Jamestown, ND
Tuesday, September 3
Ready, set, ROAD TRIP!
If you can believe it, Andi and I started our trip out West without Tory and Aden in tow. That’s because the kids spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Minneapolis for part of Labor Day weekend so that Andi and I could close up the cabin in preparation for our RV trip. Bright and early Tuesday morning, Andi and I left our Wisconsin cabin in the RV and drove to Minneapolis to pick up the kids (Andi also stopped by his office for a work meeting) and then we left Minneapolis around 2:00pm for Jamestown, North Dakota. Our trip had officially begun!
It’d been a long time since I drove through Northern Minnesota. It took us 5 hours to cross the state, which is more hours than we typically like to drive in one day, but we were anxious to get to North Dakota. We pulled into Jamestown, ND around 7:30pm and decided to dry-camp at Wal-Mart since we only needed a place to sleep for the night. Yep, that’s right! Wal-Mart offers free camping for RV-ers. There’s no services, of course, but it’s free to park there. We found a spot on the far side of the parking lot and pulled some cold leftovers out of the fridge for dinner. The kids ate cereal. Nothing fancy, but it did the job. Andi and Aden decided to go on an ice cream run into Wal-Mart after dinner while Tory and I fired up a Little House on the Prairie DVD that our neighbor Sheri let us borrow.
Around 8:30pm, Aden announced he was tired and ready for bed. His bed is also the kitchen table which is also our TV lounging spot, so the rest of us got the boot and were forced to call it a night. Tory and I climbed up into her bed above the truck cab, and it felt like no time had passed since our last big road trip this spring. “It feels great being back in my ditch,” Tory said. (The ditch is what she calls the space between the mattress and the wall. We started a new book together called Amelia Bedelia Road Trip! while Andi and Aden continued reading The Boxcar Children together. It was a fairly quiet evening considering we were sleeping in a Wal-Mart lot!
Wednesday, September 4
Brrr! I woke up freezing around 4:00am. I think I could have seen my breath inside our camper, but everyone else in the family seemed to be unaffected by the cold. I’d planned to get up to workout outside in the parking lot before the rest of the family got moving for the day, but my watch said it was 41 degrees outside and I did not feel like freezing. Let’s be honest, I wasn’t really that excited to exercise in a Wal-Mart parking lot anyway. So, I got up and put on a sweatshirt and went back to bed.
Tory and Aden woke up around 7:00am and snuggled in bed watching cartoons for a bit. Then, we got up and made breakfast — cereal (again), yogurt and rice cakes with peanut butter. Cold food staples.
Today is our first day of homeschooling for the year! Tory is in 3rd grade this year, and Aden is a kindergartener. After breakfast, I pulled out our school materials and we set to work. Aden and I talked about the date, started a weather graph and practiced writing the numbers 1-3 while Tory practiced cursive writing. Next, we drove over to Frontier Village and the National Buffalo Museum in Jamestown to learn about the North American Bison. There’s also the World’s Largest Buffalo statue on display, and I thought it would be cute to take the kids’ “first day of school” picture in front of it.
Andi and I were on the fence as to whether we wanted to spend $8/per person on the entrance fee into the museum. Was it really worth the price? We peeked our head into the National Buffalo Museum to see and were welcomed in by a woman with a great big smile.
“Is today your first day of homeschool?” she asked. (I was holding a sign that said “First Day of Homeschool” that the kids planned to hold while I took their picture by the buffalo statue)
“Yes, it is!” Andi responded.
“Well, you’re in luck,” said the woman. “School groups get into the museum for free, and I think your homeschool family meets that classification. Come on in and enjoy the museum.” she said.
Wow! Andi and I weren't expecting such a warm welcome. We entered into the museum theatre to watch a short video titled North American Bison Then & Now. It was a very interesting story of how bison once roamed the Great Plains by the thousands and how the animal nearby became extinct due to over-hunting in the early 1900’s. A few conservationists, including Theodore Roosevelt, worked to protect the bison population.
Surprisingly, the National Buffalo Museum was very kid-friendly with signs reading “Please Touch!” encouraging kids to touch and feel buffalo bones and pelts. There was even an interactive play area toward the back of the museum with children’s books about bison, a puppet theater for kids, puzzles, and more.
We toured the museum and more about Plains Indians who relied on buffalo as their key means of survival, and other conservationists who’ve worked to protect bison over the years. After touring the museum, we walked outside to the Frontier Village, an old-time western town, and to the World’s Largest Buffalo Statue.
I’m so happy we visited the National Buffalo Museum because it was a great learning opportunity for all of us.
Around Noon, we hit the road again headed for Medora, North Dakota about 3 1/2 hours west of Jamestown. During the drive, Tory and I did more of her school work and talked about what we’d learned about bison today.
We arrived in Medora around 2:30pm Mountain Time. Believe it or not, the temperature had climbed into the 90’s by mid-afternoon so we were thankful to check into a campground with electric hook-ups. Hello air conditioning!
That evening, we planned to have dinner at the nearby Pitchfork Steak Fondue and see the infamous Medora Musical. We had a few hours until showtime, so I stayed back at the campground to do my workout while Andi took the kids into town on the electric bikes for ice cream. Around 5:00pm, we all drove over to the Medora Musical not far from our campsite.
First, we had dinner at the Pitchfork Steak Fondue. Andi and I aren’t typically fans of themed restaurants but this seemed to be a good exception to pair with the experience of the musical. The outdoor restaurant was perched high up on a butte overlooking the rolling North Dakota prairie. We watched chefs load steaks onto pitchforks and then fondue them western-style over an open flame. Dinner came with a plethora of sides including baked potato, garlic bread, baked beans, cole slaw, fresh fruit and raw veggies. The quality was about what you’d expect from a buffet-style restaurant, but there was more than enough food to eat. We definitely weren’t going hungry! Well, Tory might… she was so concerned about the bees buzzing around her lemonade that she spent more time fussing than eating.
We had about an hour to kill between dinner and the show, so we decided to go back to our RV in the parking lot for some chill time. That’s the beauty of a home on wheels! The show started at 7:30pm and Andi scored us great seats — front row, center.
The Medora Musical was fantastic! Honestly, I’ve never seen anything quite like it. The ode to patriotism, tribute to the “Cowboy President” Teddy Roosevelt, and to faith and family was apparent. Tory and Aden were captivated by the singing and dancing, and all the outfit changes. Don’t forget the fireworks!
The two-hour show ended at 9:30pm Mountain Time, which was really 10:30pm our time. The fact that Tory an Aden stayed awake and interested in the entire show is a true testament to the entertainment and enjoyment of the evening. We all had a great time!
We returned to the Medora Campground after the show, and the kids all but collapsed into their beds. Tomorrow, we plan to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora.
