47° 55' 31" N / 97° 1' 57" W

trying my best to keep the idea of making time at bay i reckoned that i should start out by not entering the interstate system immediately. i reckoned that if i took back roads m patience for slowness would be well tuned when i did finally leave the interstate. so the usual back roads to janesville and a café au lait at the starbucks - which helped a great deal as the barista was especially chatty with the person in front of me - before hitting I-94 to the cities.

two ding dong ditches that i hoped would turn out well after the embarrassing fiasco where i was caught in the austin district being too smug. i realised that they do depend on time. evening people tend to be home, during the afternoon most likely they are at work. i hit the cities just afternoon and had the drop plans in hand ready to go. north minneapolis as that would the most difficult - dog no mail slot - hard to find a place to park that is out of sight.

went off without a hitch. parked across the street dropped left it with the dogs barking am now awaiting you f...ker! but then she d.d.d.'ed me at school on the way to italy.

getting bolder, the neighbours of the recovering miad student  were out and seeing me, i asked them if this were the address. getting the correct answer the second packet went in the slot and off i went. minneapolis calmed me a great deal also. it seems so civilised. places to eat that don't close at 9pm, real bike paths and people out and about. wandered the parkways just west of the city down to st louis park. 

passed minnesota flats's place in homage and as the unofficial start to the wander.

it is here that i didn't care much for the interstate. it is here that i had to balance time and distance. i am making it a point not to graze but am finding that i am supporting chains. chipotle with a caribou chaser in st.cloud. before heading toward north dakota.

interstates do bypass everything and I-94 made sure that i didn't see what i was missing. which of course meant that i was heading up I-29 sooner than i thought.

these places have no sense of ceremony no feelings for the rights of passage. i wanted documentation that i was entering north dakota - after all one of my main theses is the idea of insignificant significance. there was sign on the interstate in four carriageways of traffic but nothing when i backtracked through fargo into moorhead.

i was in the dreaded interstate daze until i realised that i was also in the northern prairies. it took some time to register. me speeding along I-29 seeing grain elevator after grain elevator realising that i was seeing six or seven towns in the distance. i was in the land of the joke of seeing your dog run away for three days. 

i woke up. pulled off the interstate as kelso for a quick stop at an interesting grain elevator. then documenting the strangest things left about on the prairies. farm implements, random railway grain carriages, machines parked with no one in sight - here that was pretty vast. 

gents stopped to see if i had broken down. it seems they understand the newfoundland nod out here. got back on the interstate when it was too dark to photograph and although i could have made it north of the 49th, stopped in grand forks as i wanted to enter canada in daylight. motels packed in grand forks - returning students - had to stay in the only building taller than the grain elevators that i passed. looking sort of ridiculous in all that flat.