Day 3: Bismarck ND, Dickinson ND

Today was the first "test" in that it was the first day I had to actually work on the road - a test I think I passed with ease. I woke up around 5am, not sure if it was because of the time difference or nerves, but I was wide awake. I figured, why not get to work so I can hit the road early?

Before I knew it, it was 10:30a and I had already put in 5 hours of highly productive work! Might start making this a habit.

Worked from my hotel room until checkout at noon and then took a client Zoom call from my car in the parking lot since the hotel's office space was closed due to quarantine. Then, I took a little break to walk around downtown Fargo for a half hour. There wasn't much to see or do but it's always fun exploring a new city. Checked out a record store, but it was overpriced.

I found a little coffee shop that was mostly empty and claimed a long wooden table to myself. I put in a few more hours of work and then decided to hit the road - my work day ended at 2:30.

Not much happened on the drive, just lots of grass, farmland, tractors, and man-made ponds.

After about 3 hours on the road, I arrived in Bismarck, the capital of North Dakota. It's a cool scene pulling into town: the highway skirts up to the top of a crest and then you see the rural city sprawled out in the valley below. You can just barely see it in the photo below.

Capital building:

The layout of Bismarck is kinda weird. The main strip by the highway has all of the chain restaurants you've ever heard of. Then, there is a grid of rural neighborhoods for 6-7 blocks then it suddenly opens up into a neat little downtown.

I explored for a few minutes, but like with many other of the cities so far, there's little to do or see. I did stumble in a little bookstore that had a section in the basement that was basically a free-for-all.

Since there was little going on and it was only about 7p at this point, I decided to hit the road again and head for Dickinson, ND about 90 minutes west. No point sitting around bored somewhere if I could make progress and make future drives shorter.

More scenic drives for what was probably my favorite stretch of road so far. Nothing like listening to Bob Dylan while driving through middle America.

Checked into a cheap motel now. I officially crossed into Mountain Time as I approached Dickinson so I gained another hour, which is going to be a little disorienting when we record an early episode of the Dropping the Gloves podcast at 5:30am my time tomorrow morning.

Oh well, I'm young.