After a couple of long days of driving, I made it to Dickinson, ND today.  My goal was to be Medora, a bit further west, but that is in the Bakken shale gas development area and a smaller town with fewer rooms available.  Thus, prices for those rooms are more than twice what they are here in Dickinson (supply and demand, imagine that).  So, here I am.  Tomorrow I'll drive out to Theodore Roosevelt National Park and hope to camp for a day or 2 and hike around that historic landscape. 

Around mid-day today, I began to leave the forested part of the U.S. in Minnesota and make my way into the prairies, although most of the prairies are in some form of agriculture...at least what is visible from the highway.  These shots were from the top of a highway exit on I-94 west of Fargo, ND.  Partially harvested soybean fields on the top, across the road in the bottom photo...lots of corn.  Further along the road were huge sunflower fields, sometimes on both sides of the road.  Along with them were HUGE flocks of blackbirds, swirling and landing in those sunflowers.  I couldn't safely stop to photograph those, but it was impressive and made me think of how much people spend to feed birds sunflower seeds back where we live.  Later on I ran into a thunderstorm and was able to watch the lightning as it passed in front of me and just to the south.  Quite impressive to have so much sky (and straight, flat road with little traffic) to watch that show.  Also, I somehow avoided running into a hailstorm that resulted in a lot of damage to other cars, based on talking to people checking into the hotel ahead of me and seeing their vehicles.  I had stopped to take a photo of the storm and some windmills, fortunate for me that I listened to that little voice that said to pull over and take in the scenery. 

Hopefully, the next few days I'll be out of touch but taking photos of and reflecting on the landscape and the wildlife of western North Dakota.  More later.

Windmills turning along I-94.

This thunderstorm produced some significant hail, covering the road and the ground on either side.  Fortunately, I stopped to enjoy the view and didn't run into it while driving.