Day 8 - May 16

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom...

Leaving Shelby, MT behind, we hit the road and boogied eastward. We put on a LOT of miles today (for us, anyway), but it was kind of a boring day. Hey, you have boring days sometimes too, right? Boring can be good, since one thing it means is no mechanical problems with which to deal.

We stayed on US Route 2 the entire day. It's mostly a two-lane road, with a few four-lane stretches thrown in to break it up. It's marked on our map as a scenic highway and, although it's not as stunningly beautiful as back in the Rockies, it's still very pleasant, wending its way through mile after mile of America's northern plains. This, of course, is mostly farmland. Mostly grains are grown up here—wheat for sure, but we were more interested to see where the barley was grown, if you know what we mean.

Tech Corner: Not much to report. Oil consumption is good, fuel consumption is bad, and our consumption is limited pretty much to beer in the evenings.

As with our previous two coast-to-coast Alfa GTV trips, it's impossible not to be impressed by the vastness and beauty of the good ol' USofA. That said, we're staying tonite in Minot, North Dakota (rhymes with "Why not?") where, dammit, you'd think they'd use some of their over-abundant grain to make some decent beer.

This is where we went today
Today's Map


Choo, Choo, Choo...
We were doing about 75, which meant that this guy was doing about 72. We waved and he waved. We tooted and so did he; he won.


Grain Silos
Here's an over-the-shoulder shot of a set of grain storage silos next to a set of railroad tracks, a very common sight.


The view from the passenger's seat
This is what we saw out the windshield for most of today. Not the Rockies, but an impressive beauty of its own. We don't expect tomorrow to be much different.


Behind the wheel
An antelope in the road? A train crossing our path? The Highway Patrol in the rearview mirror? Nah—he just missed a shift.

Beer(s) of the Day

Monterey Pale Ale
Spanish Peaks Brewing Company

Since this was probably our only night in North Dakota, we tried to get some North Dakotan beer. Apparently there ain't no such thing. So this one's by a Montana company, contract brewed in Minnesota. North Dakota's between them and it's the best we could do. It's yet another respectable American microbrewed ale.

Culture Feature

These pieces are on display along the side of Route 2 just outside of Wolf Point, Montana. The "sculptor" had a sign there and was offering them for sale. Sure wish we had more room in the Alfa.


Alfa Spotting!

                                 

Day 1

0

(Except for a bunch while still in San Francisco)

Day 2

0

(No Alfas, but one Fiat X-1/9 parked, but standing on its own wheels)

                                 

Day 3

0

(No Alfas, no Fiats, but one Corvair that looked like it might have run)

                                 

Day 4

1

The Milano parked in Doug Zaitz's driveway when we pulled in.

                                 

Day 5

23

That's 20 or so on the Wine Tour, plus the three in Doug's loft.

                                 

Day 6

12

(All of them in the Veloce Motors garage.)

                                 

Day 7

0

Hey, we were in Idaho and Montana.

                                 

Day 8

0

Hey, we were in Montana and North Dakota.

__________

_____

Total 

36

   

May 2001

May

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