Tag Archives: Medora ND

2013_07­_31 (Wed) Our First Full Month On The Road (revised)

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Although we left S. E. Michigan on June 9th, today was the last day of our first full calendar month on the road.  And what better place to spend it than at the Red Trail Vineyard near Buffalo, North Dakota, the first time/place we have (finally) used our Harvest Hosts membership.  But to get there, we had to travel 290 miles from Medora, ND along I-94.

North Dakota is a very pretty place; not as dramatic as the mountain west, but different doesn’t mean lesser.  They have had a lot of rain in parts of the state, so the fields are green and ponds seem to be full to overflowing.  On a map I-94 appears to run straight east and west, but it actually curves left and right quite a bit and for most of this leg was rolling up and down long hills.  As we headed east from Medora the rugged landscape of western ND gave way to major agricultural use and man-made structures became increasingly evident.  I-94 was a good road with very little construction, so I set the cruise control at 63 to 64, and the bus ran strong all day.  Good bus.

The entrance to Red Trail Vineyard, Buffalo, ND - a Harvest Hosts location.

The entrance to Red Trail Vineyard, Buffalo, ND – a Harvest Hosts location.

The Red Trail Vineyard is two miles north of exit 317 on I-94.  Just north of the winery is where the original/historic Red Trail passed through this area, thus the name of the winery.  Proprietor Rodney Hogan was there when we arrived but had to go take care of some things.  We got parked so that we would have an easy exit in the morning, started the generator to bring the house batteries back up to full charge, and then went for a walk through the vineyards.

Our coach in the parking lot of the main building and tasting room.

Our coach in the parking lot of the main building and tasting room.

When Rodney returned we chatted with him a bit.  He suggested we visit the town of Buffalo and gave us a pamphlet on the 1916 high school building that is now on the National Register of Historic Places.  He recommended a place in town to eat, the Old 10 Saloon, and invited us back for a wine tasting at 7 PM since another group had made arrangements for this evening.

 

The main building and tasting room.

The main building and tasting room.

We paid a visit to the old high school building and met the two ladies who run it on a volunteer basis.  They were expecting us (Rodney told them we might be dropping by).  They have a collection of donated things for sale as a way to raise money for the continued restoration of the building, but we didn’t find anything we could use.  They also had fresh cucumbers and Linda took two.  They were free, but we left a donation.  They gave us a pamphlet with a map of Buffalo and descriptions of some 16 buildings dating from between 1880 and 1920, all of historic interest to the town.  We drove through the town and looked at the buildings, but did stop at the saloon for dinner as that rarely works out well for us.

The front porch looking towards the north vineyard.

The front porch looking towards the north vineyard.

Back at the vineyard, Linda prepared a simple green salad and whole grain shell pasta with portabella mushroom and onion red sauce.  By the time we finished dinner the other party had arrived, so we joined them in the tasting room.  The building is an old grain storage shed that was moved to the vineyard from 12 miles away and then redone for its present use.  The surface of the “bar” is pine and Rodney has engraved a copy of old map of the Red Trail into the surface.

A walk among the south vineyard.

A walk among the south vineyard.

We spent two hours tasting five different wines and having a really fun evening talking with Rodney and the three ladies who were there, all of whom graduated from high school here in 1979.  One of them was related to Rodney, which is why he opened the tasting room on a night when they would normally be closed.  Rodney was an interesting and talkative fellow.  We found two wines that we liked and bought a few bottles.  We were glad that Kim and Don Greene, the owner/operators of Harvest Hosts had personally recommended this vineyard as a stopping point when we were chatting with them back in Gillette, WY six weeks ago.

(BTW:  I had no pictures to share from today.  We were off-loading photo files last night onto our computers and forgot to put the CF card back in the camera.  I have never done that before, and apparently the Sony Alpha 100 is perfectly happy to let you click away with any storage media installed.  I took some photos the next morning but have updated this post to include them here.)

 

2013_07_30 (Tue) TRNP-NU and Medora ND

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Entrance to Red Trail Campground.

Entrance to Red Trail Campground.

We are staying at the Red Trail Campground in Medora, Montana.  The WiFi signal is strong, and the Internet connection is fast enough to work, IF nobody else is using it.  We kept getting disconnected and finally turned on our Verizon MiFi device.  Bingo!  I love 4G/LTE when it’s available.

 

Entrance to TRNP South Unit in Medora MT.

Entrance to TRNP South Unit in Medora MT.

We decided last night that this morning we would tour the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It’s a 62 mile drive to get from the entrance of the South Unit in Medora to the entrance to the North Unit, in the middle of nowhere.  Rain was forecast for today but we wanted to get there early, so we were on the road by 7:15 AM MDT.

(BTW: This MDT thing becomes important in this part of North Dakota as the dividing line between the Mountain and Central Time Zones zigzags around this part of ND basically cutting off the southwest corner of the state for Mountain Time and leaving the rest as Central Time.  A careful look at the state highway map revealed that the dividing line runs right down the middle of the North Unit of TRNP on an east-west line.  We actually crossed the line while in the Park and our phones changed to Central Time for a while.)

The North Unit may be in the middle of nowhere, but it is very much on the route to somewhere, namely Williston, ND some 60 miles north and bit west of the Park.  Williston is the hub of the northeastern Montana / northwestern North Dakota oil boom, and the truck traffic and equipment moving up and down US-85 was something to experience.  Apparently North Dakota expects this to continue for a while as much of this stretch of US-85 is being widened.

CCC shelter overlooking the Little Missouri Scenic River; TRNP North Unit.

CCC shelter overlooking the Little Missouri Scenic River; TRNP North Unit.

Once we turned into the Park, however, all was very quickly quiet and peaceful.  Not being adjacent to a major Interstate Highway, the North Unit is probably much less visited than the South Unit, and we encountered very few other vehicles driving the 14 mile road (28 miles out and back).  The weather was thick, as is obvious in these photographs, but it was an interesting and different way to see the Park.  We encountered a “back country ranger” at this overlook and had a great, long conversation with him about the Park and the area around it.  He told us that the North Unit does not have the wild horses that the South Unit has, but it does have bison, moose, bighorn sheep, and mountain lions.  Although he didn’t mention them, we saw wild turkeys and a pheasant in addition to a couple of bison and deer.

Thick weather in the TRNP NU.

Thick weather in the TRNP NU.

The weather in the North Unit was very thick this morning and the mood in the park is very different in this kind of weather.  The Ranger told us that The North Unit is usually very dry this time of year but has had an unusually high amount of rain this season, and has already exceeded its normal annual rainfall.  The Little Missouri Scenic River has water in it, when it would normally be dry, and the Park has a lot of greenery and flowering plants.

Clouds rolling up out of the river valley to the rim; TRNP NU.

Clouds rolling up out of the river valley to the rim; TRNP NU.

On the drive back to Medora we stopped at the Painted Canyon Rest Area and Visitor Center on I-94.  This facility is located at the southeast corner of the South Unit of TRNP and affords nice views of a corner of the park where the interior roads do not go.

 

[04722 CN A chokecherry bush (I think).

[04722 CN A chokecherry bush (I think).

Back in Medora, we stopped at the TRNP South Unit Visitor Center, which was closed when we went for our drive last night.  On the way in from the parking lot we passed through an area of plantings that were labeled.  I think this bush was a chokecherry, but I didn’t see a label for it.  There are a lot of chokecherry-based products for sale in Medora, so I’m sticking with my story.

TR’s “nicer” log home, now on display in TRNP SU Visitor Center in Medora MT.

TR’s “nicer” log home, now on display in TRNP SU Visitor Center in Medora MT.

In the backyard of the center is Theodore Roosevelt’s 2nd (and nicer) North Dakota log cabin.  Our timing was good as we got there in time for the 2 PM Ranger-led tour of the house, which is otherwise locked.  It was very fancy for its time (1884), with three rooms, wood floors, an attic, a cold cellar, and glass windows.

We left the South Unit Visitor Center and drove through the adjacent De Mores Meat Packing site, now a state park with the smokestack and remnants of the foundations of the buildings that once stood there.  We then had a slow drive through Medora and back to our coach.  Here are a few pictures of the town:

Just down the street from the entrance to TRNP SU in Medora MT.

Just down the street from the entrance to TRNP SU in Medora MT.

Shouldn’t every pizza parlor have a saloon, and look like this?

Shouldn’t every pizza parlor have a saloon, and look like this?

Medora is a much more refined town than its “rough” exterior suggests.

Medora is a much more refined town than its “rough” exterior suggests.

Even the post office and bank are quaint.

Even the post office and bank are quaint.

For dinner this evening Linda prepared a Kabocha squash that she bought for $1 at the Cody Farmers Market last Saturday.  Niether of us had ever heard of this squash before she bought it.  She cut it in two halves and microwaved them for 8 minutes to start the cooking process and cut down on convention oven time.  She sauteed a mixture of brown rice, onion, garlic, carrots, bell peppers, and kale seasoned with salt, black pepper,dried basil, and Tamari sauce and stuffed the squash halves with it, mounded over the top.  She backed these for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F using convention feature of our convection microwave oven.  The squash came out perfectly cooked with a light yellow to slightly green color that paired wonderfully with the slices of honeydew mellow and the Riesling wine that accompanied the dish.  Savory, nutty, chewy, and a little spicy without being “hot”, it was another wonderful example of what she has learned to do with these basic WFPB ingredients.

We have been back in “vacation mode” last week and this.  We would prefer not to be, but we need to be back in Michigan in early August and are trying to see what we can on this trip with the time we have.  We have not taken hikes that we would like to have taken, done any geocaching, or had the luxury of waiting for the weather to change.  We did not go for pre-dawn or post-dusk drives and we did not stay up late enough to view the stunning night sky at the new moon in the deep, deep darkness of the west.  We did not visit the Chateau De Mores (State Historical Site) or see the Medora Musical (OK, never really planned to).  And we did not bring/operate our ham radios.  But we did what we could with the time that we had, and it was all good.  And when we are be back this way we intend to be managing our time differently.  But for now, tomorrow we must move on and cross North Dakota.

 

2013_07_29 (Mon) A Short Drive to Another N. P.

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We only had 138 miles to travel from Miles City, MT to Medora, ND, and could not check in to the Red Trails RV Park until noon, so we hung around the Meadows RV Park for the morning.  Besides, we had a pretty good Internet connection which made it possible for me to update my posts for Thursday (Chief Joseph & Beartooth scenic drive) and Friday (Grand Teton N. P.), both of which included lots of photos.

I have already had a minor issue with spam comments on our blog.  I mentioned this to Cherie yesterday and she suggested that I install a WordPress plug-in named Akismet.  I discovered that it was already installed but not activated, so I got the API key and activated it.  I hope it helps with the spam problem without interfering with legitimate comments.

If YOU are reading this and think you have posted a legitimate comment that did not get approved or appear on the blog, please send an e-mail to us@omnibus-mi.us

Around 9:00 AM it started raining.  This was the first sustained rain we have experienced since we were in Gillette, Wyoming over a month ago.  It was over by 10:00 AM.  I finished working on the blog just before 11:00 AM.  We finally pulled out around of the Meadows RV Park around 11:10 AM MDT and were through Miles City and back on I-94 eastbound by 11:15.

The weather was partly cloudy and cool, with high temperatures in the region of 78 degrees F.  The terrain was hilly, but not extreme.  I set the cruise control at 63 MPH, 3 MPH faster than normal,  and the coach ran very strong all day while maintaining normal engine temperatures.  On balance it was a pleasant and stress free drive which we both enjoyed.

Goodbye Montana, Hello North Dakota.

Goodbye Montana, Hello North Dakota.

Linda had never been to Montana until this past week, and I don’t think I had ever been in eastern Montana.  For sure neither of us had ever been to North Dakota before, so we did not know what to expect.  I associate this area with the “northern great plains”, meaning endless, treeless fields of waving grain.  Not so Kemosabe.

 

A taste of things to come.

A taste of things to come.

I-94 going northeast out of Billings tends to follow the Yellowstone River.  This part of Eastern Montana and on into western North Dakota is a minor “badlands” with river valleys and small canyons.  The terrain does roll up and down long hills, and much of it lacks trees.  There are fields and cattle, here and there, but much more of the landscape is rock and sagebrush.  It is a beautiful part of the country; reminiscent of other paces we have been, but uniquely its own.

We arrived in Medora, North Dakota around 1:30 PM (still MDT) and were checked into the Red Trail Campground and parked in our site by 2:00 PM.  This was the first campground we have stayed in with trees and shade since we left our home in S. E. Michigan on June 9th.

Linda with “Teddy Roosevelt” Joe Wiegand.

Linda with “Teddy Roosevelt” Joe Wiegand.

Medora is a charming but modern reconstruction of a western town; small enough to be easily walkable, but with plenty of choices for shopping, lodging, dining, and drinking.  (Hey, it’s still the west.)  Even the campground is part of the town, albeit on the edge and on the other side of the tracks (literally), only a couple of short blocks to the main area.  There are several attractions in town that other RVers had told us about, especially the “cowboy musical.”  Our interest, however, was in Joe Wiegand’s personification of Theodore Roosevelt.  Joe’s performance was outstanding and well worth the $10 adult admission.  He delivered a one hour monologue without missing a beat and took questions, as TR, and answered them without hesitation.  Joe not only resembles TR (at a certain point in his life) he has clearly made a deep and serious study of Roosevelt’s life and internalized it.  The last time we saw something this good was Hal Holbrook’s personification of Mark Twain.

Local coffee with a western feel.

Local coffee with a western feel.

After the performance we stopped at a local coffee shop and sat on their porch enjoying their brew and the view.

 

The real attraction for us, and our main reason for booking two nights in Medora, was a chance to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  I-94 is the southern boundary of the South Unit of the Park, and the entrance is right in downtown Medora.  Roosevelt spent time in this area following the death of his mother and first wife on the same day and eventually owned two cattle ranches near Medora.

 

On the advice of a local bookstore owner we made a last minute decision to drive the 36 mile loop road in the South Unit this evening.  By the time we walked back to the campground and were ready to go it was after 6:00 PM, but our timing was good.  The weather was clear and cool, while there was a possibility of rain for tomorrow, and we had the drama of the early evening sun dropping into the western sky and a better chance of seeing wildlife.  We were not disappointed.  The Park is worth the time to visit, and while we did not see a lot of wildlife, the wildlife we saw was special, and a first for us…wild horses, up close.

A prairie dog town in TRNP.

A prairie dog town in TRNP.

The campground by the river.

The campground by the river.

Our first time ever to see wild horses.

Our first time ever to see wild horses.

They watched us as much as we watched them.

They watched us as much as we watched them.

Wild horses in a wild setting.

Wild horses in a wild setting.

TRNP In the fading light of evening.

TRNP In the fading light of evening.

Tomorrow we plan to get an early start and visit the North Unit of TRNP.

 

2013_07_27 (Sat) Where We Go From Here

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We have had an intense but wonderful week in northwest Wyoming and the Green Creek Inn and RV Park has been just the right spot for us to base camp.  The RV park is away from the hustle and bustle of Cody, yet close enough to be convenient for shopping and entertainment, and is close enough to Yellowstone N. P. and Grand Teton N. P. to make them accessible as day trips.  And although it’s a small RV park with only nine sites, we had excellent full hookups, laundry facilities, a WiFi connection to the Internet, and free popcorn.  Our 50 Amp site allowed us to run all three house air-conditioners all day while we were away to keep our cats safe and comfortable.  We needed to do this because of daytime highs in the mid-80’s with bright sunshine and constant wind that prevented us from using our awnings to shade the passenger side of the coach.

Although $45 per night is more than we generally pay to stay in an RV park, it was a fair price given the location and facilities.  The WiFi/Internet bandwidth was limited, but we were glad to have what we had as there was no useable Verizon 4G/LTE signal here, and even 3G EVDO was marginal for making phone calls.  The WiFi connection was generally very strong thanks in part to or WiFi Ranger Mobile Titanium, which has been working very well for us since we bought it at the FMCA rally in Gillette, WY last month.  Interestingly, the only OTA television signal we could pick up was Wyoming PBS from the general direction of Cody.  (Smile)

This was a quieter day for us, but by no means an idle one, as we needed to prepare for our departure tomorrow morning.  We noticed this morning that it was overcast, the first time since we arrived here a week ago.  We did have clouds today, and a few drops of rain, but Jeff informed us that the haze we were seeing was from the various forest fires burning in the west.

Linda drove to Cody in the morning to do our shopping.  The main attraction was the local Farmers Market, located, conveniently enough, in the parking lot of the Whole Foods Trading Company.  She came back with quite a few bags of stuff!

While she was gone I drained the waste tanks, stowed the hose, and added our Pine Sol / water / Calgon solution to the tanks.  I also drained the little bit of fresh water that was still in the tank, flushed it with a bit more, and then refilled it.  I left the fresh water shore line connected so we could use if until we depart, conserving our onboard water for use on down the road.  I also worked on getting our blog postings up-to-date.

When Linda got back she did the laundry.  At our house in Michigan this is usually my chore, but for some reason she seems to take care of it on the road.  Although we are trying to learn not to over-plan, we are not full-timers, and we have a house and family to which we have to return from time-to-time.  We knew the route we wanted to take back to S. E. Michigan, but the timing and overnight waypoints were still undecided.  We want to see the Theodore Roosevelt N. P. in western North Dakota, but the campgrounds there do not have any hookups and do not appear to be big rig friendly.  Medora, ND is the closest town, but it is 410 miles driving distance from Wapiti.  That is more than we care to do in one day, especially given our planned stop at Interstate Power Systems in Billings, MT to visit with Cherie and Chris of Technomadia.  (http://www.technomadia.com).

Using the online Good Sam campground finder we located the Meadows RV Park in Miles City, MT, 280 miles away, and made a reservation for tomorrow night.  That should give us a 5.5 -6.0 hour drive, leaving plenty of time to stop and visit in Billings.

I continued to work on our blog while Linda paid our bills and continued to research overnight stops.  We decided we would try to stay two nights at an RV park in Medora if we could find an opening.  And we did!  We made a reservation at the Red Trail RV Park just off I-94.  It is walking distance to downtown Medora and convenient to the Theodore Roosevelt N. P., which we will now have a day-and-a-half to explore.

Linda took time out to make wheat berry risotto with mushroom /garlic/onion /asparagus.  She used some of the Argentinean Malbec wine we had on board, and served the rest with the meal.  This was a fragrant, earthy dish with great “chew” that somehow fit the wildness of this past week.  When she has the time to cook we eat very well indeed.

While the risotto was cooking we pulled the tray on the passenger side of the bus that houses the chassis battery disconnect switches and the Vanner equalizers (we have two as it turns out).  We located the circuit breakers, and pushed them in to (possibly) reset them.  (This refers back to the BAL light that came on while traveling from Sheridan to Wapiti on the 21st of this month.)

Beyond Medora we hope to stay at a winery in Buffalo, ND about 30 miles west of Fargo.  It was personally recommended to us by Harvest Host founders Don and Kim Greene.  If they can accommodate us on the 31st, it will be our first use of our Harvest Hosts membership.

Along the same lines, we hope to stay the next night at the Forest Edge Winery in Laporte, Minnesota.  Forest Edge is owned/operated by members of the FMCA Freethinkers Associate Chapter.  Being a kind of “virtual” chapter in FMCA’s International Area (INTO) our members are spread out all over the United States, Canada, and Mexico.  Rallies are difficult to organize and most of our interactions are by e-mail.  We even hold our annul business meeting electronically.  Thus any opportunity to meet in person is a treat.  The fact that Forest Edge is also a Harvest Host business makes it easier and that much more special.

From Laporte we plan to head to Hibbing, MN to visit the Greyhound Bus Museum.  Beyond that, we will make our way across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to St. Ignace.  From there we cross the Straits of Mackinaw (Mackinac) on the Mackinaw Bridge and head straight south on I-75 where we vector off on US-23 southbound to M-59, and home.  Depending on when we get there we will have been gone almost exactly two months.