Medora, ND

This is a story of how we slept in a shepherd's wagon, but first let's talk about the town of Medora, ND:

Medora stole our hearts! Amanda's note to self from there was: "Medora - cutest town ever!" Complete with a rodeo rink and a few buildings (bank, post office, town hall, etc.) that look like they came out of a western movie prop.

Toward the end of a VERY LONG drive, we were ready to get out of the car and set up camp outdoors. Nature had other plans: as soon as we entered our destination zipcode, the skies erupted with thunder, wind, and rain. (Amanda's notes read: "It was disappointing but kind of cool to feel like we were on a real Americana road trip, with nothing going according to plan.")In a state of light panic, with no 4G service, we rounded up a list of local hotels, and started begrudgingly calling them one by one. The first two places had no vacancy or wanted mucho $$$. And the third replied with: "I have a wagon!" Intrigued and close to desperate, we asked to look at this "wagon" before committing. And as soon as we arrived, we fell in love, as this was one of the coolest lodging setups of the trip!  The wagon was once used by shepherds who traveled with their herds. The wagon came complete with a tiny heating stove, heavy-duty canvas roof, and magically warm wool blankets.

Added bonus - when we pulled up, we saw a car with NH plates - our first for probably 2,000 miles. It was nice to chat with a fellow New Englander.

After getting our lodging set up, we decided to go out on the town.  The local pub had cowboys in hats and boots, a travelling honky-tonk band, a crew of rookie forest rangers, and... drum-roll... Everclear soaked pineapple rings. The evening was a little hazy, but I think it included chasing a passing train and setting up a tripod for a time-lapse star photo shoot, which unfortunately didn't turn out very well.

And, that's not all - Medora was the entryway to our first National Park on this trip. That deserves a whole another post!

-Taras