Midwest road trip: ND, MN, WI

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Minneapolis/St.Paul

9-12 September 2026

My introduction to the Midwest and North Dakota was a rest stop that also happened to be a national park. Heading east on Interstate 94, we greeted the North Dakota sign with cheers. Montana is stunningly beautiful, and also huge. Miles upon miles of emptiness. So it felt like an accomplishment to finally see the next state's sign. As we pulled off the highway for a coffee and breakfast break, we discovered that this rest stop is also part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Painted Canyon Overlook. Serendipity! I got a NP stamp, and the requisite photo with the NP welcome sign. The new Theodore Roosevelt presidential library opened this summer in nearby Medora, ND. It's now on my bucket list of things to see the next time I'm on Interstate 94.

Interstate 94 makes a straight line across  North Dakota. That’s how North Dakota feels to me. Straight, the opposite of meandering. I’d like to come back and explore Fargo someday. There’s a hipness to that city that might shake my first impressions of North Dakota. The State Historical Society of North Dakota makes a curious podcast called the Dakota Datebook. I learned snippets about the state’s frequent thunderstorms and the threat of lightning strikes, about the 1892 Tariff Conference between the USA and Canada held in Fargo, and about the last surviving member of Abraham Lincoln’s personal bodyguard attachment who passed away in 1935 at the age of 92 in Fargo.

We crossed into Minnesota accidentally. In preparation for a bike ride, we had to buy some water bottles to make up for the ones we forgot to pack. A Google search led us to a nearby sporting goods store, which then gave us the quintessential Midwest experience of shopping at a Scheels. The friendly salespeople were befuddled as to why two people from Wenatchee, WA were in Moorhead, MN on an early Wednesday morning, and flabbergasted that our intended destination was Massachusetts. We got a lovely Midwestern welcome to Minnesota, blessings for safe travels, and two very nice CamelBak bottles.

My first impression of Minneapolis was that it is a legitimate city, complete with criss-crossing highways, concentric freeway loops, construction and lane closures, and TRAFFIC. Coming out of the west from Montana and North Dakota, this seemed jarring. There are a lot of rivers, and even more lakes. It feels damp to me, even though the weather featured cloudless skies and bright sunshine. As if to remind me that I’ve left the high desert behind, I got nailed right in the center of my chest by a mosquito while parking the campervan. But it was a very polite mosquito. The bite didn’t itch as much as bites from their vicious cousins that live down the Mississippi River in Louisiana.

A good friend from residency, a native Minnesotan and an avid cyclist, offered to take us on a bike tour of Minneapolis/St.Paul. We covered 40 miles of bike lanes and multi-use trails all over the Twin Cities. There is no traffic on a bike path, and the views are spectacular. It was the very best way to see the city, especially through the eyes of someone who calls it home.

These last 2 years have been full of unlooked for things. Much of what I had once assumed would last for decades, instead took sharp right turns and unexpected pauses. It's taught me that change happens quickly, and does not have to be resisted. The unlooked for things have turned out to be the very best of life. I have more time than I ever thought was possible in mid-life, and so much freedom to choose what to do with it. My intention for this cross-country road trip is to reconnect with friends, to visit with them in their cities and their homes. Work conferences and weddings are great for quick reunions, but there's something altogether special about seeing people where they are from, to meet their kids and dogs and cats, to have a beer at their local haunt, to get a tour of the local park where they had their first date. We made the detour to Minneapolis intentionally, to spend time with Won's former colleagues and my co-interns from residency. Each greeting between old friends was a precious moment, a reminder of what matters.