way through the road construction in Chicago and on through Illinois into Wisconsin. Getting through Wisconsin was relatively easy with the exception of a BRUTAL storm just south of Eau Claire. 70 mph winds and hail the size of eggs was forecasted for areas near us and thank goodness we didn't drive through the worst of it. It was nasty by our standards and again, it slowed us down. Next came Minneapolis/St. Paul around 5:00pm which, as you can imagine, was another traffic nightmare. I came to appreciate not living in a big city and having to deal with bumper to bumper traffic. Once we got through there, it was good hard driving for another 6.5 or so hours. I made my way to the back of the car and napped a couple times after pulling the first shift of driving. I woke up in time to see us leaving Minnesota and entering North Dakota.....speed limit was 75 and we were running about 85 and it was nice. I don't think we hit the brakes 3 times over 5 hours. We stopped at a little exit in Valley City, ND for dinner (okay, it was Burger King, but we were starving) and we got called out on being from the South. Like an idiot I told them I wanted sweet tea.....forgetting where we were. Finally back on the road and 1.5 hours later we checked into our hotel in Bismark, ND. Tomorrow we will continue heading west for Montana. I have this great book that I received in the mail from someone (no clue why I received this book,but I love it. It has all backcountry roads and byways to take). anyways, there is a great excursion we can try tomorrow since we might have time. I'll post a few pictures from today but again, nothing major to report. Just lots of driving, reading, listening to music and talking. The first picture is a rainbow that we saw in ND....there was 2 but not sure if you can see the 2nd one in this picture.The second picture is of us after our first stop in Chicago (a very important stop considering how badly I needed a restroom!) The final picture is my favorite sunset picture from the drive today. It was in North Dakota and I swear i took that picture around 10:00pm. It took FOREVER for the sun to set and I loved every second of it. There were so many other pictures that I would love to post but I'm not very good at this thing yet. If anyone has any tips on posting pics, let me know. For now, its time for bed.....