Two-Wheeled Tourist: Day 5-6: Minot! Why not? Fuzzies and Scandinavians included.

**This series of posts recap my two-week trip to Billings, MT and back from July 1-16, 2013. For the entire list of my featured rides, click here.**

I slept in on Day 5 of this trip, which translates to waking up somewhere between 9-9:30AM to the sparring of Mollie and Ammo, my friend's two dogs who have the run of the place. I'll talk more about them later. But first, it was off to breakfast at a nearby Perkins restaurant to catch up on our life travels (it's been a few years since we had seen each other face-to-face). On the way inside, we found these two cuties hanging out in the back of another restaurant patron's truck.

Hello, human. We be chillin' in our ride.

I've never eaten at a Perkins before that day, and I found the food to be okay. It's one of those standard diner-style restaurants that sells a general range of American food. It's also open 24 hours so that comes in handy for those late night runs across the interstate. At least I know I can decent food and a place to hang during my cross-country travels. Of course, several other 24 hr. places of choice include Steak n Shake, Denny's, and yes, Waffle House.

After breakfast, we returned back to the house where she got ready for work. I decided to stay in the house for the rest of the afternoon and entertain the two fuzzy children, Mollie (a Boxer/Labrador mix) and Ammo (purebreed German Shepherd). Her husband-to-be is in the Air Force (hence living in Minot) and away from the house a lot, so having these two with her as companions and protectors is a wonderful thing. They're a very lovable pair and get along quite well. They can be a bit loud when they're playing but other than that, they're just happy dogs that enjoy all the attention.

Mollie is named after the military packing technology of the same name.

Ammo is named after, well, I'll let you figure that out. He was only three months old at the time of this photo. He's much bigger now but is still a super cutie.

It was a lot of lounging and a few rounds of fetch for me that day so not much to report on that end. It had been a whirlwind tour up to this point and this was the first time I've had the chance to veg and do absolutely nothing for a while. That is, until 6PM, when my friend called and told me to move the bike underneath the bridge immediately due to an impending severe thunderstorm/flash flood warning. My phone confirmed the warning as well.

Yep...this is about to suck. Did I mention my friend really hates thunder and lightning? She wasn't a happy camper.

Fifteen minutes later, I was greeted by this lovely sight. Yep, I was officially done for the evening. At least Eleanor stayed dry underneath the Burdick Expressway bridge.

The next day, rain threats had ended by 11AM and with the blessing of clear, blue skies, I decided to take advantage of this and head out to the International Peace Garden (that gets its own special post because it's so awesome). But before that, I went down the street to the Scandinavian Heritage Center to check out some pretty cool sights.

The Scandinavian Heritage Center in Minot is also home to the Visitors Bureau. This area is a tribute to the heavy influence of European immigrants from Finland, Sweden, Norway, and other Scandinavian countries.