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.

Dakotas Trip Day Three, Tuesday, September 10, 2019

The hotel in Keystone was the same place I stayed in 2006, but the cost was NOT. Notice the price at that time - $49.95. The times, they are a-changing.

We ate breakfast at the adjoining restaurant called "The Front Porch". Obviously, I was already tired of the usual breakfast fare, so a meager offering.

And we're off to The Badlands. We stopped to watch the movie at the visitor center and checked out the museum. Looks the same as before. Interesting reproductions of extinct animals who lived here.

I love seeing The Badlands by way of a movie. I didn't want to get up close and personal. Here's why.

Next stop, some tourist time at Wall Drugs. They got a boost when they started by offering free ice water. They still do. Remember the old pointed-bottom cups? You can also get a cup of coffee for 5 cents.

We had lunch here (with free ice water).

Many dining rooms with original paintings and Tiffany style lights.

Walked around to see the tourist stuff - Wall Drugs is now a square block. Lots of photo opps.

Kids can pan for gold.

Love this alligator cowering from the grizzly.

This guy is huge and on a timer - lights flash, he roars, and opens his mouth and reaches over as if to bite off your head.

Off to North Dakota, and right in the middle of the trip we ran into the road to try one's nerves. It was already dark, pouring rain, suddenly signs which signaled road work and one which said "Unpaved Road". I'm surprised my tires weren't shredded. Loose gravel everywhere, no shoulder, two-way traffic, and it went on and on for miles and miles. Then I knew why I had the little niggly feeling that I shouldn't make this trip alone. Bill talked me through it all, reminding me to slow down, telling me to move a little to the left. Not a drive I'd like to repeat, but we survived. I had to drive 25-30 mph part of the way, so by the time we got to Medora, all the restaurants were closed. As always, I had a food stash. And for some reason I made a sandwich of my roll from lunch with butter and roast beef. I wasn't very hungry, so Bill ate the sandwich, and we had cheese sticks, salami sticks, pretzel sticks, trail mix, apples, grapes, tangerines, power bars, breakfast cookies, instant oatmeal, tea bags, and hot chocolate mix. Obviously we did not go to bed hungry. Still raining when we went to bed. I love the quiet in the plains states. Slept well every night.

Tomorrow we'll see Teddy Roosevelt National Park