Friday, May 23, 2025
Wednesday morning May 14, we packed up and headed the RVs to Medora, ND. Almost immediately the winds whipped up to 30 mph with gusts higher. We also had intermittent rain. It was going to be a hard 328 mile day. Max and Randy were our drivers and did an excellent job handling the wind. We broke things up a bit with a stop in Jamestown, ND to see the “World’s Largest Buffalo” known as Dakota Thunder. Dakota is a concrete sculpture of an American bison that is 26 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and 46 feet long. He weighs approximately 60 tons and is visible from I-94. Dakota gets over 100,000 visitors each year.
An hour or two later we took another break to visit Salem Sue, also just off I-94 and visible for five miles. Salem Sue is a giant fiberglass Holstein cow sculpture in New Salem, ND. She was built in 1974 for approximately $40,000.00. Her dimensions are: 50 feet long x 38 feet high and she weighs 6 tons. Sue was sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club to honor the local dairymen in the area.
Next stop was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Painted Canyon Visitors Center just outside of Medora. Max and Anne had fond memories of this stop from 2014 when they were on the way home from Alaska. It’s the first great look at the Bad Lands and makes such an impression. Beautiful scenery.
Finally, we drove on to Medora, ND where the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located. We arrived at our campground just after it began raining again. We were able to get set up before the storm really kicked in. It was a long sleepless night for us all between thunder, lightning, and wind shaking the RVs.
Thursday morning, May 15, we slept in a little after the hard travel day and little sleep. However, there was lots to see so we began our visit to the national park about 9:00. We drove the wildlife loops, first in the south unit and then after lunch, the north unit. The scenery and wildlife were great. We were concerned the rain would keep the animals in, but the only shy ones were the prairie dogs. Otherwise, the two drives were a wonderful way to spend a gloomy, rainy day.
RVing With a Purpose 