North Dakota Road Trip | Overland Truck Camper Life

Join us for a road trip around North Dakota, our 49th U.S. state in an RV. There will be lots of bison, epic overlooks, warbirds, and cannonballs. Kate and I started our North Dakota road trip by driving over the Red River into Grand Forks. Number 49 North Dakota. I can't wait to see what this state has to offer. Welcome to North Dakota. Thank you Google. So the first order of business is to hit up the gym, get a workout in, and a shower. I need a shave. That too. And some unlimited hot water, it'll be nice. So how do I look? Clean shaven. Got my head, got my face. That was a nice gym and great showers. I approve. Yep. Well, it is almost nine. I say we do the hour drive to that city campground you found because I was just looking at a map and the Cabela's in town is right along the train tracks. I don't think we'd get much sleep. Nope. I'm good to make the drive. All right, I am too. Let me get my my Chewbacca belt on. Let's hear it. Chewy over here, ready to rock and roll. As we drove by the train depot, we were both glad we decided not to spend the night in town. We pulled into Fordville Dam Recreation Campground after 10 p.m. and paid for a primitive site. Since it was so late when we pulled in, we didn't get a good feel for the campground until the next morning. For $10 a night, the primitive site had potable water, picnic table, fire ring, and access to the heated bathhouse with showers. I decided to fill up the 20-gallon water tank built into our camper and the 11-gallon auxiliary water tank under our Norwell Detroit. With 31 gallons of fresh water on board, we were ready to hit the road and explore our 49th U.S. state in a camper. On our way to Minot, we stopped at the Game Preserve to take the auto tour and see bison. The climb up to the overlook was well worth it. We learned about the three types of habitat in the preserve and got to enjoy the beautiful views. According to the sign, the mixture of prairie, forest, and wetlands is not often found together in North Dakota. Oh, and we got an earful when we rolled through the prairie dog town. Apparently, these tiny prairie dogs usually eat two pounds of grass and forbs a week and they can be found from Saskatchewan to northern Mexico. Before leaving the Game Preserve, we drove up another overlook and parked the rig so I could make a cup of coffee and refill our water bottle for the drive ahead. No, that is not a giant coffee maker. That's our Berkey water purification system. Such a lovely place to pull over for an afternoon break. It is. I would say one of the more beautiful spots I've made a cup of coffee. Here's your ginger tea. Thank you. Oh, I'm sure people are wondering, I just sprained or stressed my wrist. This is for all that video editing. Yeah, too much time on the computer. Noodle life. It's a thing. It's a chopstick injury. One of Kate's favorite things to do is to read every road sign and billboard. It's also one of the ways she learned English when she moved to the United States from China. When we drove through Rugby, she read a sign that had us turning the truck camper around. Apparently, the city of Rugby is the geographical center of North America. Although based on new calculations, the geographical center of North America is no longer in Rugby, it was still cool to make the stop. We got back on the road towards Minot. Kate called ahead to book us an overnight stay at the Dakota Territory Air Museum using our Harvest Hosts membership. We made it. Our Harvest Hosts for the evening. I'm excited to check out the museum tomorrow. Yeah, same here. Admission to the museum was $10 per person, which gave us access to several exhibits and the World War II hangar. With Minot Air Force Base not far away, the museum provided some brief history about the base and Spitton, the green-eyed Canadian lynx. One of the mascots for the 5th Fighter Interceptor Squadron. The museum had quite a few civilian aircraft on display, including the Polar Pumpkin Cessna 185. According to the sign, it's the only single-engine production aircraft flown solo over both poles of the earth. The World War II hangar was definitely my favorite part of the museum. Although we've been to many air museums around the country and have seen some of these planes at the world's largest air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, it's still cool to visit a local air museum. Plus, I could daydream about buying Betty's Dream and flying myself around the U.S. in a B-25 bomber. Now that would be a cool way to travel. That was such a cool museum experience. It was. I really want that B-25 though. Is that the one that's $2.7 million? Uh-huh. We don't have it, but it's less expensive than the Blackhawk. The Blackhawk was $5 million. Oh, the woman did say they might be willing to entertain offers at $2.5 million. All right, keep making those YouTube videos. After the museum, we went to the Scandinavian Heritage Park to read about the different structures on display and the countries they represent. Kate's favorite was the replica of a cottage in Telemark, Norway. The main attraction that brought us to North Dakota is the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We entered the park through the north entrance south of Watford City and were immediately greeted by a bison off the main road. Since it was getting late in the day, we decided to drive to the CCC campground to find a primitive site for the night. Kate has gotten so good at setting up our camper, she can do it with one hand while filming herself. With a high in the mid-50s, we set the furnace to 72 degrees Fahrenheit so we could warm up the camper. This primitive spot was $10 a night, and although the only amenity were the pit toilets, we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves and enjoyed the peace and quiet of this campground. Oh, and did I mention there was Verizon cell coverage as well? The next morning, we packed up our truck camper and made our way back to the north unit for the scenic drive. Kate's favorite stop was to check out the cannonballs. Erosion is slowly exposing these cannonballs buried within the sediment layers of the Badlands. And there was no shortage of bison along this scenic drive, including this one that had Kate smiling from ear to ear. I'm pretty sure this bison made her day. We eventually made it to the Oxbow Overlook to learn about this naturally occurring oxbow in the Little Missouri River. With it being such a cold and windy day, we pulled into the upper unit picnic area to make some hot beverages. Well, I think you found another good spot to make coffee in North Dakota. Yep, I certainly did. Hanging out with the buffalo. The bison. On days like this, we're both really happy to have heated seats. What coffee did you make? This is an Ethiopian from Domo Roasting in Idaho. With a nice hot cup of coffee, we made our way to the south unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park for another scenic drive. Unfortunately, part of the loop road was closed during our visit, so we only made it to Wind Canyon Overlook. With rain on the way, we decided to head to our next camping spot for the night and save some of the trails for our next visit. Headed east on Interstate 94, we spotted the start of the Enchanted Highway, but we decided to skip it given the weather and made a beeline to the campground in Bismarck. We paid $12 for a tent site, which included access to a bathhouse with flushing toilets and pit toilets throughout the campground. Kate was especially glad to see a little free library. While Kate prefers physical books, I much prefer reading on my Kindle. We went for a walk around the campground, learning about the history of the area before the rainstorm caught up to us once again. We woke up to clear blue skies and a high in the mid-70s, a perfect day to explore the capital of North Dakota. Before we got on the road, I checked the tires and depressure as part of our pre-departure checklist. The North Dakota Heritage Center and State Museum is free to the public and has their own collection of cannonballs out front. After getting a full rundown of the different exhibits at the museum, we made our way to the Governor's Gallery to see the fashion exhibit. There was a lot to see at the museum and quite a bit of information to absorb. I enjoyed learning about the dinosaurs that lived in this area and the Mandan people, one of the well-known agricultural tribes of the Northern Plains. This morning, when Kate and I woke up, she's like, well, I want to go to this museum, but you probably don't, so let's not go. And I said, oh, let's go. I love what you love. And I had a lot of fun. You're in the area. This is a museum definitely worth visiting, especially because it's free and there's a lot of cool stuff. Learn about North Dakota. All right, let's roll. Off to get diesel. People are always surprised when we tell them that we're Costco members. They have some of the best fuel prices around and with an aftermarket 51-gallon Titan fuel tank and 12 to 14 mpg, saving money on diesel is essential. And as for food, well, Kate is kind of a genie when it comes to packing everything, especially putting items in the fridge. I'm not sure how she does it, but according to her, it's like playing Tetris. It ended up being quite the windy day in North Dakota with dust devils all along our drive to the world's largest bison in Jamestown. That wind was intense. That was ridiculous. Thought I was going to get blown away. You almost did. You almost got knocked over. With family to see in Nebraska, we got on the interstate and made the drive to Omaha to hang out with them for a few days. We hope you enjoyed this video and thank you for sharing your recommendations of things to do in North Dakota. For more cool content and information about RV travel and camper life, visit weretherussos.com. We'll see you next time.