Day 3.10: Dickinson, ND to Custer, SD

We were excited to learn that breakfast was served from 5am-10am at the AmericInn, the longest range we had ever seen at a hotel. As a result, we got up and enjoyed the last few minutes of it, which excited Arielle particularly because she was able to load up gallon-size bags of Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs to take with us. We set out for the north section of the park, and even though the exit was about thirty minutes closer than the south section we had visited the night before, it was pretty far up off the highway. As we turned into the park, we entered back into the Central Time Zone. We asked what would be most worthwhile for us to do and got some recommendations for the best places to see great views. Almost immediately, we saw countless buffalo right on the side of the road, and ended up pretty close to more than a few of them. We stopped to see some naturally-formed boulders which were very cool. We almost hiked down to a prairie dog village, but the gathered crowd of people watching carefully for signs of the snake they had just seen and the narrowness of the path made us reconsider. The views were sweeping and pretty incredible, and we managed to get some great shots when he asked a photographer from a North Dakota newspaper to take our picture.

We returned to the entrance to the park, crossed back into Central Time Zone, and set out south to get to South Dakota.

The drive took us on winding country roads, and, at one point, Abe was driving on a long road with no other cars and he noticed one on the other side. It turns out that it was a police officer, who immediately swung around to pull him over. While Abe was indeed going 73 in a 65, the officer was very nice, telling Abe right away that he was only going to give him a warning. Commenting that we obviously didn’t get pulled over very often because it took us so long to find our registration in the glove compartment, he politely joked that this was the cheapest souvenir we’d get in South Dakota. Pulling us over worked since Abe now drives more slowly, carefully watching his speed on every road. We soon entered Rapid City, where we had previously stopped to visit Mount Rushmore, and opted instead to find a Mongolian Grill for Abe to get a stir-fry dinner and a gas station for Arielle to heat up her leftovers.

Our GPS soon took us straight into Custer State Park, which provided us with beautiful views of the surrounding trees and rock formations.

It was nearly dark by the time we pulled into the Bavarian Inn Black Hills, which was a lovely motel with a whole lot of activity going on. We saw guests playing games in the lobby and found out about the hot chocolate available through 10pm.

It had been recommended that we go see the Crazy Horse monument, which is still under construction, and so we drove about four minutes down the road to try to get a peek. We couldn’t see much since the sun had already set, and we were intimidated both by the vicious-looking clouds above and the entrance fee, since we wouldn’t want to miss the chance to have the hot chocolate and go in the hot tub before both were no longer available.

We returned to the hotel and went in the pool for a few minutes before joining another couple in the hot tub who had been traveling for much longer than us. Right before 10pm, we got hot chocolate with marshmallows and went back to our room to enjoy our beverages while watching some television.

Approximate number of miles covered: 275

Day 3.9: Fargo, ND to Dickinson, ND

We woke up and went to breakfast, which we brought back to the room. Arielle saved hers for later and went to the fitness center to use the treadmill. Abe ate first, digested a bit, and then went on the treadmill a bit later. We both got some work done and then packed up. We drove about 15 minutes back into Minnesota to go to a restaurant called Thai Orchid in Moorehead. We met Bev, whose son Eric we had met at Shosh and Eric’s wedding in Florida back in February. She told us about the Jewish community in Fargo and her role as president of the Reform synagogue for the past nineteen years. Abe really enjoyed the mock duck in garlic sauce, though he should have asked to replace the peppers he got the dish without with another vegetable because there wasn’t much besides the protein. Arielle didn’t love her pad thai, but we had a nice experience.

We set out on the road to drive straight west through North Dakota, taking in some nice views along the mostly boring drive. Anyone we had mentioned heading to Medora and Dickinson to told us that we had to go to the Pitchfork Fondue Dinner and the Medora Musical. It turns out that it was opening night for the season, and we opted to go for the dinner and skip the musical. We arrived around 6pm, which meant we would have time to catch the dinner, which was served between 5:30pm and 6:30pm. We had a little trouble buying our tickets at the visitor center but that just meant that we didn’t have to wait in line to get food. Abe excitedly watched as they stuck a number of steaks on a pitchfork and fried them in soybean oil, while Arielle loaded up on all the vegetarian sides. We had been told that only the beans had bacon in them, but the pieces were big so we could pick them out if we wanted to. The steak was delicious, and Arielle enjoyed her sides. The best part was that we got to look out at the incredible scenery while eating. The $30 steak dinner and $15 vegetarian side option was well worth it for the experience, and Arielle certainly got her money’s worth!

We left and went to fill up gas at the oldest-looking gas station we’d ever been to, and it wasn’t that expensive and dispensed real gas!

We turned left into the south section of Theodore Roosevelt National Park, intent on driving the 36-mile loop road as the sun was setting. It turns out part of it was closed, so we instead drove part of the way and turned back, but spent a little bit of time walking up to the Wind Canyon trail that showed us the water (which was brown) and some incredible scenery. There wasn’t much of a sunset, but we enjoyed our trip.

We headed back to the highway and drove about half an hour back east to Dickinson, where we checked in to the AmericInn, which was nicer than we expected. We visited the hot tub, relaxed in the room, and went to bed.

Approximate number of miles covered: 358