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Me on the hike in North Dakota - Theodore Roosevelt National ParkI am on the road again … this time only for a few weeks. After settling for 5 weeks at my brother’s place in Calgary to take the CELTA course, it is now time to head off again and make my way back to Ontario. The course took a lot out of me physically and mentally. I survived, but my body is rebelling against me. The last week I was in Calgary I had a bad cold and I still haven’t managed to completely get rid of the cough. The other physical ailment is my back. My normal chronic pain is now much worse. The lack of physical activity together with the days of sitting in a classroom and the evenings sitting in front of a computer messed me up. When I get back to Ontario, I will get some serious help for it … in the meantime … back to my journey.
I left Calgary Sunday May 17th. I headed off to Edmonton to visit an old friend but unfortunately she was too tired from partying the night before (it was the
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Roads of Saskatchewan long weekend) so I spent the night in the hostel and relaxed with some reading and getting caught up on some email. The next day it was off to Saskatoon. Most people thought I was crazy to drive through the plains of Saskatchewan but I enjoyed it. I stopped in Saskatoon for the night to visit my friend Nita whom I met last summer hiking in the Rockies. It was then off to Regina. I spent a couple days in Regina exploring the city and … ok, ok, I went to the Casino and played a little poker too. Regina actually reminded me a lot of London so I kind of felt at home (but didn’t want to stay).
It was now time to head to the border again. I crossed over into North Dakota. Where I crossed it was not very busy so the border guys asked me a lot more questions then last time and actually searched my car a little. When they saw how full everything was (trunk and back seat) they quickly decided it wasn’t worth the hassle so they put stuff back and let me go. I arrived in the north part of Theodore
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Regina - Goose and babies Roosevelt National Park by 5pm so there was time enough to still see the park and do a hike. It was so awesome. It was the first time I saw Bison and I even came close to one while I was on the hiking trail (about 20 feet). I even saw and fell in love with the Prairie Dogs. The hike was 3 hours (2 hours of hiking, an hour of stopping along the way and enjoying the peace). I was the only one on the trail but it was a simple easy one … no way getting lost here given there are very few trees. After the hike, I made it out of the park and headed to Medora to spend the night and enjoy the south part of the park in the morning. Of course, I was blessed along the way with a beautiful sunset.
I enjoyed the south park in the morning and saw wild horses as well as the bison. It was then time to head to South Dakota. I needed to be in Lead South Dakota by 6pm at the hostel as the owner wanted to go out that night. I stayed there for
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The babies snuggling together 4 nights. I spent one day in Deadwood, another day walking the streets of Lead, the next day seeing Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and driving the Needles Highway. My last day I headed to Wall to see Wall Drugs (just for you dad!) and enjoyed the drive through Badlands National Park.
It sounds like I did a lot, but really I have been frequently tired (and took lots of naps) because of the medication I am taking for my back pain which isn’t really helping anyway. It is one of those double edge sword ideas. My back is sore because I am inactive, but I am inactive because it hurts too much to move. Today I went into a Kmart to try to find a different solution. The pharmacist recommended one of those heating patches you put on, so at this point, I am up for anything. I wore it all day today (it lasts 8 hours) and I am feeling a little better. I am keeping my fingers crossed.
So today (May 27th) is my last day in South Dakota. I started out in Mitchell to see the corn palace (again dad … had to do that
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Regina capital buildings for you!) then I drove up to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Prairie lands. She grew up in the area of a town called De Smet. She was here for about 7 years of her life (I think from the age of 12), so a lot of her books where set in this place. I saw her home and the property that they owned. I also saw the graves of Charles, Caroline and others. I couldn’t help but think of my mom and my brother Dave today. My mom and I used to watch the TV show almost everyday after school when I was young and we would cry everyday together. I recently enjoyed watching the show again with Dave who is also a big fan.
As for pictures of this trip, I have taken hundreds as usual but you will only see a few of South Dakota. The reason is that all of a sudden today, my memory card stopped working in my Nikon D40 and it cannot be read. I tried putting it in my computer and my GPS and neither of them can read it either. I had some beautiful pictures of the “Little House on the
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Roads of Saskatchewan Prairie” lands and the Badlands, but I will now just have to keep it in my memory. I have other cards, so tomorrow I will start off with another one when I head into Iowa. My next stop: to spend a few days relaxing and wandering the Bridges of Madison County (one of the movies on my top 10 list!)
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Olaf
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Loved this story by Hiker Jules. Photos are so real and beutiful from this area ! I was reading you have back pain. There are Natural ways to get rid of Back Pain. In my earlier years I got injured in my back after playing ball, and never acually recovered since it happened . And this alone had a great infect on my life and work for over 20 years. Not much could be done, I tried to live with the constant pain in my back. After my studies and readings on the Internet and hearing testimonials from many people using Theraphy relaited to acupuncture for lower back pain I decided to try it out. my story: http://www.lifewavecure.com