Day 108 -- July 17, 2003 -- Thursday

Not the most exciting of days. We did get good news from Rob that the replacement transmission had come in. If all goes well, the car will be ready today.

We spent the day in Medora, North Dakota and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Medora is a nice tourist-oriented town -- themed better than most. Cute shops.

The Theodore Roosevelt National Park features the unusual Badlands landscape, but that's about it. We did see prairie dogs, wild turkeys, buffalo, and some trail horses.

As usual, the people we met were the highlight of the day. We met Lori and Gail at a business in Dickinson. We enjoyed lunch at the Cowboy Cafe in Medora, and we met waitresses Annie, Marcy, Amber, and Tasha when they asked about the beads as we walked in the door. Tasha served us, and she was a delight -- a high school girl from a small town just across the border in Montana. She plans to go to bible college in Portland, Oregon.

The pie was very good at the Cowboy Cafe. Tasha had a twinkle in her eye when she recommended the Sour Cream Raisin Pie, and it was really good. Bozzie ordered Peach Pie, and it was excellent as well. Larry and Joyce were seated at the next table, and they suggested that we eat Ground Cherry Pie whenever we get a chance. A Ground Cherry is a wild cherry that the Amish seem to use a lot. We decided to be on the lookout for it. Larry and Joyce are from Ohio. They no longer have a home; they are traveling the country permanently! Just visiting relatives. Nice folks.

At one of the scenic overlooks in the National Park, we met Marlene and Sol from Philadelphia. They've been on the road for a month with another month to go. They're headed to where we've just been, so we gave them a lot of ideas on places to see, and vice-versa.

Both Boz and I have noticed that not as many people ask about the beads in North Dakota. They spot them, and we can see a funny look in their eyes, but not nearly as many ask. Folks here are so nice and so well mannered that we interpret it as manners; they don't want to be nosy or say anything that might offend.

Rob called late in the day to advise us that the PT Cruiser was ready. I'll do a radio show in the morning, and then we'll hit the road for South Dakota and Wyoming. We'll spend two days there, and then we head back to North Dakota -- going first to Minot to see the underground missile silos and the North Dakota State Fair.

The Daily Journal of Round America:

Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we've been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we've seen and done as well as about life in general.

You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of "vital statistics" on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you'd like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.