After Mt. Rushmore, we stopped for lunch in Sturgis, South Dakota, where they were prepping for what is apparently a huge motorcycle rally. We felt a bit out of place, but that didn't stop us from enjoying our lackluster cheeseburgers in a bar with terrible service!
We drove a few hours in the car, and we stopped to use the bathroom and I took my bun out. I considered leaving my hair like this but was worried about all the car accidents I'd cause with my head-turning beauty.
That afternoon we made it up to Medora, North Dakota, where we visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Neither of us really knew what to expect before getting there. I'd chosen it because it was pretty much the only cool thing to see in North Dakota. :) Jaime researched a bit on our way up and we found out there was supposed to be tons of wildlife, including feral horses (their word, not mine). You know what another word for feral is? Wild. You know what another word for feral is? Bloodthirsty. Ferocious. Savage. The picture on the website was of two horses fighting. If that's not worth the drive to ND, I don't know what is.
We arrived at the ranger station and asked him where we could find the feral horses. He said, "Well, that's hard to say because they're wild animals so they kind of go wherever they want." I said, "Ok. But where do they usually hang out?" He wasn't giving up the deets. Then another ranger said Cloud and his four lady friends often hung out by the ranch where he lived. So basically Cloud and his harem of mares were our mission. We went to the ranch, no dice. So we just drove around the loop and wouldn't you know it, we found some horses on the side of the road. They were grazing, though, and seemed awfully tame, so we weren't sure if they were really feral horses. There was a sign for horseback riding close by so we thought maybe they were tame horses used for that, but there were no stables and there was nothing keeping them from wandering away...so we got out to take a closer look. We watched this herd of horses eat and swish their tails with absolutely no action. Then they started inching towards us and we got nervous so we ran away and got back in the car.
I think we found Cloud.
The Badlands is also home to some pretty stunning scenery.
We drove the full loop, looking for other wildlife. There were signs everywhere warning against approaching the wildlife - they are dangerous and unpredictable. Every single one of those signs had a picture of a buffalo on it but we saw not one buffalo in this whole park. I suppose they could have been in other parts of the park away from the road, but it seems like a herd of buffalo would be hard to hide. We did see a couple of deer and some prairie dogs.
We also saw more horses, not being feral. All disappointments by this time.
Then we pulled around the bend and saw this.
And this.
At that moment, I was playing chicken with a bloodthirsty, ferocious, wild horse. He seemed pretty calm at the time, but he was staring me down and he never broke his gaze. I legitimately didn't know what to do. I wondered if I should just wait for them to move or if I should go around him. What if me approaching him angered his carnal instincts and he lashed out and kicked dents in my car? Horses are strong! Jaime and I nervously laughed about it for a minute and then I decided to just go for it. I drove by very slowly. And dude did not even move. Not one inch. He definitely kept eye contact the entire time I drove by, though. I wouldn't mess with him even if he'd broken my favorite toy.
We enjoyed some last minute scenery before the sun set. As usual, we both wished we could've spent more time exploring this place!
We hit up a local, authentic western pizza place before heading out, where we tried taco pizza, which was delightful, and enjoyed our server who was from the Ukraine, along with all the other servers I think. Some kind of exchange program for tourist season.
The next morning, we finished our drive through North Dakota. On a whim, we stopped in Jamestown, ND to see the World's Largest Buffalo. Totally worth the stop.
We also visited a cute, little frontier town.
There were a bunch of different stores and buildings set up with displays - a print shop, a post office, a barber shop, etc. There was also a display of old dolls, which creeped me right the heck out. This is the stuff nightmares are made of.
We made it to Minneapolis that night. We went to eat at an Ecuadorian restaurant which came highly recommended. It was packed on a Tuesday night, but we got a table and our server literally ignored us for about fifteen minutes. Not even a greeting and a menu. Nothing. I looked the menu up online so we'd be ready to order by the time she actually decided to talk to us. Granted, she was working outside by herself and had about eight tables to manage alone, but she walked by our table at least a dozen times and definitely could've managed some kind of quick greeting and apology. I theorized that maybe she sacrificed our table's service to give the other tables good service so she'd get decent tips from them instead of giving everyone bad service and getting crappy tips from everyone. Fortunately, it was a beautiful evening and the food was as delicious as promised.
