This is going to be mostly a driving day.  We need to make some progress West.  We drove for about two hours and then stopped in Watford City, ND to work out at Anytime Fitness.  It is a small gym but we met the NICEST young woman there named Nicole Mouton.  She is originally from Louisiana but recently moved to ND with her boyfriend.  She hasn't been through a winter here yet so I'm curious about how that will go.  Anyway, we had a good leg workout and then visited with Nicole for awhile.  I swear we could have talked to her all day!  She agreed to having her picture taken with us.  Isn't she pretty?

Nicole recommended a restaurant for lunch and I had one of the best cheeseburgers of my life there!  They also had cups of beer cheese sauce to dip your friench fries in.  Yeah, it was a great lunch after a hard workout!!!

We continued driving West and stopped for the night in Glasgow, MT.  We love this huge flag hanging outside.

That's it for Tuesday!  Good night.

Before I start writing about today, I want to update my post from Saturday when I spotted TWO white buffaloes in the pasture outside the National Buffalo Museum.  I emailed the director to ask about the second white one and here is her response:

"I’m so glad you were able to see them! The larger one pictured with the calves is Dakota Miracle. He is about 11 years old and is the son of White Cloud (the albino bison mount in our museum).

The one pictured by herself is a new addition to our herd. She doesn’t have a name (yet), but she also comes from White Cloud’s bloodline. I believe one of White Cloud’s grandsons is this heifer’s father. 

It was really wonderful meeting you and David! Happy travels! 

Ilana"

We feel very privileged to have seen two white buffaloes!

OK, Monday.  What a day!  We got up early because we wanted to get to Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We knew the earlier we went, the more chance we had to see animals before the day got too hot.  We were barely in the park and we saw pasture after pasture of these cute little black tail prairie dogs!  I'm sorry the photograph isn't better but the sun was very bright.  There were hundreds of them and they are adorable.  

And there was this really cute guy!

David took a dirt road up to a lookout point to start our hike and these guys were hanging around the parking lot!!!  They were very mellow and I guess they just like scratching themselves on the wooden posts.  Of course we kept a respectful distance.

We took this selfie BEFORE the 6 mile hike -- no one wants to see the sweaty AFTER hike picture!  Actually, the trail was pretty flat so we really enjoyed it.

While driving out of the park, we saw a buffalo in a pasture all by himself and I took a video but I can't seem to post it here.  He was rolling on the ground scratching and making scary noises.  So cool!  Shortly after that David drove down the road into a camping site and this guy was just standing on the corner.  We could have easily petted him but we know better.  You have to admit he has a sweet, sweet face!

This group of beautiful wild horses were off in a pasture on our way out of the park.

President Roosevelt's original hunting cabin is on display by the Visitor's Center.  It was moved there from it's site.  The inside has great exhibits but they are behind glass so we could not get good pictures.  It was interesting to see.  We stopped into the Visitor's Center to watch a video on Roosevelt and also to get my National Park Passport stamped.  I have so many stamps now!

That's all for today.  It was a pretty full, exciting day!

Sunday morning in Bismarck.  We were told not much opens until Noon and that seemed to be true!  Luckily we found a Starbucks for ice tea and coffee before we set out for the day.  

Our first stop was Ft. Abraham Lincoln State Park.  

I was most interested in touring General Custer's house.  No other visitors showed up at the time we did for the tour so we had a private tour with Ben.  

Ben is a great historian and along with the regular tour he and David had some very detailed conversations about General Custer and the Battle of Little Bighorn.  Here are some pictures from inside the house.  The black "tub" is just that, a bath tub.  And the wooden commode is a pretty sophisticated toilet.  

The serving platter below is actually a wedding gift received by the Custers.  Mrs. Custer did want a very fancy kitchen although she never cooked, hence, the cool stove.  

The single bedroom below belonged to Mrs. Custer's personal maid.  The double bedroom was for the personal maid's two sisters who also worked in the house.  Ben told us that when General Custer discovered the maid's sisters did not know how to read or write he personally taught them to do so.  

 

This fainting couch was in one of the guest rooms and the hand stitched quilt is original to the house.  

After this tour (which was fantastic!) we walked over to the replica of the "On-A-Slant" Mandan Indian Village.  This was also a guided tour.  I like them because you always gets more interesting tidbits from a person rather than just reading signs.  

And if you think this trip couldn't get more exciting, we stopped to see Salem Sue, the world's largest Holstein.  I could not believe that the parking lot was packed with cars of people also visiting Sue!

Finally, we drove the Enchanted Highway.  It's 32 miles of road with seven huge metal sculptures on it. These sculptures are fantastic!

Our day finally ended in Medora, ND, a little town on the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We had pizza for dinner and fell into bed.  We set the alarm for 6:30 a.m. so we could be in the park early to hopefully view a lot of animals!

Yesterday I was a little disappointed that we did not see any of the live herd of buffaloes at the museum.  I especially wanted to see a white buffalo and I think there are two currently in the herd.  The director told me that she had seen the herd in the field early that morning so we decided to drive there early this morning to see if we could spot them.  And we were successful!!!

This one is named Dakota Miracle.  I really had to zoom in to get these pictures.  I also spotted this little one in the picture below.  I think it is a white buffalo too!  I sent this picture to the director to ask her to confirm it but I haven't heard back yet.  

After tearing myself away from the herd, we stopped in at Anytime Fitness for a quick aerobics workout -- 45 minutes on the elliptical trainer.  

Before going back to the hotel to shower and get ready to check out, we went to Babb's Coffee Shop for ice tea and coffee.  Driving there we saw lots of people lining the road with chairs like they were getting ready for a parade.  And they were.  It was White Cloud Day and they were holding a parade to celebrate her.  Babbs even gave away white cloud cookies with the purchase of tea or coffee.  Too much fun!  We wanted to stay for the parade but we had other plans.

We drove to Washburn, ND to see the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  The Center is newly-renovated and very interesting.  Out front there is a statute of Lewis and Clark and the Chief of the Mandam Tribe that helped the expedition survive the Winter before moving on to the Pacific Ocean.  It provided a good explanation of exactly what their mission was and what President Jefferson expected of them.  

Just a few miles down the road is approximately where Fort Mandan was located.  It is a full scale, fully-furnished replica of the fort.  It's a fascinating place and the Park Ranger there, Kaitlan, was happy to answer all of our questions.

Truly a good history lesson for me or a history reminder.  It was a leisurely drive from there to Bismarck, ND, where we planned to spend the night.  I took a couple pictures of the Missouri on the drive.

We checked into the hotel and went to the hotel bar for a cocktail before dinner and bed.  This vacationing tires us out!!!