Better late than never pt. 2

[lapacifidora]

Friday the 13th! DUN DUN DUN!

I should've known we'd stay in a crapshack. It was Friday the 13th.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.
***
We left the hotel in Bozeman, under a steel gray sky. Well, maybe less steel gray and more 'public restroom floor tile that was once white' gray. But it did start raining as we were headed to the Museum of the Rockies, which we hadn't been to since 1996.

(Side note: I made the possible mistake of wearing shorts that day, so I was cold most of the time, but we passed a guy - presumably a student - on a bike. He was also in shorts - and a t-shirts and sneakers. And just after we passed him, it poured for like 5 minutes. I can only claim schaudenfreude because I was laughing. But I think he probably hoped he was going to get to wherever he was going before it started raining that hard.)

So: Lots of dinosaurs. Lots and lots and lots of dinosaurs. I won't say I was bored shitless, but I kept hoping one of them would come to life, like the skeleton in "Night at the Museum." (Which I know is not high art or great cinema. But I'll pretty much watch Ben Stiller argue with a monkey any day. It's much less creepy than watching Brendan Frazier argue with a monkey.)






(So help me, this will be the first and last time I ever mention this name, but I saw this and was like, "Oh, so that's where Snooki came from.")

So, nothing came to life. But between the skeletons and the DaVinci's inventions exhibit, it was interesting.
***
I just realized I forgot to mention something we stopped at before we got to Bozeman. It was another place we hadn't been to since 1996: The Madison Buffalo Jump.





What is a buffalo jump? Well, I explain it below:

If you want to see one in action, may I suggest fast forwarding through "Dances With Wolves." It's been several years since I've seen it, but I believe there's a scene about a buffalo hunt in that movie. (Because I don't think they knew about these when "Little Big Man" was made.)
***
After we left Bozeman, we headed toward Glendive, Mont. Now, if that sounds like a telling name, it is. I noticed Glendive on the way out to Seattle because I discovered they had a creationist museum. But the Glendive Inn? Total dive. I wish I'd thought to take pictures, but it was ridiculously small and ugly and horrible. And the ice machine only barely worked. It was the complete opposite of the Best Western in Bozeman. (And both are part of the Best Western chain, so...)

So, we made the best of it - yum, cereal for dinner! Yet one more reason to take nonperishable food with you on a road trip. - and we got out of there as quickly as possible the next morning.
***
It didnt' take long to get to North Dakota, and I was finally able to convince mum that we had stopped in the Badlands on the way out. She'd never heard of Theodre Roosevelt National Park, but was impressed with how beautiful it was.



And it was considerably better weather this time than the pictures from the way out.
***
We stopped in Dickinson for lunch, havng picked up a map to the city - which is home to Dickinson State University - at the National Park visitor's center. We found a place called Badlands Brew Coffee Bar & Roastery, which is a local coffee company and cafe located in an historic Episcopal church. It's not often a bathroom has this much atmosphere.





A couple of hours later, Stereophonic's 'Dakota' started playing. I had totally forgotten that I had put that song on one of my mixed CDs.

Around 4:30 p.m., we passed the Giant Buffalo statue in Jamestown, North Dakota. For some reason, I had thought it was in a different city, and, unlike the USA Today story I read in July, the statue is not facing the freeway. All you can see from the freeway is part of it's side and the butt. When I commented on that, mum said maybe it was shunning the freeway. As proof of my ability to recall totally useless things, my first thought when she said this was: "Shun the nonbeliever! Shunnn! Shhhhuuuunnnn!"
***
We got to Minnesota, where - once again - it was raining. We stayed in a practically brand new Best Western in Fergus Falls, and had dinner at a Perkins, which, for a place that pushes its baked goods and is very 'all-American', had a decent marinara sauce.
***
Next: Another crapshack! Giant cinnamon rolls! And: VIKINGS! (No, not the Minnesota football team. Real Viking stuff.)

Comments

[eleventhimpala.livejournal.com]

I'm such a dinosaur nut (actually, I should add that to my interests), so I'm insanely jealous about that museum!

[lapacifidora.livejournal.com]

It's weird. Fourteen years ago, Bozeman kinda sucked, even though it was a college town. (It's basically a branch campus of Montana State University.)

But now, there's tons of hotels, restaurants and even a mall.

If you're anywhere on the North American continent, it's totally worth a trip. And it's more comfortable to stay there now than it was the first time I was there.