This Adventure Called Retirement

We finally made it to North Dakota!  In all of our travels together over the past nearly 48 years this is the first time we have stepped foot in North Dakota, the last of the 50 United States for us to visit. We did intentionally make a route north from Wyoming into Montana and then east into North Dakota before heading south into South Dakota.

We made a slight detour in North Dakota to visit the site of Fort Dilts. This is a site of an Indian attack on a wagon train and the only official account of a wagon train circling their wagons to defend against an Indian Attack. The settlers and soldiers circled the wagons and built a six-foot high sod wall around the wagons as a defense while a group of soldiers made a 3-day ride to Fort Rice for reinforcements. Fort Rice sent 300 calvary and 550 infantry soldiers to rescue the wagon train and return them to Fort Rice. At that point the now unsettled settlers abandoned their plan to move west and the wagon train was disbanded.

This site was located several miles off the main highway down a dirt road and across an active railroad track. Based on our short visit to North Dakota it appears all roads other than main highways are dirt.

We then stop for lunch in Rhame, ND at what must have been the only diner in the tiny little town.  It was actually also the town senior center.  The service was very friendly and the food was good. What was unusual was the time it took to get our order. The server apologized for the delay but it was never determined exactly what the delay might have been.

We said goodbye to North Dakota and headed south to South Dakota. The weather was clear and beautiful and we were looking forward to seeing both the Crazy Horse monument and Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of southwest South Dakota. Unfortunately, as we proceeded south, the cloud cover began to build.

When we reached the black hills, they were under heavy clouds but we still had hope that the clouds were above the mountain carvings. Unfortunately, as we approached Crazy Horse mountain we ran into heavy fog.

We could barely see the road, much less any mountain. Although disappointed for the second day in a row, we decided to drive down to a state park that advertised a wildlife loop road to see if we could spot some wildlife. The fog cleared as we descended and we entered the state park with high hopes. Right away we saw these wild species – turkeys and prairie dogs.

Not to be deterred, we continued along the loop searching dilligently. We finally saw some buffalo at a distance but too far for a good picture. Then, rounding a curve, we ran into a small herd of buffalo along the main road!

We left the buffalo and I commented to Mary we now just needed a herd of antelope to come by. Almost as if on queue, about six antelope came over the hill ahead of us. Not only that, two of the bucks locked horns and gave us a show.

We moved on and found a second large herd of buffalo. What are the chances we would find Elk? They didn’t disappoint and we came across a small herd of Elk in the trees.

After this successful adventure we stopped in Keystone SD for dinner at the Ruby House Restaurant where Mary had the Elk burger and I had the Buffalo Ribeye steak rare. Both were delicious. We then headed to our hotel in Rapid City for the night.