Events of Thursday, August 5, 2010

                This morning, we woke up at 8:15 sharp. We were up and eating breakfast within a few minutes. We all had bananas for breakfast because they were turning brown! Then, the three girls headed to the bathroom to shower, while Mom cut the boys’ hair. On the way back from the bathroom Caitlin, Abby, and I saw a lot of elderly people with ribbons on their shirts walking their dogs. While we waited for Mom to shower, we concluded that there must have been a dog show in the area. With all of us neatly showered, we were clean and lookin’ good when as we headed out of the campground to start our day exploring the South Unit of Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

                We started our morning by walking the Wind Canyon Trail. We got there in the cool of the morning and started out. This trail was a loop trail with countless wildflowers hidden in the native prairie grasses along the way. Daddy, Abby, and I were busy taking pictures along the way. Within the 0.3 miles of trail, we stopped at the multiple overlooks along the way and got some amazing views of the badlands, the vast prairie, and the winding Little Missouri River. The rock formations here, formed by wind and water, were absolutely amazing! After this short hike, in good spirits, the Traveling Taylors set off once again. Our next stop was at Boicourt Overlook, said to be one of the best views of the badlands in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We walked a short way to the outlook and we paused to “drink in the scenery.” Abby and I were so intent on the views that we barely saved our shoes from some bison poop! Once more our tireless RV, Harvey Aardvark, carried us on. We decided to stop for lunch at Scoria Point Overlook. Scoria, volcanic in origin, is where streams of coal have caught fire, some burning for decades and as a result baked the surrounding sand and clay into a natural brick.  We ate our mid-day meal looking out on this gorgeous view of the Badlands of North Dakota.

                We then drove off to Medora Visitor’s Center. This was a special museum about Roosevelt’s personal life and the details of his time as president and in North Dakota. They even had a replica of his Maltese Cross Cabin. We took a tour of it and the ranger leading the guide thrust information at us from all directions. We were all really tired afterwards. So, when we went into watch an informational video, about half of us fell asleep. Then, we headed to Painted Canyon Visitor’s Center. They had an outlook with a magnificent view. We saw some animals off in the distance, but couldn’t decide whether they were elk, bison, or wild horses. But we got to see some wild horses up close on our way out of the park and that was much better than miles away.

                We drove on and on. We passed through time zones, so, now we are two hours ahead of California time. We stopped for a quick shopping trip at Wal-Mart. Then, we drove on again. (I guess we are going to do that a lot!) We stopped for a delicious dinner of tacos at a rest stop. We had just bought some guacamole at Wal-Mart. We read the container during a meal … “The perfect guac for dips and dishes. Then, we proceeded to get ready for bed and as we drove away, all four of us kids were falling asleep. Mom and Dad drove long after we had fallen asleep and eventually we were boondocking at another Wal-Mart, this one in Bismarck, North Dakota. They went to bed listening to the loud train next door, but finally exiting the conscious world after a long and eventful day.