Well, when Lacey says she wants to get an early start, she MEANS it! Lol. We were up and out of the hotel by 5:30 AM. Unfortunately, the office wasn't open and there was no dropbox for the keys, so we had to slide the key cards under the door. I'd kept my envelope so I was able to write a little note on the outside.
We drove for about 2 hours and then stopped for gas and breakfast. There was a 4 Bs restaurant, which brought back memories of when we were in Montana when I was a kid and our car broke down in Butte. We had to stay at the Rose Motel and the only restaurant within walking distance was the 4 Bs. I told Lacey that story, so we decided to eat there. It was ok, and obviously not the exact same restaurant, but it was good for a nostalgic stop.
We then headed to another place I'd seen as a kid: Medora, ND. I don't remember the town at all from then, but we drove around it and it was really cute. They had all kinds of little stores and restaurants. But, we were in search of sandwiches to take out to the park area so we could eat outside. We found a little store that had a make your own sandwich bar, which turned out to be really good & just what we wanted. We headed back to the car and went to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The drive around it was just beautiful & not at all what I remembered. (Of course, all I really remembered was the patriotic show & poodles dressed in costumes.) We took a short but steep walk up some rocks and had a most beautiful view by which to eat our lunch.
As we were driving around the park after our little hike, we saw a couple herds of wild horses. The first group ran, then stopped and seemed to split into 2 groups. They turned, stopped and look up the hill. After a few minutes, those groups ran off. Then, another group of horses came from where the first one had come from. It was so cool to see so many horses just running free!
We continued on but had to stop....because there was a BUFFALO in the road! We weren't sure of what to do, so we sat and waited for it to do something. And it did: it rolled over like it was scratching its back, but then got up again. And stood. And stood. And stood. And we still waited. Another car pulled up behind us and also saw it and also waited. And then a motorcycle came along as well. Finally, a 4th, braver car came and we all made a little parade & drove slowly past the buffalo and down the hills....til we were stopped by a park ranger who told us that a pilot car would be by in 15 minutes to lead us the rest of the way. (They were doing major construction in the park.) It was closer to 20 or 25 minutes, and we were getting antsy to get going, as we were way behind schedule since we'd stayed in Billings instead of getting started.
Lacey wanted to go to Sturgis, which is the place that all the motorcycle afficionados gather for summer festivities. We weren't sure how far we were going to go tonight, but when Lacey got tired of driving, I said that I could drive & we decided to continue on to Sturgis tonight instead of heading there in the morning.
We drove around the cute little town and ended up at a kind of biker bar that claims that it's known for its steak tips. So, Lacey had the steak tip dinner & I had a steak tips salad. The steak was ok, but too peppery for her & too salty for me. I guess "world famous" doesn't necessarily mean "world's best". Lol.
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