Howdy folks!
Please feel free open the following link in a new window and listen on repeat as you read this blog post: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsReWx9XdNs
We have had a great first day of our trip out west. It started early this morning as we packed up the our rental car, the MooseFinder 5000. It is a 2019 Jeep Cherokee that is nicer than my house. Heated seats, satellite radio, push-button start, the whole deal.
Beth, 3 weeks ago- "The rule for road trips is that the driver gets to control the temperature and pick the music. So you might want to pack a few CDs."
Mom, 3 weeks ago- "I really need to concentrate when I'm driving. No music for me."
Mom, 2pm today, jamming out to the Sirius 60s on 6 station- "When it's my turn to drive can I make it louder?"
Our first stop was Carol Widman's Candy Store in Fargo, famous for their Chippers- potato chips covered in chocolate. We had no complaints about the first stop.
We drove across the state of North Dakota, and made it to the western edge and Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Just off of 94 is the Painted Canyon Visitor's Center, where we stopped to stretch our legs and enjoy gorgeous views of the Badlands*.
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| Park entrance. |
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| View looking north into the park. |
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| Note that the sky is very hazy, due to wildfires in Canada and further west in Montana and California. Folks said the air quality has been hit or miss for the last few weeks, but that today was a particularly bad day. |
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| It is so nice to have Emily and her long arms on this trip so I don't have to take the selfies. |
A few miles further down 94 is the small town of Medora, the main entrance to the National Park, and our destination for the evening. And there was no time to dawdle, because we had reservations at 5:30 for the famous** Medora Pitchfork Fondue!
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| Yes, that is our dinner, steaks speared on the end of pitchforks, cooked (grilled? broiled? boiled???) in large drums. |
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| The result- yum! |
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| Mom and Emily enjoying their dinner. Badlands vistas for miles behind them. Difficult to see due to the haze but it was a beautiful setting! |
After dinner I'd been hoping to join the ranger-led Full Moon Hike at the park, but it was all booked by the time we arrived. So instead, we checked in at the hotel, and Emily and I went out on our own hike/treasure hunt around town.
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| We walked over to the historic Chimney Park, which we learned was all that was left of the old slaughterhouse. So, educational, I guess. |
We turned around to walk back and saw a gorgeous red moon rising over the badlands. Of course our fun new camera was back in the hotel room, so we quickened our pace as we walked back to get it***.
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| Goodnight Moon. |
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| Artsy fartsy. |
Oh, I almost forgot! Look who was waiting for us when we checked into the hotel!
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| His fur is very soft and he seems ready for adventure. |
Looking forward to learning much more about Teddy Roosevelt**** (the man, not the bear) tomorrow during our time in the park!
*And get our National Parks passport books stamped, obviously. Had to sweet talk the ranger into letting us in for the stamp, and they were just closing up the Visitor Center for the day.
**We saw at least 4 billboards on the drive west.
***And then we got back to the room, and I realized I didn't have the room key. And luckily Mom was out of the shower to let us back in. And I was hoping the key had maybe fallen out in the room, but it had not. So we headed back out to retrace our steps- which was actually great because I got to use my headlamp!!! Key was spotted by eagle-eye Emily at the entrance to the hotel parking lot.
****Setting the over/under on the number of times Emily exclaims "Bully!" for no apparent reason at 4.5.
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