7/9/2026

 7/9/2026

Unlike yesterday, we had a lengthy travel day. We stopped first at a nearby town (Valley City, ND) for fuel, a few groceries and a dog park to burn some puppy energy. Fortunately, two year old Zoe was there and wanted to play. Valley City is known as the city of bridges. This trestle bridge was built in1908 for freight trains. It is 1000 feet tall and over 4000 feet long and is still used today.

We entered Minnesota in the afternoon and the terrain changed to a land filled with trees. Our campground tonight is along the Mississippi River at the Pokegama Dam Campground.

Zoe:  "I'm going to get you"

That's what you think

Trestle bridge

A patriotic town of 300 people had these lovely light poles and flags.

And then there were trees!

7/8/2026

 7/8/2026

We had a fairly short day today. Scenery was limited to farmland and grain elevators. By chance, we stopped in a very small town looking for a park where we could have lunch. Instead, we found a small diner frequented by farmers. Food was excellent and we were able to talk with the locals. Tonight, we are in the Mel Reiman Recreation Area (Corps of Engineers Campground). The weather is lovely!

Wide load, narrow road

Our lunch stop

7/7/2026

 7/7/2026

The case of the missing hat!

It was pouring down rain this morning and Ron could not find his Chicken, Alaska hat, his only souvenir from our trip two years ago. Acquiring that hat involved traveling on a rugged dirt road for miles to get to Chicken, a town with one store/gas station and a post office. I did not want to return for another one. Aha! He left it in Dickinson at our lunch stop on the 4th of July. Yep! They had it!! So on our way out of town we picked it up.

We headed northeast through very fertile farmland and saw this beautiful yellow crop everywhere. Our destination today was Downstream Campground, Garrison Dam on the Missouri River. The rain is supposed to end this afternoon. The last pic is of the rainy campground.

7/6/2026

 7/6/2026

We are at TR's new Library in Medora, ND. It is very interactive. When you arrive, you type your name and email into a kiosk and a photo of you is taken. When you walk around, your armband allows you to see yourself in various "old time pictures". Here are some of both of us.. Note the wrist band matches the pic on the wall for interactive displays.

After 4.5 hours at the museum, we headed for Medora for ice cream. The outside tables were full so we shared a table with this lovely family. The boys taught us a lot about soccer!

Our batteries needed recharging since we had the air conditioning on for Sammy, so we rode around the Park one more time before heading to Cottonwood Campground. We leave tomorrow, heading east.

7/5/2026

 7/5/2026

We drove again to Dickinson for church at St. Wenceslaus, laundry, dog park, and a musical about Teddy and Alice at Dickinson State University. The lead actor did a great job as Teddy Roosevelt.

7/4/2026

 7/4/2026  America's 250th Birthday

We drove to Dickinson, ND (50 miles) today for their 4th of July Parade. We arrived 2 hours before the start of the parade at 10am, found an empty lot and parked. Ended up that we were near the beginning of the parade route, so we set up our chairs and waited. Michelle, a Dickinson resident, sat next to me. She has 3 kids, 22, 19 and 15 and the youngest was in the parade. We really hit it off and enjoyed one another's company. She recommended Phat Fish for lunch and when we arrived, we were seated at the table next to her, her husband and aunt.

The parade had 80 entries.

A great spot to watch the parade

Colors

Pack horses

Class of 76 had a lot more participants than any other class

Actors from the musical Teddy and Alice. We will see this play tomorrow.

Huge flag

our lunch spot

7/3/2026

 7/3/2026

We were up early, thanks Sammy, and decided to drive to the National Park despite high traffic congestion warnings. It was not at all busy. We drove clockwise around the park loop and were rewarded with Bison everywhere. The huge herd was relocating by using the road in front of us. They stayed on the road for over 30 minutes as we crawled at a snail's pace behind them. The blue car in front of us got bumped a few times. After this miraculous ride, we chanced heading into Medora and found a parking place right away. After a walk around town and an ice cream lunch, we returned to our campsite.