Theodore Roosevelt NP & Medora Musical

Finally!  Civilization!  (OK, OK...just a decent wireless signal here in Billings, MT - current location.)

We had a great time at Theodore Roosevelt Natl Park and the Medora Musical.  North Dakota's badlands are a little wetter than South Dakota's, so it's greener in Medora than Wall, SD.  Here's our pictures - hope you enjoy them. This pic of the wild horses is during a group discussion on dominance (we guess).

What we weren't aware of was the amount of coal in the area.  It seems this coal will ignite either by lightening or grass fire.  When ignited, it burns for decades.  The clay above turns red similar to pottery.  When you walk on it, it crunches like you're walking on broken pottery.  The sign says "Scoria", but it's called "Clinker".

Sometimes the land erodes around the clinker and leaves some interesting rock designs.

More interesting clinker designs.

 Bison dirt bath.

 Petrified log

Sunbather at one of the numerous prairie dog towns dotting the park.

 Badlands behind the Medora Musical Burning Hills Amphitheater

Warm-ups at the Medora Musical

Musical's pet deer

Since leaving Medora, we've made one over-nighter at Miles City, MT.  We're spending the weekend at Billings, MT.  We move on to Bozeman on Monday for routine truck maintenance that couldn't be accomplished at International Falls.  From there, it's on to Glacier Natl Park.  At least that's the plan.  Later, David

Following the Old Red Trail

Little Missouri Rive winding through Wind Canyon

Mississippi Headwaters

What interesting things one learns when you watch local PBS TV stations.  We've learned that we're following the Old Red Trail - now I-94, previously US 10 - and arrived at Medora, ND.  This is home of the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  Since leaving Voyageurs, we've stopped at Bemidji, MN (near the Mississippi Headwaters), and stopped for our wedding anniversary dinner at Casselton, ND (west of Fargo, ND).

The mighty Mississippi River (not yet muddy)

Mississippi Headwaters is actually part of Itasca State Park - a very beautiful state park, too.  For some reason I thought the stream of water would be smaller.  I may be confusing it with the Colorado River Headwaters.  So the second photo from the top is the official Headwaters of the Mississippi River. That water is moving at about four cubic ft of water per second.

We've only spent one afternoon in Theodore Roosevelt NP.  It's a greener, softer version of the South Dakota Badlands.  It doesn't "hit-you-in-the-face" like the South Dakota Badlands do.  Pretty, though.  We're currently waiting for a line of showers to pass before heading out this morning.  Medora, ND is a small, pretty town and appears built for lodging and selling trinkets.  To say supplies are limited would be an understatement.  If you consider a 7-Eleven a supply depot, then you'd struggle a little here, but probably do OK.  They've dressed the town up as an old western town.  It's clean and well maintained.  Campgrounds are typical Dakota fare - good hookups, but otherwise just a place to park your rig in the Dakota dirt.  It's not pristine, but Donna can run any combination of appliances and that's a good thing.

Well, this post is probably getting a little long.  That's it for now.  Later, David

PS - Don't like seeing your picture posted in other people's blog?  Then don't ask everyone to move from a memorial so you can take your family's picture in front of it, and then spend the rest of the day leaning against the memorial.  Just sayin'.

Very Bittersweet Day

This morning is a very strange morning for me.  With mixed emotions with leaving Voyageurs Natl Park today, we also deal with a close family friend losing his teenage daughter in a car accident yesterday afternoon.  Mark and Kaitlyn were close to us though we rarely saw them.  In our time together they had spent many of days at our house visiting his brother & sister in Virginia.  We had been "adopted" into his family in Michigan.  Mark renovated our house in Fredericksburg.  Mark's life has been the closest one I know of that matches Job from the Bible.  And we learned of Kaityln's passing as we're leaving a dinner given in our honor and checking phone messages.

These young passings are never easy.  From watching them carry my cousin's bloody clothing from a hospital where he died after a motorcycle accident, from finding out that one of the best young pilots you had ever flown with was missing from a low level turn over water, from wrapping up a young weapons officer's pay records just hours after he wrapped his brother's car around a tree in Virginia Beach, from watching a church colleague lose her son on a 4th of July car accident until now, the feelings never change.  It's just one big kick in the stomach.

Kaitlyn, you were loved and you will be missed.

As life goes on, it's now time to figure out how to get this big rig around a nice big pine as we leave this morning.  This, of course, assumes everything works.  At the moment, Verizon isn't.  At this point in the blog, I have logged off and back on 10 times to the wireless service and now removed the battery twice to see if that will help.  Maybe Verizon should put its money into its wireless system instead of advertising.  As the Verizon rep has noted in the past, let's install a new SD card and they would be happy to send me a new MiFi if that doesn't work.  I always respond as to why they think a new one would work any better?  Based on the Verizon wireless forum, it doesn't sound like a new MiFi is any better.  Not starting off as one of our better days.

Later, David

Ellsworth Rock Gardens

Arrowhead

Unknown

 Wednesday we took advantage of "roving" rangers and rode along to Ellsworth Rock Gardens.  Jack Ellsworth built the rock gardens between 1944 & 1966.  Jack and his wife, Elsie, spent their summers on Lake Kabetogama transforming a 60-foot high granite outcrop into a formal garden.  Mr. Ellsworth was a building contractor from Chicago and while not formally trained as a artist, the gardens were his chance to show creative expression and attitude toward art & nature.

Mythical Animal

How's that for paraphrasing the brochure?  We had a great time as Miranda and Nick took us to the gardens and to Locator Lake trail head as part of their roving duties (all by boat) as they talk with people visiting the areas and picking up campsite tags dropped off at the trail heads.  This was the last chance for this duty section of park volunteers to get out together before departing.  This time next week, it's all new volunteers at the three visitor stations.

View from the bottom

We've enjoyed our time here at Voyageurs.  It's been a great learning experience.  The park and interpretative rangers here are the best and invested heavily in us for just 9 weeks of work.  The result is that all of us saw & learned Voyageurs in much more detail than we would have on our own.  Donna & I found that we really do like being at the "front" desk and prefer it much more than being campground hosts.

Another Mythical Animal

This time next week we plan to be at Bemidji, MN trying to find the Mississippi River headwaters.  From there we're off to Theodore Roosevelt NP for a few days, Bozeman, MT for truck servicing, Glacier NP, and over to Thom & Mary's for a week or so.  At least that's the plan.

Later, David

Unknown

Ellsworth house - now a picnic shelter

P.S.  All reconstruction work on the rock gardens is accomplished by National Park Volunteers.  I'll stick with the visitor centers!

Checking In

Ruffed Grouse along the walkway today

Nothing new to really report.  It's been hot here, too, but nothing like what most of you experienced this past week.  We managed to have a day or two of high humidity.  I walked out one morning to about 66 degrees and 80% to 85% humidity and thought I was back in Alabama.  We seem to be on the edge of the heat wave and get some strong storms.  Power outages & reports of buoys being out of place on Rainy Lake always follow the storms and it seems the Duluth area seems to get hit the hardiest.

Two more weeks to go here at Voyageurs NP and we head back into the hotter parts of the country.  Had a nice conversation with a couple from Shenandoah Valley, today, who had left Washington state and traveled the northern route trying to stay cool.  If you look at an atlas, you'll see we're as far east as you can go, before having to head south.  They weren't looking forward to heading south tomorrow!

Anyway, we're going to try to make a stop at both Theodore Roosevelt and Glacier National Parks before visiting Thom and Mary at Priest Lake, ID.  Our next volunteer stop is at the Storm Mountain Youth Center in Rapid City, SD starting August 26th. At least that's the plan!

Later, David