Tyler, Ava and I are in North Dakota! We left Mesa early yesterday morning with Grandma Jean. We had a smooth, quick flight into Minot, once we finally got our tickets and got on the plane. We flew Allegiant Airlines, and I had forgotten how they do their seats. We paid extra to be able to select our seats so we’d all get to sit together, but unfortunately, we got to the airport a little later than we should have and had to stand in line at the ticket counter for quite awhile. Because of that, they had already given up our seats by the time we got to the gate. They call all the reserved seats up first, and then do open seating. Luckily, some people rearranged their seats so that the kids and I had seats together. I’m not sure what we would have done if that wasn’t an option! The kids were both really good on the flight, and it helped that we had Ava’s car seat with us on the plane. Thanks to iPods and snacks, the kids were content most of the flight. It is sure nice to get on a plane and be in North Dakota less than 3 hours later—with no plane change in Denver! That may be the way we go from now on, whenever possible.
The real excitement came as we got closer to Minot. As you probably have heard, Minot is dealing with a catastrophic flood right now, and when we were flying in yesterday, most of the city was still above water—but not for long.
The predications were all calling for it to breach the levees, and to be a record amount of water. After leaving the airport, we stopped at my aunt Margaret’s house for a quick bite to eat before heading out of town. We hadn’t been there long with Mark called and said we needed to get out of town right away. We jumped in the car and headed to the bypass, which takes us to the highway leading to Williston. When we got to the bypass, we ended up at the back of this line of cars.
A little while later, we saw this line of cars behind us. It took about an hour to get about 3 miles down this bypass to the highway.
Here we are on a bridge, where the water was flowing pretty good. You can see the fence below is nearly submerged. There was a Blackhawk helicopter flying over right as I was taking this picture. It was quite the scene.
There was a great deal of effort being made to keep this bypass open to keep the north and south sides of Minot connected. They had these huge inflatable (water filled?) bladders that were intended to keep the water off the road. It was still several feet from the road when we drove by, but as of this evening, we heard that the water was over the road in this location. Soon, I’m sure, this road will also be closed if it isn’t already. 
We finally made it onto Highway 2 heading west to Williston. There was quite a bit of water in the Burlington area too, but we couldn’t see too much from the highway.
All in all, I believe over 12,000 people have been evacuated, and thousands will lose their homes—they are predicting 4500 homes will be damaged or lost. I can’t even imagine the amount of devastation that city will see in the coming days. They worst is yet to come too, they say, with another 5 feet rise predicted. For those of you who may not be North Dakotans who read this blog, there is a live feed of the coverage going at this link. It has been quite amazing, though, to see the support of those in the community to help each other out. Of the 12,000+ people who were evacuated, they say only about 350 are in area shelters. That is the true spirit of North Dakota—helping your neighbor in times of need. It makes me proud to be from this great state.
After a little more driving, and finding ways to pass the time, we made it back to Williston. I was amazed to drive in to my hometown and see the ridiculous amount of semi-truck traffic and oil vehicles everywhere. That will be a whole ‘nother blog post….
We were happy to get to Grandma’s house after a long day of sitting. The weather was absolutely perfect—warm, sunny, and no wind! I am almost blinded by all the color around here! Everything is so green after the wet spring they have had. It is quite the change from the ugly, brown, burning up desert we left. The kids had fun playing in the backyard until after 10 pm. That is something else to get used to—the long hours of daylight!
Tyler got to be the first person to ever climb Grandma’s apple tree!
He also had fun playing with his buddy Easton, who he met last summer. Easton is a few months older than Tyler, but is a fun little wild man. To let you know a little of the difference between the two boys…Easton was telling us all about zombies and dead monsters while Tyler was trying to tell Easton about his new telescope and seeing Saturn, and about looking for the sun’s core. Not much in common, past typically boy things like riding bikes and scooters as fast as they can, and digging in the dirt!
This little girl is loving being outside and getting as dirty as she can! Although, she has asked to go home a few times. She doesn’t really understand the idea of vacation quite yet. “Go home now?” Not yet baby girl. We have lots more fun to have in North Dakota!
