Today we headed north to Medora, North Dakota, the gateway to the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was about a four-hour drive, and we thought we'd arrive in time to do some hiking in the afternoon. Unfortunately, it began to rain mid-day and didn't stop until nearly sundown. We'll try again tomorrow. The forecast is for partly cloudy, or mostly sunny, or partly sunny. I can never tell what those icons mean. We headed north from Deadwood after breakfast, making our first stop in Belle Fourch SD at the Geographic Center of the Nation and Tri-State Museum. Why is the center here? Because when Hawaii was admitted to the Union in 1959, its landmass – added to the landmass of the continental U.S. – shifted the geographic center of the 50 states to latitude 44 degrees, 58’N, longitude 103 degrees 46’W, which is approximately 20 miles north of Belle Fourche. The actual geographic center is on private land, marked with a small metal survey marker and a flag. Belle Fourche, however, felt that the Center of the Nation deserved a, big beautiful monument. And since the town falls within the measurement’s margin of error, the Chamber of Commerce conducted a fundraising effort to build it on the land below the museum. The museum itself is charming. It has many items of daily living from pioneer days up to the early 1950's. I was amused to see one of the old shoe store x-ray machines, and a hair salon permanent wave machine (looks like a torture device) that I remember from my childhood. It's a miracle we survived. Most of the terrain from Deadwood north is flat prairie suitable for grazing cattle and sheep. There are long stretches where the road runs straight into the distance. Occasionally, stone monoliths loom up in the open range, like the Crow Buttes pictured below. And of course, while traveling down a perfectly normal two-lane highway, we came to a stretch of road under construction that required a pilot car to guide us through the one-lane gravel section. I'll toss in a shot here of an oil derrick. We saw about half a dozen fairly small ones. To break up a long drive, I check out Roadside America to find odd and unusual places to take photos. RA came up with this gem in Bowman ND: A cowboy riding a missile, propped on an old fire truck. Also a weather vane airplane that moves with the wind, mounted on an old wooden bridge that we drove through. It didn't look safe, but someone on RA commented that they did it, and we didn't fall through. We finally made it to Theodore Roosevelt National Park, in the rain. We stopped at the visitor center, watched a short film, and had a look at Teddy's original log cabin (which was moved to this spot from somewhere else). We spoke with a ranger and got suggestions for short hikes in the park, and there is a scenic drive if we give up on hiking. We'll try again tomorrow and hope the weather is better. Well, that was a lot for a day that was basically driving from one place to another. Tomorrow, after the park, we start heading east on the way home. Just a few more stops. It's I-94 all the way to the Wisconsin Dells, so maybe I'll get some knitting done while Bruce drives.
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