We woke up to some drizzling rain this morning in the lovely town of Fargo, ND. As we looked out our window to gaze upon the beauty of the shining vast blackness that was our campsite for the evening (also known as the WalMart parking lot), we decided to take care of a few shopping needs.
First stop, a quick walk to Lowe's to purchase a grate for the screen door. Apparently, even the smartest dogs don't discern fine mesh screen as a barrier, so in an effort to keep them from bouncing off the screen door yet another time, we decided to address it with a quick fix. We picked up a few things at Wally World and then hit the road. By the way, regardless of where you are in the country, there are always shockingly "interesting" people to be seen shopping at WalMart. There's a reason that there's an entire website dedicated to the sport.
Before we left civilization, we stopped at PetSmart to pick up a new leash (one that would be easier for loading the Boys in and out of the truck) and let the Boys pick out a bag of treats for the road. Along the way, we dumped our tanks, topped off our LP, and arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park around 6 pm. I must have had a brain fart while packing because I whipped out what I thought was the National Park Pass and then realized I bought a Shenandoah pass last year and not the Interagency Pass. D'oh!! So, that cost us $80 bucks on the spot but that will pay for itself many times over with all the parks we're planning on visiting.
After trying to find a suitable site at the park's campground (we were in the South Unit of TRNP), we set-up and discussed plans for the rest of the evening. Somewhere along the way, we crossed into Mountain time so we picked up an extra hour and tried to decide what we were going to do with it. We're still having a difficult time adjusting to "relaxing". We've never really been on a relaxing vacation (other than that much needed week between Christmas and New Year's last year), so the concept of sitting around and "relaxing" is still alien to us. As we were wrestling with the "to do or not to do" question, two wild horses waltzed into our campsite to munch on the sweet grasses and wildflowers.
These were the same two we passed as we drove into the park earlier in the evening. It was pretty cool to have them meander into our camp. We've seen wild horses before, though I can't remember where we were - somewhere in Montana during our first Yellowstone trip I think, but it was neat to have them so close. Dianne reminded me of the "wild ponies [that] kick and bite" at Assateague, but they're tiny compared to these full sized and adequately fed monsters. It's hard to remember that they're wild. I wanted to go over and feed them some hand picked grass (which I usually do at various places along the BRP on our MC trips). After a little while, they went on their way and we were left wondering what we were going to munch on.
A peek into the fridge yielded a dinner plan suggestion from Bill. Wild blueberry pancakes for dinner...um...okay. :) Bill always makes a mean breakfast, but these pancakes were phenomenal. We drizzled the pure maple syrup that Whitey brought back from his trip to Maine, and Bill sliced up some bananas as a tasty topping. I can't really express how yummy they were.
Just thinking about them now makes my mouth water. Sadly, the blueberries are all gone and I will have to wait to find more to pick along the way.
After dinner, we took a short drive to a few of the overlooks to watch the setting sun. We jumped in the truck and I commented that "we've seen wild horses and prairie dogs, but where are all of the tatanka?". About 13 seconds later, we rounded a turn and there he was, lazily grazing on the roadside grasses. We've spent a fair amount of time watching buffalo in Yellowstone, but I never tire of seeing them. I still like to watch the video we took when we were out there with Mom the year before last. We sat in a traffic jam as hundreds of buffalo ran down the steamy, hot springs laden hillside to weave around the cars as they grunted, bellowed, and thundered across the road. It was amazing to see how fast and how nimble they really are. It was an awesome experience. Mom was so awed by them. I'm so glad we got to show her that. It makes me smile and tear up thinking about it. This whole trip is somewhat difficult for me. We wouldn't be out here if not for Mom, yet I miss her so much and wish she could be here with us seeing all these amazing sites and all the amazing sites that are yet to come. I suppose I shouldn't be sad - she's the one seeing all the amazing things right now. Even still, it's difficult at times.
After the buffalo portrait mania (I really must stop snapping so many pics of buffalo), we drove into the tiny town of Medora. A very cute, touristy town, but one that rolls up its sidewalks at 7 o'clock at night. The return trip to the campground yielded more photos and another sighting of the lone tatanka, and once home for the night, we got to bed around 11 pm (MT) - the earliest bedtime for us so far.
No comments:
Post a Comment