Two and a half hours?

This morning, I was reading cbc.ca for my daily dose of Canadian news and came across this article http://www.cbc.ca/manitoba/story/win-grandforks060322.html about cross-border shopping.

I was particularly drawn to this paragraph:

Grand Forks, nestled in the Red River Valley, is about two-and-a-half hours south of Winnipeg. Winnipeggers will often travel to the historic city of 50,000 for a day to shop and take in the sights.

Two things:

1. What sights? Those painted water towers?
2. Who takes two and a half hours to drive from Winnipeg to Grand Forks?

I recall a trip to Grand Forks with Heidi, Heather and Krista, back in 1991, where I was picked up from Tuxedo at around 7am and I'm sure we were in Grand Forks at least half an hour before the stores opened, which I believe back in those days was 9am.

I think we worked out that it had something to do with Heidi converting the speedometer of her dad's Taurus over to MPH and not remembering. I wonder if she ever got a ticket.