Friday June 21, 2024 On the Road to Rexburg

Today is Day #1 of a long awaited road trip to the Canadian Rockies. This has been on my "bucket list" for a long time! Our trip will take us to Medora, ND, then Calgary, Bank/Jasper, then Waterton Lakes/Glacier. We expect to be on the road for 18 days.

This is our first major trip in the new VW Taos. Its very comfortable and looking forward to awesome gas mileage!

Today, after brunch at Boise Stage, we made the obligatory stop at Craters of the Moon National Monument. The weather today is sunny, in the 80s. We're told it's in the 90's back home. Craters is a very cool place and we always enjoy a brief stop here. I am dissapointed that I can no longer physically climb the Cinder Cone (damn knees!) The NPS has just completed repaving all the roads so its beautiful! It would be great to ride your bike here.

We ended our day in Rexburg, as usual. Decent meal at JB's. Tomorrow we head to West Yellowstone, then north to Montana.

Mileage today 280   mpg 41.0!!

Saturday June 22 Rexburg to Fort Benton

Today was mostly driving. We left Rexburg abouty 8:30 and headed up to West Yellowstone. Then north on a familiar path along the Gallatin River to always bustling Bozeman (reminds me of home - new appartments everywhere).

From Bozeman we went due north into the Montana wilderness. An incredible variety of landscapes from rolling farmland, scrub high desert-like sagebrush, over the pass at Showdown Ski Center (7400'), back down into lush farmland as we neared Great Falls. Our GPS took us around G.F. on some beautiful shortcuts.  No traffic anywhere!

Our destination for the day is Fort Benton and the historic Grand Union Hotel. (We had stayed here years ago and remembered it fondly.)  This town has a fascinating history. Its the most upstream navigable port on the Missouri River; Mississippi River system. During the mid-1800s it was a bustly port of steamboats coming up from St. Louis. The town is named for Thomas Hart Benton (Google it).

We had a delicious dinner at the hotel, including an appetizer of venison dumplings.

Tomorrow will be the longest drive of the trip as we head East to Medora, N.D. The weather is great, sunny and warm but not the beastly heat of back home!

386 miles 43.8mpg  (!!)

https://www.fortbenton.com/shep.html

Sunday On to Medora

Its about 430 miles from Fort Benton to Medora. I guess I was surprised that it's 430 miles of nothing......lush wheat fields, some farrow fields, some yellow Canola....mile after mile of sameness. Every now and then a small farming community. The terrain doesn't get interesting until you hit I-94 at Glendive.

A highlight was passing through the little burg of Big Sandy, home of Senator John Tester.

We arrived in Medora at about 5:00, got our room in the Rough Rider Hotel, cleaned up, grabbed a pizza next door and headed off to the Musical. A little lame but very talented young people singing great songs. Teddy Roosevelt was a major character. The venue is amazing! Features a reversible escalator!

We'll spend the day here tommorow. We have brunch with Teddy then we'll explore the park.

Here's what I wrote about Medora in 2017:

 Medora. How to explain Medora? Medora celebrates three of its heroes in this "company town":

1. Theodore Roosevelt came here in the 1880s to get away from the rat race of New York politics. He loved the Badlands of Dakota Territory. He built two ranches - Elkhorn and Maltese Cross - and enjoyed hunting and cattle ranching. The Theodore Roosevelt National Park was created by congress in 1947.

2. In 1883 The Marquis de Mores came to Medora from New York with a novel idea. He wanted to raise cattle and process them in his slaughter house and ship them to Duluth in refrigerated rail cars, for shipment to New York to be sold through his meat market. True vertical integration. They built a mansion called the "Chateau" which was used as their part time residence and to welcome guests for hunting parties, etc. The meat processing plant consisted of ice houses, slaughter house, and a huge brick chimney.

The project had failed by 1886 and the plant was abandoned. It burned down in 1907. The brick smoke stack is all that remains. The de Mores returned to New York. Mrs. de Mores, "The Marquise", who was a wealthy women, contributed funds to build the little Catholic church, which is the oldest operating Catholic church in North Dakota.

In 1920s the descendents of the de Mores donated the "chateau" to the State of North Dakota. The building was restored in the 1930s by the CCC and is now a state park, open for tours.

So even though the De More Plant only lasted three years, the deMores left a mark on this little town, which basically dissappeared after they left.

3. In the 1950s Harold Schafer came to town. He was the owner of the consumer products Gold Seal Company in Bismark, just a few hours east of Medora. Two of his hit products were Glass Wax and Mr. Bubbles. Remember them? He began the long process of rebuilding Medora to make it into a tourist attraction. Starting with renovation of the Rough Riders hotel, which is where we stayed - first class hotel! When Schafer sold Gold Seal in 1986 he and his wife Sheila created the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation......which owns the entire town!

The main thing that puts Medora on the tourism map is the "Medora Musical", a summer outdoor music theater and "Pitch Fork Bar B Q" which has been going for 53 consecutive years! We enjoyed the production on a pleasant summer night! Earlier in the afternoon we had seen a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator - he was marvelous!

From Ft Benton hotel room

Grand Union hotel in the morning sun

Monday Medora and TRNP

This is our third visit to Medora. I come to the same conclusion: Medora, N.D. is one of the most interesting places I have ever known! Teddy Roosevelt, the National Park, the new Presidential Library, the Marqui Des Mores, the Medora Foundation, the show, the Harold Shafer story ...its all here in this little town out in the badlands!

Our day started with a "Brunch with Theodore Roosevelt".  Joe Weigand has been impersonating TR for years in Medora. He's amazing. He has such of wealth of knowledge about everything TR. His one hour show was a treat!

We spent the rest of the day exploring the National Park. Its beautiful! So lush and green! The loop road goes about 20 miles, with some interesting short hikes. And no shortage of wildlife. In fact, we were stopped by a herd of Bison AND by a group of seven wild horses who just woudn't get out of the middle of the road! And don't overlook the prairie dog villages!

The weather today was cloudless and very warm - mid 80s. It seems bit humid, too.

Dinner tonight in the dining room at the Rough Rider. It was a very nice dining room. but the dish I ordered (shrimp and elk sausage in pasta) was so spicey I couldn't eat it! The took it off my bill!

TR's library is in the hotel

Presidential Library under construction

Tuesday June 25 Medora to Regina

We left Medora and headed North up RT 85 about an hour to the North Unit of TRNP. Not much here, but a 12 mile road through the badlands, very pretty! Special feature is the "concreations", aka cannon balls.

From there we continued north through Watford City and Williston, ground zero of the North Dakota Bakken Oil Fields. Extraction and Oil Services companies everywhere. Not sure what the production levels are, but it sure looks busy! Lots of "Man Camps" - inexpensive apartments, RV sites, mobile homes, etc for the oil workers.

Then into Canada and miles and miles of flat, beautiful farmland. Crops of wheat, canola, beans and whatever else, and on up to Regina, SK, the Provincial capital. Nice Best Western Hotel and dinner at a place called Brown's Social Club. (when we joked with the young waitress that we might move to Canada if Trump wins, she said she'd never heard of him!) A few rain sprinkles and the temp has cooled to low 70s.

There are oil "pump jacks" everywhere. I need someone to explain to me: where does the oil go? I don't see any evidence of a big pipe and most of the wells don't have a storage tank attached, like I've seen in other places.

320 miles  37mpg

Teddy's library at the Rough Rider lobby

Border crossing

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