North Dakota Goes Out in Style

The badlands of North Dakota show up without warning.  Almost immediately the rolling, grassy hills of the prairie give way to deep trenchs and eroding precipices of deposited soils and minerals.  The rains leave their signature in the formations of the chaotic terrain like the veins in your arms and hands.  It's a mystical, changing landscape.  Lighting strikes ignite underground deposits of lignite coal which can smolder underground for months baking the surrounding clay like a vast subterranean kiln.  This process makes clinker or Scoria, the red rock decorating the badlands.  Clinker is used to make bricks and paint which is what the monks used to build the monastery in Richardton.  Medora, is a small (pop. 160) touristy town which sits amidst the cliffs of the badlands.  The town is made to look like an old western town circa 1864 with boardwalks and Old World style buildings and shops.  The road to Medora is down hill and bordered by the Theodore Roosevelt National park which makes for a wonderful ride. 

Wild bison and horses roam the jagged landscape.  Yes, wild horses.  We didn't know they existed before seeing them here.  Brady thought he saw two disappear into the fold before we reached Medora and our suspicions were made certain when we saw a band of wild ones hurrying single file just a few hundred yards off the interstate.  It was invigorating to see them.

Upon arriving at Medora we headed to Boots, one of the three bars in the town.  We ended up meeting a great couple right off the bat, Shawn and Vida Owens.  Shawn and Vida are officers in the Air Force who were on leave from their base in Minot, ND.  Vida "flies a desk" as a military therapist and Shawn is a medic.  We came to find out that Shawn was decorated for his bravery in Afghanistan, a story nothing short of incredible: http://www.minot.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123332715 .  Initially we were going to push on to Montana for the 4th but the Owens convinced us to stay. How could we not stay with two badass vets for the 4th?

That night, on a tip from Vida, we found a bridge to camp under not a half mile out of town.  Sleeping under a bridge. No tent needed. We're getting serious...or seriously dirty.  The next day we nursed our hangovers and did some laundry and took showers at an rv park and were at Boots just in time for the second half of the Columbia vs. Brazil match.  There, we met up with Shawn and Vida and two other AF'ers, Juan and Mario.  Vida, Juan, and Mario are all Columbian so it was a heartbreaker of a game.  Full of dramatics as always.

After the loss we headed to Little Mossouri and drank checkmate beer in the shade and had pizza.  Such a great time with so much to talk about.  To our surprise, Shawn and Vida covered the whole tab and just told us to "pay it forward."  Can't explain how cool that was, and yes, we will do that!  We were also getting some Spanish lessons in because, after all, we're going to San Diego so tengo que apprender.  Mario and Juan advised us to get Spanish speaking girlfriends.  As Juan put it, "When I first talked to my girlfriend I was like "que?" and then, six months later I was like, "ok."

Back at Boots we celebrated Roy's Birthday and continued the festivities. Feliz cumpleaños Roy!  Two birthdays in the books :) 

That night was fireworks, and Shawn had A LOT of them.  We and half the town shot them off late into the night lighting up the cliffside of the badlands surrounding Medora.  It was a great día de la Independencia.  Vida, Shawn, Juan, Mario--thanks for everything you do, we already miss you.

Currently we're in Glendive, Montana waiting out the midday heat.  We pedaled in here late last night under a setting Montana sun.  The sky was an explosion of color. As Roy put it, "Omg, too much color."  The light painted the already painted canyons and iluminated the clouds in pinks, purples, oranges and reds.  All this was happening while a train passed in the distance and mule deer bobbed alongside the road.  "Is this real life?" 

Bradylands

Vida and Shawn

Home

Wild Horses Grazing





Photo bomb



Jer, Vida, Juan, Mario, Brady, Ryan

feliz cumpleaños, Roy!

The 4th

MT



Muley