Day 8: Rest Day
Welcome
Yesterday we had another rest day in Bismarck, North Dakota.
We were about an hour out from our destination when I awoke and headed up to the front of the bus. Apparently I had missed all the good shit but it still looked pretty wild out there, to me. As Robert put it, 'I had to play a little game of where the fuck is the road’. He could have fooled me because it was a beautifully smooth ride while we were asleep.
The night’s snowfall was still largely undisturbed as we pulled into Bismarck just after 11am. We nearly got stuck in the hotel carpark which was a tight space for a bus and trailer at the best of times, but especially tricky with a foot of snow. As Robert was carefully extricating us from the carpark I sat and watched a bus do a nice drift around a nearby street corner.
Yesterday I threw my morning routine out the window and decided to go out for breakfast. Tristan and I donned our warmest layers and headed out into the cold, braving the three minute walk to the nearest coffee spot, Joyhouse Coffee. It was -10°C (14°F) outside but luckily not too windy. The footpaths were covered in snow so we briefly tried to walk on the icy roads but decided we didn’t want to meet our end from a sliding car.
We made it to the sanctuary of the Joyhouse and there I enjoyed a freshly brewed filter coffee and a cinnamon-sugar crepe with butter and maple syrup.
From there we headed to Menards. American Bunnings. It was another perilous journey which involved crossing an icy main road and carefully watching to make sure all the cars were slowing down enough that they wouldn’t slide through the traffic lights.
Sometimes I hate going to a hardware store but yesterday’s trip was pure recreation. I thoroughly enjoyed browsing cold weather gear and I bought myself a lovely pair of gloves for loading gear in the cold. Other items that were fulfilled during our visit were a new water tank with a filter that doesn’t quite fit, a tiny humidifier for when the air is too dry for your bunk, and a USB A to B cable.
I spent the afternoon in the lobby with Jake. I wrote 671 words for the blog and Jake sent at least 100 emails. As we sat and worked a loader arrived equipped with a snow blade and began to clear the carpark. The driver must have been having a busy day but he worked efficiently and by the end of the afternoon the hotel was vehicle accessible again.
Liz and Jon enjoyed a proper snow-day activity and went a nearby cinema for a screening of the 1976 film Murder on the Orient Express.
All day we had been browsing Google Maps looking for the best local attractions to wile away the hours and finally in the evening we got to visit the one that had stood head and shoulders above the rest of the pack. Space Aliens Grill & Bar defies the usual earthling convention of bridging the gap between two nouns with a soft consonant, and instead opts for its own slightly chewier order of words.
It was -20°C (-4°F) when we left the bus. Luckily it was only a five minute walk to get there because our winter clothes packing didn’t accomodate this extreme temperature. It was well worth it though when we entered Space Aliens Grill & Bar and took our time to admire the time, effort, and vision it must have taken to create this place.
There is an illuminated domed ceiling that dominates the space. Spread across this glowing purple expanse is our great solar system. The planets are dramatically arrayed and a futuristic rocket heads out into the farther reaches of the galaxy.
Next to our table was an Apollo Pressure Suit which apparently was worn by Eugene A. Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. I’m not sure if this was the suit he wore to the moon. That one belongs to the National Air & Space Museum but its current status is either on loan or in storage so perhaps Space Alien Grill & Bar got lucky.
“We shall return”: the famous note that Eugene A. Cernan wrote on the moon for the next visitor.
There was also some excellent space-themed art which made the space veer slightly away from a toy story feel and closer to a science fiction vibe.
Space Alien Grill & Bar also has an game arcade and that is where we ended our evening. Jon did very well at Asphalt Legends 9 and Liz won enough tokens to purchase this tiny dog.
I love where Jon figures out how to destroy the other cars.
