Day 132: Medora, ND

August 24, 2014

Today's high was at about midnight last night. It was 59 when we got up and was down to 53 at 1:30 and will continue to fall into the 40s tonight. We discussed it with a ranger today at the Visitors Center for Theodore Roosevelt National Park. He said that 2 weeks ago it was “hot” (mid-seventies, low eighties) and humid. It is actually suppose to be back up into the mid seventies or low eighties by the end of the week. Of course we won't be here then. We are currently (6:30pm) running our furnace. It's just so damp.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Sunday. We are so blessed in this country to be able to worship. With all the atrocities in the world we should never take that freedom for granted. Thank you to all who have or are serving in our military. We would also appreciate prayers for safety for our nephew (Marine), who has been “repositioned” to Iraq – again. Also, remember his wife, 2 very young children and his Dad. We again today listened to our home church's message, Lester Memorial in Oneonta. Being able to download the message each week has been such a blessing while we have been gone so long. We will certainly be glad to see everyone there in a few weeks.

The forecast was for improving weather today and we had thought we might drive the “loop” looking for wildlife. However, when it became apparent it was not going to improve we decided to drive into Medora and explore the little town. It is a quaint little place with lots of tourist shops with everything having a classic western flare. Theodore Roosevelt moved here when he left New York to be a cattle rancher after his wife died secondary to the birth of their first child in 1884. Roosevelt evidently loved being a “cowboy” and living in this area of the country. He appreciated it's rough beauty.

The rope was wet

While in Medora we went to a performance in the Old Town Hall Theater by Joe Wiegand, the world's premiere Theodore Roosevelt reprisor.  He is amazing at portraying President Roosevelt. He tells first person stories of Roosevelt as a young boy, a young adult, a Rough Rider, and as President. We are so glad we treated ourselves to this “show” on this rainy afternoon. We just happened to meet him before the show as we entered the building to purchase tickets as he was arriving. We greeted him “good afternoon, Mr. President” when we met in the doorway and so he just started talking to us. He found out where we were from and he knew about Joe Wheeler State Park and Wildlife Refuge. He even added a story to the performance about General Joe Wheeler just for us. He told us he would do that but we thought he had forgot, but just before he closed and started taking questions from the audience he turned to us and talked about General Wheeler. Cool!

After the show we stopped by Badlands Pizza and Saloon for some very good pizza and sarsaparilla before driving back to the campground.

First time we have ever tried Sarsaparilla. It's similar to root beer, but not the same.

Hopefully tomorrow's forecast will be correct and we will be able to get out into the Park some. We did see some of the wild horses today as we were leaving the park but they were too far away for photographs. For those that have asked, we will be in contact with Demco tomorrow and hope they can ship the new tow bar to Storm Mountain in South Dakota so it will be there Tuesday or Wednesday. We could not get it shipped to the Park here. Hope everyone has a great week!