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Published: July 12th 2018
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First of all, today is another big birthday in our family! Happy Birthday Steve! We send our best wishes and love to you and your little family. It is a BIG anniversary today for John and his good friend Ron H. 58 years ago today they were sworn in to their new (out of high school) jobs in Washington DC. They have been friends ever since and ALWAYS call each other on 7/11!
Speaking of anniversary’s...The 2018 Medora Musical season marks the 60th anniversary of the Burning Hills Amphitheater. Just a very brief explanation: It was built by volunteers of what started as an idea to present performances of an outdoor drama commemerating Theodore Roosevelt’s 100th birthday and his time spent in the North Dakota Badlands. The vision grew and took some turns along the way. It must have cost many millions of dollars to build.
Last night we were treated to a delightful, very family friendly show of song and dance...AND a speech by Theodore Roosevelt himself! It was a great evening, but to us a big star of the show was the amphitheater itself. The views from the seats of the surrounding hillside have to be seen
Stage at Medora Musical
If you enlarge and look at the top of the hill to the right you will see a couple of Elk. in person to be believed. Before the show started, we could see a couple of beautiful buck elk grazing on the side of the mountain. At different parts of the show, costumed actors would ride their horses back and forth telling part of the story. The actors were very good and we had an excellent time. Special thanks to our good friend Carol O for her encouragement to go to this presentation. You were right, we would really have missed something if we had not gone!
This morning we left camp late at 10:45 heading to Theodore Roosevelt National Park at the South unit. There are three park units. The driving distance between the North and South units is 68 miles. The Elkhorn Ranch unit is 1 1/2 hour drive from Medora. We drove the 36 mile loop of the South Unit.
We noticed on our drive today that there is much more vegetation here than at the Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Some of the views were such a contrast with the green, green grasses and trees melded into the landscape of Badland geology.
On our trip today we saw several feral horses and three
buffalo...and HUNDREDs of prairie dogs! We did see a herd of buffalo at a distance, but were not close enough to take pictures.
When we stopped at overlooks and got out of the vehicle when no one else was around, the silence was almost deafening. The weather today was warm but not as hot as yesterday, and the humidity was much lower so we had a delightful day.
We got back to Medora around 4:00, stopping there for a few minutes just to walk around the area. It really seems to be a mini-mini Branson in that there is musical entertainment all around the town. It is only a block or two long and a block or two wide, so it definitely is mini!
We drove 37 miles today. Tomorrow we plan to get up early and drive to the North Unit of the park and then continue towards Minot, ND via Williston, ND. Stay tuned!
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Lora Carbary
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Great pictures
Pat you outdid yourself on the pictures. I knew the National Park would be great. I love outdoor amphitheater’s, especially when the weather is so mild. I would have really enjoyed that. Please bring that information home. Wish we could do that next summer. Weather has been less humid but pretty warm. Everything is fine here. Hope I still have Tomatoes when you come home they are coming in strong right now. Can’t wait for next blog.