Dakotas Trip, Day Four, Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Wow! I'm finally in North Dakota. A milestone, for sure. Now I've been in all fifty states. I giggled when I saw this magnet in the gift shop. Not sure I agree, as a good part of that scary road was in North Dakota, a good portion of the loop road through Teddy Roosevelt National Park is closed for repairs, and it's still raining.

Confession time. I later found that if I'd just studied the map properly, there's a right turn I could have made to avoid the monster road. A little further, but probably less time as I could driven normal speeds. Will not make this mistake again.

Breakfast at the hotel again. Same old stuff except for one new fascinating piece of equipment. A lot of the hotels have the Belgian waffle makers, and you ladle in the batter, set the timer, then flip it over, set the timer again, and voila! perfect waffle. Guess they got tired of cleaning up batter drips, because now - pancakes! The batter is inside and you just push buttons.

And the pancakes come rolling off the assembly line.

So off to T.R. National Park visitor center. There are two; the one right in Medora is best. I always love the movies, and good thing, because with the road closed part way and the rain still coming down, that's as far as we got. The interesting parts of the park are not visible from the road - you have to hike in. We'll do it the easy way by clicking HERE. And don't forget about the tabs at the top. We were told that the bison and wild horses wouldn't mind the rain, but the small animals and birds would be hiding out.

This poster in the visitor center tells it all.

A sample from the petrified forest part of the park.

And some photos from the museum portion.

And here it is - right outside.

It's furnished and I'm sure interesting, but they said that bats live inside and not to touch them because they can spread diseases. You know how national parks operate; leave Mother Nature alone. When I was on a tour in the Grand Tetons, we were staying in cabins on the lodge grounds. The guy next door to mine, came hurrying back from the front desk as I was leaving, and he said, "Can you believe it?! My cabin is overrun with ants, and they said they don't have insect spray because they're wildlife." At risk of being thrown into prison, I let him borrow my hair spray to solve his problem. I'm sure enough ants survived to continue their little ant village. Who wants to sleep with ants crawling all over them?

The old hotel where I wanted to stay, and they have a gourmet dining room, much to my surprise. Making reservations in Medora is a frustrating business. You get an answering service which may or may not call you back. If they do call back, it might be a day or two later. When I talked to someone on one day, they had twenty-one rooms; the next day, they had no vacancies. Go figure.

The dining room at the hotel closes down for the season the day after labor day. There's also a western musical and a steak fondue which ends then. Not exactly what you'd expect in a national park area, but hey! the tourists are here and they need to spend money. Western musical, click HERE. Steak fondue, click HERE. But you have to go through that frustrating reservations system for both. Maybe better luck online. A little corny, but we'd have tried both had they been available.

The park is actually split into two units, separated by a 30+ mile drive. The north unit is mostly just wilderness, and we opted to skip that part. The other visitor center is a few miles east on the main highway, but it's mostly for information and a place to buy more souvenirs. Great view, however.

Teddy Roosevelt's wife died in childbirth, and this mother died of typhus on the very same day. And it was Valentine's Day. He went into deep mourning, and escaped to the wilderness in what is now the north unit of the park to recuperate. Good decision.

So we're off to Bismark to see the capitol, but decided to check out the little museum I read about in an old book I'd saved. Glad we did, because it turned out to be a real winner. In Dickinson, ND, it's the Dinasour Museum.

Sorry about so many photos, but my son is a rock hound, and I know he'll want to see them.

Guess I was more interested in the fossils and gems than the dinasours.

On to Bismark, the capitol building, which looks more like an office building than a capitol.

The interior of the building is marble, brass, and wood; yet the floors are vinyl tile. If not, a bad choice, because they look just like vinyl.

One hall has posters of famous people from or who lived in North Dakota.

Lawrence Welk

Roger Maris

Peggy Lee

Back to South Dakota, to visit the capitol in Pierre, pronounced "peer" by the residents of the state.

Scaffolding, of course; the curse leveled on tourists.

But beautifully kept grounds.

And an outstanding interior. A hurried visit, as we arrived at closing time.

Near the capitol is an events center and a veterans memorial. Such a pretty spot.

Time to find the hotel and some dinner. Not the greatest hotel. I think the good reviews must have been submitted by hunters and fishermen. When you find a box of rags by the door which says, "For cleaning boots, guns, and dog paws", you know you're in the wrong place. But the room was okay. Bill said that his smelled a little fishy, but mine just seemed like a damp smell and it was still pouring rain.

And I wanted to eat next door at Redrossa Italian Grille. It doesn't look Italian.

We had the usual bread and dipping oil.

But I had short ribs. Italian?

And Bill had walleye pike. Italian?

But the best part was the hallway to the restrooms. This is just one section.

They're not pictures. They're cookbooks, and they're mounted so that you can open them and look for recipes. Some are up high and I couldn't get good shots, but Mim wants to see them anyway.

A long, but fun day. I was ready for bed.