Medora, N.D. outside of Theodore Roosevelt National Park

   We just finished watching the last of the Chilean miners coming to the surface.  Last night we watched the start of the rescue.  An amazing event. 
   The is the first night we've had internet access since Sunday morning.  Sunday night we stayed with a long time family friend of dw's -- Charlotte T. -- in Bruce, WI.  Monday night (after some travail finding a motel) we stayed in St. Cloud MN. (This motel had WiFi, but when we accessed it the most direful warnings we've ever seen popped up -- promising doom if we continued with the connection, so we passed on the WiFi)
Tuesday in Bismarck, N.D. the WiFi connection was too weak to use.  But tonight, here in Medora, N.D. we have a five bar connection and all's right with the world. 
   To go back a couple of days:  through rural Ontario and Michigan (upper peninsula) many stretches of road, as well as individual ponds were fenced with a six-inch band of black plastic fence -- sometimes extending for hundreds of yards at a time.  The purpose is to keep migrating turtles from getting smashed trying to cross the road.  It seems to me that an ambitious, if suicidal,  turtle could easily jump  fences that low but I'm sure they help.   And on the subject of fences:  many of the rest areas in northern Wisc. were closed for winter.  In addition to putting a barrier across the entrance, the state wrapped the bathrooms with orange plastic emergency fences.   We thought locking the facilities should be enough.  I mean which would you find easier -- use a crowbar to break into an outhouse, or walk ten feet to get to some bushes?  But the area is close to the upper peninsula, so the Wisc. officials might have asked themselves:  "What would a yooper do?"  and acted accordingly. 
    Re: our visit with Charlotte.  She lives, along with two outside dogs, and two cats,  in a two bedroom house (with a couple of outbuildings) just off a river.  A lovely place that feels remote although Charlotte says it isn't.  She gave us a dinner of BBQ ribs with the usual fixings.  It was wonderful, made even more so since our usual traveling meal is a sandwich and fruit from the nearest grocery store.  It's good to look up friends and relatives when on the road.   Memories of the Moraccan meal at Patrilary's...
   Before we got to Charlotte's, we drove to Phillips to see the Fred Smith (1886-1976) Concrete Park -- formally The Wisconsin Concrete Park.  (another thing to google) He was logger who retired and then started making concrete sculptures -- ending up with 270 or so figures.  They are classic outsider art.  The statues are mostly 1/2 to 3/4 life size (although some are 2 or 3 times life size) and are sort of modern primative -- Originally the figures were covered with pieces of glass (to give them life and sparkle) but much of that has been lost to time and a major storm.  Interestingly, the Kohler Art Museum (as mentioned earlier) bought the site and has led the way to preserving and restoring the pieces. 
  ----  A side-bar:  We were listening to the Green Bay / Washington football game on WKQM (?) radio. During one of the breaks, the station ran an ad for anti-sway bars for trailers.  "If your trailer sways like hippies around a campfire --" etc. you should buy their anti-sway bar. ----
   After we left Bruce, we drove to Osceola, WI. to meet a Portland friend (Mary W.) of dw's.  The friend was in Wisc., visiting and staying with her brother who runs the family farm.  -- another fine and welcome meal (lunch) of fish and chips. -- After eating we toured the farm which was a dairy farm and is now a beef farm.  We looked at the barn and equipment and the corn processing equipment and etc. etc. etc. -- Man there's a lot of stuff involved with modern farming. 
   We stopped in Alexandria N.D. for some breakfast.  Alexandria is the site of the "Norse Rune Stone" farce.  Some farmer supposedly plowed up a stone with (oddly) hard to decode runes.  The stone "proves" that ancient Norsemen made it to western Minn.  In any case, I bought a plastic viking helmet.  It is a perfect fit, and best of all, the horns are moveable.  I can have two up, two down, one up and one down.  The horns can be sideways, or fore and aft.  It's great.  We're using it in photographs to critique the sights we visit (two horns up, two horns down, etc)
   The last two days have been devoted to giant things.  Jamestown N.D. -- the worlds largest buffalo.  It is pretty damn big (30+ feet high made of concrete) and it's sited so it's ass points toward the freeway.  And in a nearby field a herd of buffalo has three white buffalo.  Sacred to indians, it's said.  So we saw three sacred buffalo dots. 
---- Steele has the worlds largest sandhill crane.  Again about 30+ feet high.  Made of painted steel and swaying in the wind (a bonus you wouldn't always get).
----New Salem has the worlds largest holstein cow.  38 feet high and 50 feet long.  It was built to compete with the worlds largest buffalo.  The cow is on a hill, it has a great view, and it's facing the freeway.  A scenic improvement (for drivers) over the bison. 
----Note to Dennis S.:   west of Bismarck, we passed a herd of cows on the move.  Again trotting toward the east.  --  If it's not a sign of something, it should be. 
----And finally, we drove the Enchanted Highway.  It runs south from I-94 to Regent.  Along the 35 or 40 mile road are seven or eight giant statues -- all 20 to 35 feet high.  Flock of geese, deer, grasshoppers, fisherman's dream, family, pheasants, Teddy Roosevelt, and I may have forgotten one. 
----- Winters are cold and long in North Dakota -- plenty of time to plan big things ---
After Regent, we were going to drive to a burning coal mine, but when we inquired at Amidon, we found the fire had gone out, or was too far underground to be seen so we went straight to Medora and stopped for the night. 
   Amidon is the county seat of Slope County.  -- "Smallest county seat in the United States."  The courthouse is a wooden frame building, only a little bigger than our house.  Amidon is pretty small and I'm inclined to believe their claim.    DA

     Our adventure is coming to an end - we're about three days from Portland and have one more must-see site - Idaho sand dunes.  Will find their location and then decide which way to return to Portland.  North Dakota has been more interesting than I would have expected.  The Enchanted Highway yesterday was fun,  driving over a hill and seeing giant grasshoppers two miles down the road and then stopping at the site of the giant scrap metal sculptures to see how big they really were.  An individual decided to create these prairie related sculptures and the first one went up in 1991 ( I think, or 1997), not that long ago anyway and they are still standing and looking good (helped by plenty of guy wires).  They are surrounded by miles of flat prairie covered in corn, soybeans and sunflowers and not much else - the occasional silo or water tower in the distance.  Western North Dakota is hillier and here at Medora is the entrance to Theodore Roosevelt National Park with its scenic drive through badlands and painted hills.  We drove part of the drive last night at dusk and encountered bison, feral horses, feral horse poop, pop-up prairie dogs and deer. 
     Salem Sue was worth the visit.  This giant holstein cow can be seen for miles coming down the freeway.  It sits on a hillside facing north and the freeway and looking onward and upward.  Anatomically correct with a giant full udder it is huge!  The eyes are big and seem to follow you as you drive up to it.  I love this stuff.  We had breakfast at a local diner and asked if it worked to bring tourists to New Salem.  She said it did although she personally didn't care for it that much because it reminded her of the 25 years she spent dairy farming before deciding it was too much work and stopped.  But she was getting used to it after five years of looking at it from the cafe window. 
     We have had beautiful weather the past few days, sunny warm days and cool nights.  This is unusual for ND as they should be heading into colder weather by now instead of the 60-70 degree days of late.  I'm glad for the good stuff, makes driving much more enjoyable.  Time to stop and enjoy the continental breakfast here at the AmericInn.  Later, dw