The Greatest Show in the West

We started our day by heading east from Rapid City to check-out the Badlands. But our first stop was just outside the park in Wall, South Dakota at the regionally famous Wall Drug Store.

The Wall Drug Store (which we had seen billboards for during the previous 100 or so miles) is 72,000 square feet of wacky, commercial-dripped, tourist attractions. It was like a mini-mall with every interior storefront selling tourist trinkets and Old West stuff. And everything is over the top. Take your picture with the jack-a-lope, see the animatronic dinosaur, take a seat in the cafe which has seating for 580 people. Take any Fisherman's Wharf-like tourist trap you know and extend it as far as you can. It was nuts.

From Wall to the park's east entrance, we stopped at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Place. Appartently there were dozens of these nuclear missle facilities spaced throughout the Dakotas and Montana ready on a moment's notice to launch -- they could launch within five minutes of receiving orders. They've now retired all of the facilities, but the one we saw was not available to tour. I can't imagine how the operators of a missile silo that was never used once in its forty years existence passed the time. After that Visitor's Center, we moved onto Badlands National Park.

The Badlands were staggering. The prairie just disolves, and what's left are these barren rocky outcroppings that look like they belong in Arizona. One early explorer described it as "hell with the fire put out." Just remarkable.

Taking the driving loop and stopping at a few of the overlooks was the exact right strategy. It was well over 100 degrees -- can't imagine camping there.

After the Badlands, we back-tracked to Rapid City and started driving due north towards Teddy Roosevelt National Park in Medora, North Dakota. Medora was an Old Western boomtown in the early 1880's as the Marquis de Mores (and his wife Medora) speculated on creating a cattle empire there. A young Teddy came out to hunt buffalo and so fell in love with the place that he bought a couple of ranches (Elkhorn and Maltese Cross) that he frequently visited in his early days.

So I was looking forward to seeing a bit of Roosevelt history and checking out the park, not knowing anything else about the town. We had setup a hotel reservation that afternoon (at the 'Bunkhouse Inn' after concluding that the 'Rough Riders Hotel' was too expensive) and rolled in at about 7:30pm. When checking in, the front desk asked me if I also needed tickets printed.

I returned a puzzled look.

She then asked if we were there for the Medora Musical. Apparently, the city of Medora puts on a country western, outdoor, song-and-dance event all through the summer. Seven nights a week. In an ampitheater that holds 2,800 people in a city with 900 people.

After consulting with Cristy, we decided that we had to do this. The front desk was wonderful -- instead of seating us in the back, they actually gave us unused seats from the Teddy Roosevelt Medora Foundation. Six rows from the stage on the aisle. So, after eating a quick dinner at the Medora Pizza Parlor, and went out to the Burning Hills Ampitheater for the 8:30pm show.

Our first impression was of the stage, which was a reproduction of the town of Medora. Our second impression was of the two elk that had roamed onto the hillside behind the stage and were being herded off by men on horses.

The show was spectacular -- and actually very well done! It's country songs with dancing and Teddy Roosevelt giving speeches and bringing the kids on stage and Buffalo 'Dale' talking. But the climax of the night was Teddy taking San Juan hill in Cuba. Teddy's is speaking with the soldiers and he yells 'Charge!', the soldiers take off, there are guys on horses running around, and pyrotechnics going off and we finish with replacing the Spanish flag with the American and Teddy riding along the hillside behind the stage. Probably the coolest thing I've ever seen.

Great night, all coming together because of the friendly people of Medora who encouraged us to go. Tomorrow we'll check-out the park (as well as Teddy's original cabin) before turning east towards Minneapolis.