Today was the big day! We left Apple Valley at approximately 6:15 and headed for Big Sky Country. Our first stop was scheduled for 9 AM in Alexandria at the Pillars Bed and Breakfast for a home-cooked breakfast made by Anita Tollefson. This was slightly delayed by a mess in Clearwater trying to gas-up the U-Haul. You see, Trephaena nor I had ever really put gas in a truck like that before and figured one diesel pump was as good as another, right? Well, if you have ever tried it before then you know, as we do now, that there is two quite different kinds of pumps for diesel fuel tanks. The first one we came to was a truck diesel stop and it has a little ring around the end of the nozzle in order to hold it in the big semi truck tanks. Well, we didn't have one of those but we tried it anyway. Need less to say the truck had a little accident on the pavement when we pumped the gas without being able to put the nozzle all the way in the tank. After some investigation we realized that our truck wasn't truck-enough to handle the truck diesel pumps so we had to head over to the regular diesel pumps. That was quite an experience and not really the way we wanted to start off the trip. But anyway, on to Alexandria for breakfast and man was that good! Thank you Jim and Anita! After our timely arrival and timely departure from Alexandria we headed for North Dakota and the infamous Fargo.

Reaching Fargo in good time again we encountered quite a bit of construction. We all know that construction is not very much fun no matter what the conditions and what kind of car you're driving but we were in a particularly windy area with a truck that was particularly large and a particularly large trailer on the back with our favorite sign being quite common: "Lanes Narrow" WHAT!? I can't fit through these turns as it is, and now you're going to narrow the lanes on me! It wasn't quite as much fun as you're probably thinking it was but we made it safely into Fargo and the AAA Trip-Tik that was so nicely prepared for us by Aged Auntie Phyllis let us know that construction was done until the other side of Bismarck, YAY! More gas was needed in Fargo, but none of the crazy antics were displayed, didn't want to scare the North Dakotans, ya know. And following a quick stop in Fargo we decided to head for a long shot to Bismarck, nearly 200 miles -- quite a stretch for this 1990 piece of junk truck with Arizona plates and our trailer that we got from super cigarette smoking Lucinda with Florida plates.

We didn't quite make it as far as Bismarck because I just didn't want to push the truck too much and then literally have to push it to Bismarck. We stopped 40 miles short of Bismarck and if you've ever stopped 40 miles east of Bismarck you know it probably wasn't a good idea. There wasn't much there but two gas stations and only one diesel pump between the two of them and that pump had so much dirt stuck in the credit card slot we almost had to leave Trephaena's card there as a POW. We made it out of that stop and decided on the far side of Bismarck to have our lunch stop before finishing the journey for the day at Dickinson. This was a good idea in theory, but when we stopped at what we thought would be a nice place, the Tourist Information office, there wasn't much there to eat on so we sat on the curb and had sandwiches, chips and fruit. It was still relaxing to get out of that insanely loud truck for a while and feel the ground beneath our feet. After a short stop there we headed off to Dickinson, only 90 miles away. McDonald's brewed some fresh coffee for my mom and off we went: the caravan of two people spreading their wings and moving, two parents desperately trying to spend as much time with their baby as they could and two cousins that just didn't have much better to do.

Dickinson came up quickly and thoughts went through our head of heading through all the way to Billings, but the hot tub caught our attention and off the highway we pulled. We found the hotel fine and checked in for just the four original travelers with the two crazy cousins going for the luxurious floor spot. After some relaxation and unwinding we headed to the Dickinson mall called something like the Prairie Hill Mall. Wow. That was not much of a mall at all, it would rival even the Marshall mall for the bottom of mall-dom but Trephaena bought a purse at Herberger's and Nick found some lovely attire at the Corral West Ranchwear store but couldn't quite convince himself to get anything. Then it was on to Wal-mart where Trephaena and Becky both bought suits for the hot tub for a piddly $12 each. Enough shopping, let's eat! My mother found us a nice restaurant called the Rattlesnake Brewery & Grill in "downtown" Dickinson. It was a little strange at first because we were about the only people there but it picked up and the food turned out to be fantastic. We all had a good time except those of us that had match sticks in our pasta, that was a little weird. We were given three free desserts because of it though, so we didn't really mind too much. Then it was time for relaxation and sleeping back at the hotel which included a hot tub, swimming pool, hot tub trip for Trephaena, Becky and myself which was quite relaxing and soothing I must say. Then it was the inevitable early to bed, early to rise night because we wanted to be in Billings by 1:00 or 2:00 the next day leaving at 7:00 AM.

Well, today we got up with only one thing in mind: "Tonight we'll be sleeping in Billings! Our new home!!" We were weary to get back into the truck and head on down the road just like we did the whole day the day before, but we knew that this would end better than Dickinson, so we headed out. So 7:00 AM came around and we were on the road, well, actually down the street to get some gas, again. We headed out of North Dakota and in to Montana after another hour on the road but before we crossed into our new home state we took some pictures. The first is of our moving crew, all six of us standing in front of the Montana sign, Mom, Dad, Becky, Nick, Trephaena and myself from left to right. Then we needed the token first picture of the new Montana residents being goofy in front of the Montana sign. Following this picture shooting, we headed on down the road to Glendive, Montana for a rest stop at which we picked up some maps and information packets to find our way around the state.

About 12:45 we crossed into the city limits of Billings but we came in through the southeast part of the city, the gross and dirty part of town as we now know. As we headed through downtown we began to get excited but also dreaded driving that truck any further. Heading down 27th Street we saw the Rimrocks and if that won't get you excited to live in the mountains, then I don't know what would. We turned down Poly Avenue and soon enough we came down past 13th Street and saw Rocky Meadows Apartments, Trephaena's new home and my home to be. Our appointment was at 2:00 but we decided we'd try it anyway and see if they were ready for us. We walked into the office and found the one and only person that works in the office and she was really excited to see us and even knew that it was Trephaena without ever seeing her and us being 45 minutes early. We met with her and went through the apartment lease and all that fun stuff to get Trephaena ready to move on in. Then we headed to the apartment to do our final inspection before move in and were we surprised! It was fantastic! A nice two bedroom apartment that was nice and clean, a good neighborhood, a garage and all that stuff, a much needed upgrade from her previous apartment in Brooklyn Park.

THE FUN PART! Then we decided it was time to move-in and move-in we did, in record pace at that. We unloaded the seventeen foot truck, my car and Trephaena's car all into her apartment in about 1 hour. By 2:30 we were figuring out what to do with the truck and how to get everything organized in the apartment, which was possibly the most stressful moments in our trip thus far.

Our two late-recruit champion movers: Nick and Becky.

Our furry little friend, one in color, one sepia and one black & white.

While we were waiting for our ride to the Billings Mustangs baseball game, I took a five shots of the north view from Trephaena's apartment (01, 02, 03, 04, 05). Here is the whole panoramic shot of the view to the north of Trephaena's apartment building.