Hello from Glacier National Park!

We departed Custer just as planned on Wednesday right about 1pm and dodged Motorcycles all the way up to Spearfish. I mean Motorcycles everywhere. They were "Wall to Wall", solid lines of them and many passed me on curves with solid no passing lines and there was oncoming traffic!! What is it with these jerks??  They just go crazy. Don’t seem to have any sense at all. I sure didn’t need to get involved in an accident with one of them, that would really mess up our trip. I was a nervous wreck by the time I got through Deadwood and then when I headed North out of Spearfish, there was only a few on the road……Whew!!  I was glad to be out of that mess…..

At 6pm we pulled into the Red Trail Campground in Medora, ND.  This is the South Headquarters for the Theodore  Roosevelt National Park and home of the Medora Musical show. 


The campground was nothing to write home about, but it served the purpose and they saved us a tight little spot with electric only for a couple nights.


We were up early the next morning and began our drive through trip of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The loop is about 30 miles.  This Park is about the same size as Custer State Park where we worked for 10 summers..  The first thing we encountered was a herd of Buffalo.


They have a fairly large herd, I don’t know exactly how many they have but we are used to being around Buffalo, as we worked with them a lot at Custer State Park.


There is mile after mile of Badlands such as this.  They are a little different from the South Dakota Badlands but it's all pretty barren land..


There are lots of neat rock formations…..


This picture is from just inside the park as you look back on the little town of Medora.  The first building in the trees is the Park Welcome Center. I really enjoyed that, as they have a museum with lots of history on President Roosevelt.   I had no idea that he came out here from New York and fell in love with this rugged country and built himself a large ranch. Then he went back to New York and became president.  He kept the ranch and hired people to run it for him in his absence.

Now I’m not much of a history buff so I didn’t know a lot of this stuff. I’m sure many of you can enlighten me even more about this country and "Teddy", especially our friend “The Happy Hatter” from North Ranch in AZ. Bev was part-owner of the Little Missouri Saloon and Dining Room in Medora for 17 years. We found the Little Missouri Saloon but it was a little too early for Happy Hour. 


Another huge attraction in the town of Medora is the Medora Musical. We had heard a lot about it and were told by lots of people not to miss it. I didn’t study a lot of the history of it but it is put on by many, very talented university students from all over the country.   It didn’t start until 8:30 pm so I told Ms. Pat it was out for me, since that is mighty close to my bed time….  


This is a picture of the Burning HIlls Amphitheater where the musical is held. It is at the outskirts of Medora and is in a large canyon. It seats around 2800 people and is huge.  Ms. Pat "suggested" that I go.  She said we should go home and sleep for a couple hours, so we could stay awake for it.    Well, she slept for a couple hours and I didn’t.. I’m not a nap person, never was and probably never will be. I feel it is a nasty habit that is easy to fall I into and hard to break.  It's not for me. 


I knew there was no way I was going to get out of this peacefully, so graciously agreed to go. I also knew if I didn’t go, Geri and Larry would both kill me..   So here is a picture of us in our seats at 8:00 pm as the place started filling up. I wasn’t sure I could do this but I was gonna give it my best….. I was sure the Musical part would put me to sleep.


WOW, soon the place was filled up and the SHOW began….


This is the stage. The place is so steep that there isn’t a bad seat in the house, but we had super close seats just a few rows back..


Soon the houses all move back and it opens up to the wide open prairie and the horses come in bringing the colors. Wow, spectacular!!....as we all sang the National Anthem.


This was the band, the Coal Diggers, that played some beautiful old cowboy songs....that's my kind of music.  The speakers and the sound system were awesome, as was the lighting!!


Wow, this little gal could really play that fiddle… 


This is part of the group cutting up and joking around as the musical began..


Here is the group, the Burning Hills Singers, during one of their acts. They danced and jigged, clogged and changed outfits about a dozen times… I’m telling you it was an action packed show!  As I said before, these youngsters are "super talented"!  We were also treated to a special featured comedy act by "Etta May". 

The time went by so fast and I enjoyed it all so much that I forgot to be sleepy!!   We didn’t get home until after 11:00 pm.  I hadn’t been up that late for ages but let me tell you, I’m sure glad I went as I wouldn’t have missed it for anything!! I would highly recommend it if you're ever in the area!!

I did sleep well when I got home after the show though!! Because we had a long day ahead of us as we were moving on towards Glacier National Park.  I couldn’t believe it but after about 10 years of wanting to make this trip, we were finally on our way….. Praise the Lord!!

This morning we woke up at the Crooked Tree RV Park in Hungry Horse MT. We are just outside of the West Entrance to Glacier.  Ms. Pat is raring to go, so I gotta cut this off and get on "The Road to the Sun". Oh Boy, it is going to be a GREAT DAY!!!

It was a GREAT WEEK!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and come on back Wednesday, we might just still be in this beautiful area..

Mike

This Blog is Published every Sunday and Wednesday..