Theodore Roosevelt Memorial National Park, ND (and a video!)

Theodore Roosevelt Memorial National Park was the first National Park we visited on our trip. We were so excited for the change of scenery - more nature, camping, and time outdoors!

What we loved most about this park were the animals. There were wild horses roaming the hills; they looked beautiful and majestic. There were so many prairie dogs, which are somehow the cutest things ever. They live in prairie dog towns, which are basically stretches of land where the animals burrow in holes and live together.  And they pop their heads up and down and make the coolest "eeep" sound each time - we could have stared at them for hours. The buffalo, or bison, roam all over the park. This was our first exposure to the animal and, though extremely large and capable of a lot of harm if they so incline, their temperaments were much like that of cows, peaceful and grazing.

We also had our first exposure to warning signs about rattlesnakes. I was very unnerved about the whole thing at first, but I calmed down a bit after Taras appropriately searched our campsite!

-Amanda

This video shows a prairie dog and a giant herd of buffalo with their babies. If you're able to hear the squeaks when the video is on the buffalo, that sound is the prairie dogs. There was a prairie dog town at the front of the land, and the heard of buffalo in the back.

North Dakota on Dwellable

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

St. Cloud, MN to Medora, ND (plus a video!)

We left Minneapolis late in the afternoon and knew we were a little behind schedule. We decided to stay one night in nearby St. Cloud, then do an ambitious drive the following day.

St. Cloud was a great stop for the evening (are there any Marshall Eriksen fans out there?!). We had dinner at Anton's, a favorite of the locals, and took the opportunity to celebrate the completion of my continuing education hours (freedom!). Later, we grabbed a beer at White Horse before walking around the little downtown as the sun set, all the while Taras was trying to teach me how to whistle (he was not successful).

The next day we drove onward to North Dakota. We stopped for lunch in Fargo, just to say we did. As we drove west, the flat landscape changed to hills and valleys.  Even though the temperature dropped by 20 degrees, we were thrilled to see new landscapes. No more flat land! As a bonus, it was a beautiful day to drive - the sun and clouds gave us quite the show. Well, until we were right outside of Medora and the rain started pouring down... more on that tomorrow. 

-Amanda

The strong winds were playing with the grass along the road, so we pulled over and shot some shaky videos: