We got up at 7am (MT) and tried the whole relaxation thing. Coffee in hand, we kicked back in our lounge chairs and sat outside under the awning...for about 17 minutes before we said "let's go do something". The wind was strong (forecast called for sustained winds of 25-30 mph) so we rolled up the awning and took the Boys for their morning campground walk. When we got back to the campsite, we grabbed something from the back of the truck and Twist jumped right in as if to say "enough relaxing, let's GO!". He's adapting well to life on the road - Merlin, not so much. His tummy is giving him issues.
We loaded the Boys and the bicycles into the truck and headed towards Medora, but decided last minute to do the 37 mile scenic drive around the park and to stop and hike some of the trails along the way. The trails were all short, but that was fine as the dogs are not allowed on NP trails (Shenandoah is a rare exception)and they would have to wait for us in the truck. Not to worry though - the temperature was an exceedingly pleasant 70 degrees with gusty winds that about knocked me on my butt at various times throughout the day.
Though short, some of the trails were very steep and narrow and provided for some amazing and spectacular views of the badlands.
We hiked the Ridgeline Trail,
the Coal Vein Trail,
and most beautiful of all, the Wind Canyon Trail.
On the road, we saw many prairie dog towns, of which Twister was totally enthralled (they're spastic squeeka toys after all), and spotted a small herd of wild horses with a foal in tow.
So adorable. Twister was checking the horses out hard as if he couldn't quite decide on what they were.
After the drive, we went to the visitor center and watched by far the worst NP video we've ever seen. I know TRNP is not a major US Park, but c'mon - I felt like I should have asked for a refund for the 13 minutes of my life I just gave up watching that wretchedly uneducational and boring video.
After the visitor center...uh...visit...we jumped on the bikes and pedaled through Medora. What a cute little town.
We had learned from those fine folks at Crane Lake about a Pitchfork Steak dinner that could be had in Medora, so we stopped to check it out.
Recognizing that neither one of us would realize any health benefit from having a steak placed on a pitchfork and dunked into a boiling lava hot vat of sunflower oil to be deep fried, we opted against the experience and agreed we'd eat something we had already paid for.
We continued our bike tour and snapped a lot of pictures along the way, and took a nice bike path that meandered along the Little Missouri river.
The headwinds were so strong, I didn't feel like I was making any forward progress, but I knew my reward for rapidly tiring would be a tailwind on the return trip that would have me cranking in what seemed to be a windless vacuum. Whitey, can you explain this? :)
On the drive back to camp, we got a call from Bill S. and got an update on VBS. Wow! Lots of kids, lots of salvations, lots to praise God for. It's amazing how much we miss our church family. Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, Wednesday Bible study and Thursday visitation makes for a lot of time spent with the same people. Plus they're good people and a lot of fun to be around.
Anywho...dinner was pasta with Bill's incredible sauteed baby bellas. Soooo tasty. We were very hungry since we only had trailmix for breakfast and lunch. We really must find time to bother ourselves with making proper meals throughout the day. It's hard to do that when we both would rather be seeing stuff than eating stuff. Bill's dropped 7 pounds already so I guess the increased activity level and lack of hunger has some value.
We went for our evening dog walk around the campground and then came back and did some mapping to try and figure out where we were going to go next. The initial plan was to hit South Dakota (Badlands and Wind Cave NPs and Custer state park), but given the weather forecast (high of 97 degrees) we opted to head due West into Montana to cooler temps. The beauty of the spontaneity of this trip is that we can go wherever we want whenever we want without worrying about pre-arranged plans or cancelled reservations and lost deposits. "Hey, let's go to Montana instead of South Dakota. We can hit SD on the way back". "Um, okay". Bill is so hard to get along with. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment