Me standing on the walkway at Giant Springs State Park. Note the trees in the background bending to the wind. The wind plagued us all day.

On Thursday, we drove from Minot, North Dakota, to Great Falls, Montana.

The drive started off nicely, with a flat, smooth, four-land highway. North Dakota really knows how to build a highway, or at least they know how to build Highway 2. The road was great all the way to Willston, North Dakota, which also is the border between North Dakota and Montana. Along the way, we enjoyed wind blown grass against countless deep blue ponds and lakes. So Idyllic.

Naively, I thought all of Highway 2 would like that. As usual, just when you are cruising down the highway of life, life throws you a curve … or in this case takes away two of your lanes and turns the remaining two lanes into whoop-d-doos. Adding to that, Mother Nature cranked up the wind until our average MPG dropped from 24mpg to 18mpg.

This made for a long drive between Williston and Great Falls. Still, we made it safely to Great Falls.

Our reason for spending the night in Great Falls was to see if Giant Springs Heritage State Park had made any updates to its smelter exhibit. The exhibit is a walking tour through the remains of the Montana Smelter, the first industry that came to Great Falls. It was a state-of-the-art silver-lead smelter designed, built, and controlled by Anton Eilers; which is the reason he is considered the city’s father of industry.

PHOTO CREDIT: Montana State Archives. The smelter, built in 1887, fills most of this photo. To the right is the manager’s residence and in the foreground you can see the spring for which Giant Spring is named.

Yes, the tour is still there, along with the remains of one of the blast furnaces.

After our quick tour, we walked down to see the park’s core attraction: the Roe River, the shortest river in the world. The water bubbles out of a spring, then flows 200 feet, before tumbling into the Missouri River.

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Not much to report from Wednesday’s drive.

Yesterday we drove from Fergus Falls, Minnesota, to Minot, North Dakota. We started the drive by briefly meeting with Minnesota Chris so we could see his unrestored 1959 CJ-3B in person. His floors are in amazing shape.

From there, we drove to Morehead, Minnesota, which is right on the border and across the Red River from Fargo, North Dakota. The Dairy Queen in Morehead invented the Dilly Bar (which I’d never had … I can now cross that off my list) and also has the world’s largest Dilly Bar, proudly displayed outside DQ.

World’s largest dilly bar is over my shoulder. I’m enjoying my first-ever Dilly bar.

After a little ice cream, we went to go see a 76-foot Viking dragon ship, which is housed in the Hjemkomst Interpretive Center in Moorhead. When we arrived at the Center, we learned it would cots $10/each to see the ship (and the museum, but we had no time for the museum). While we debated whether to see the ship, we went into the gift shop and quickly found a couple items to purchase.

As we were checking out (and still deciding about whether to enter the Center), a Center worker (a woman probably in her 60s) announced to a Center manager (a woman in her late 40s?) that she was quitting that day with no notice. Instead of the manager taking the employee aside, the manager began chewing out the now-former employee right there (I can see why the woman might have wanted to quit).

As you can imagine, things got a little awkward, so we high-tailed it out of there. Here’s a pic from the web of the boat we didn’t get a chance to see.

PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jpellgen/33651074250/

We left Morehead, crossed over the Red River, and drove to Fargo’s visitor center, where we donned some hats and re-enacted a scene from the movie Fargo.

To get you photo taken by the Visitor Center staff, just ask them. They’ll had you the hats and take the photo.

After Fargo, we drove north to Grand Forks, then headed west to Minot (pronounced ‘My Not’ … thanks Chris!). The drive was long and quite flat to Minot, but the road (highway 2) was in great shape. It was also a pretty drive, with plenty of small ponds and lakes along the way. There was also almost no traffic; that was great!

The biggest surprise of the day happened in Minot. There, I discovered that Minot’s Marketplace grocery store has the largest gluten-free section, by far, I’ve ever seen; how is this in Minot … it’s crazy! That’s a pretty big deal to me, as feeding Ann can be a challenge on the road.

Today we drove from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Fergus Falls, Minnesota. Along the way, there were several cool stopping places, so we took advantage of them.

The first, the John Deere Tractor & Engine Museum, was in Waterloo, Iowa, (and yes, ABBA’s Waterloo song hits me every time I read a Waterloo sign). We arrived just after the museum opened, so we had the place pretty much to ourselves. The museum is free and is full of restored tractors, interactive displays, history, and nicely arranged exhibits. It’s worth a stop if you are in the area.

John Deere also offers free tours of the nearby Engine Works and Drive Train Operations (see the bottom of this page for more info). Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for that.

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I tried to tell her that it wasn’t a ‘pole’, but that didn’t stop her ….

Yesterday we slowed down a little so that we could check into our hotel early and get Ann some rest. To kill some time, we did a little sightseeing.

First, we stopped in Peoria. The city took us by surprise. Peoria sits on a river bank overlooking the Illinois River. Knowing nothing about the city, I had assumed it would be a small city with an industry feel. So, we were surprised to see a fairly modern looking city with a park along the river that lined much of downtown. Our reason for stopping there was to take a photo with a huge American Gothic statute, one that has spent the last decade traveling around to different museums.

That stop got us looking around the city a little bit. There’s a really cool looking Caterpillar Visitors center downtown (see this site for some pics), but it didn’t open until 10am. We couldn’t wait that long, so we took off, but we’d like to visit again to check out that, the “The Art of the Brick” display, and some of the other spots.

PHOTO CREDIT: https://www.rbauction.com.mx/blog/make-tracks-for-the-caterpillar-visitors-center-this-summer- … Caterpillar’s visitors center

Here’s Ann at a nearby monument in downtown Peoria.

Downtown Peoria. That’s Lincoln on the building looking at a War Memorial.

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We’ve stopped in Champaign for the night. Just as we entered the city, a storm arrived. By the time we found the statute of movie critic Roger Ebert, which sits outside the Virginia theater in Champaign, Illinois (now showing John Wayne in Red River), sheets of rain could be seen and gnarly clouds were everywhere. We saw lightening and heard the thunder that followed. Thankfully, there was no rain falling on us. All three of us thought it made for a great storm, worthy of three thumbs up!!

Bernd’s been busy with his CJ-5. Last we saw it, he was using it to set up a local train for a public event in Austria. Recently, he needed to transport a diesel engine to a repair shop. These ordinary, utilitarian-type tasks is exactly how we often used Dad’s jeep.

Another long day on Saturday (fortunately, we spent lots of it talking and very little of it driving), so no updates on Sunday. Rusty has a new home. After a short visit with Merlin Hansen to see his new place, we are heading home. We should make it to Champaign, IL, by Sunday evening, where we plan to take a photo with Roger Ebert.

This April 22, 2013 photo provided by Thompson-McClellan shows a bronze statue of Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert giving his famous ‘thumbs up” sign in Champaign, Ill. The statue will be unveiled Thursday, April 24, 2014, outside the Virginia Theatre in Champaign where Ebert held his annual film festival. Ebert died in April 2013. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Thomspon.McClellan)

Here’s the latest info from Bob Christy about his September jeep event.

Chuck shared this pre-jeep video about how Dodge tests its trucks to make sure they are tough.

Patrick spotted this story.

The Ridgecrest, California, earthquake resulted in a one death. The man who died was working on a flat fender when (they presume) the quake knocked the jeep off of the jack and blocks and onto him. I couldn’t say if he was an eWillys reader, but none-the-less my deepest sympathies go out to his family.

There’s more information here: https://people.com/human-interest/nevada-man-killed-earthquake-working-on-jeep/

Be careful out there!

No updates today. They’ll resume Thursday morning.

We spent all day yesterday driving. Thankfully, the skies were beautiful and the temps moderate. A perfect day for towing.

Rusty awaiting his chariot .. he had to wait longer than we anticipated.

Let me start by saying that I’ve rented U-Haul trucks, trailers and dollies in the past without issue. So, I guess it was my turn …

I picked up the trailer in Pasco at 8:00. They were quick to get it hooked up for me, so quick that they didn’t hand me any damage sheet. Just in case, I figured I’d take a quick look at the trailer to see if there was any damage. It was good that I did, because I saw a bent light.

To be honest, I didn’t check it all that closely (I figured that’s what U-Haul is supposed to do when a trailer it turned in at a U-Haul location). So, I snapped a pic to record the damage just in case.`

Apparently, the Pasco location does NOT check their trailers closely, because when we arrived in Renton (3 hours later) Ann took a closer look at the light and found it was broken. We thought about just zip tying it in place, but felt that, given the length of the trip, we ought to get it properly repaired.

After a couple calls and a visit to the U-Haul website, I finally got through to a U-Haul rep. He was great. He promised someone would arrive in an hour. To U-Haul’s credit, a tow truck driver named Richard from Lynn’s Towing arrived on time, but he didn’t have the parts to fix the trailer. Richard, a forty year tow truck veteran, said I’d need to swap the trailer. He suggested I call U-Haul and tell them I needed a new trailer.

Well, after a couple phone calls, I found myself transferred to a dead phone line. Sigh.

However, while I ran into an awkward call system, Richard didn’t waste any time. He got himself connected with a local U-Haul to explain what happened. Then, he organized another tow truck driver to pickup our trailer, take it back to U-Haul and bring back a new trailer. This was all done as I was holding on the phone with U-Haul. Soon, Richardhad it all taken care of and he told me to hang up the phone.

So, instead of spending the night in Spokane, we spent the night in Renton, then headed out early this morning.

U-Haul’s slogan used to be “Adventure in Moving”. Yesterday, the company lived up to that for sure!

This is pretty cool. An M-151 Pencil sharpener.

View all the information on eBay

“Vintage Miniature Enesco Die Cast Military Jeep Willys Pencil Sharpener”

Longtime readers remember that we purchased a DJ-3A that we named Rusty in September of 2016 in anticipation of our Alaska trip in the summer of 2017. A buyer on the East Coast recently purchased that DJ-3A and has paid us to trailer it to him. He’s getting a good deal on Rusty, while we are getting our costs for a road trip covered. It’s a win-win.

Unlike our normal tours, we plan to drive straight to our destination, then pretty much turn around and head back, though our return route will take us north with a goal of stopping at Glacier National Park, a place I’ve yet to see. Our goal is only to be gone about two weeks (rather than our usual 6-8 weeks).

Rusty right after we picked him up in Montana in 2016.