GW 2025 Homer, Alaska. Saturday October 11

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Lori and I each got a great night’s sleep of almost 9 hours, and we both felt settled into the new time zone. Lori made a delicious casserole for breakfast, which we’ll be able to enjoy for the rest of the trip. We spent a couple of hours chatting and journaling, then at 9:00 we left to drive to the Spit and find our water taxi.

The Blue Too was a landing craft water taxi with a wide front ramp that allows them to pull directly onto a beach for easy and safe loading and unloading of both people and gear. Lori and I dressed warmly, but when the breeze became a bit too chilly out on the deck, we could go into the cabin area and hang out a bit with our Ferryman, Deb. The cabin was slightly heated and had a zip closure to keep the warmth in. Deb didn’t seem too talkative at first, but no one ignores Lori and me when we start showing an interest in what they are doing and how they are doing it, and she soon warmed up. Deb had worked for Mako’s for six years, and was a transplant from Maine. Like Lori, she also missed seeing fall colors: Alaska is full of pine and other evergreen trees, and whatever deciduous trees that are here seem to only turn yellow in the fall. So the landscape is all greens and yellows, with none of the reds, oranges, and purples that we see in the Midwest and East.

Joining us for the first couple legs of our journey was a group composed of two young couples, their two dogs, and tons of gear. They were going to hike the Grace Ridge Trail, a nine-mile trek across the top of an island ridge in Kachemak State Park. Deb’s first assignment today was to stop at Kayak Beach, where the quartet would be spending the night, so they could offload all their gear. Then they reboarded and we set off to deliver them to the trailhead at South Grace Ridge. On the way there, we cruised alongside the land mass they would be crossing. The majority of the ridge was under quite a bit of cloud cover, so they were in for some visibility challenges, but these four were clearly experienced hikers and were undaunted by the idea of trekking for about six hours up in the clouds before coming back down again to sleep in a bare-bones yurt. The mere thought of their day makes my back hurt.     

As soon as we took off from the dock, we saw sea otters, and continued to spot them every so often throughout the ride. They are so cute and playful. Lori asked Deb if they are good at getting out of the way, and she said pretty much but they sometimes aren’t successful. Oh boy… After dropping of the intrepid hikers, we moved back out into the bay and proceeded to another pickup area on another small beach, where we were joined by another group of four who came walking out of the rocks. These were an Austrian woman and her daughter, and a Latina mother and daughter, who were all friends. They had spent the night in a yurt after a day of hiking and needed transport back to Homer. Lori and I enjoyed some great conversations with all of the passengers we’d met and decided this had been a great morning and a positive alternative to our formal tour that had been suddenly canceled.

We arrived back where we started at about noon and decided we’d explore a bit more of what Homer had to offer. We had passed an interesting-looking store called Homer Jeans a few times and decided to go check it out. It was a great store with clothing for women and men, and they had WAY more than jeans. It was rather high-end, but was stocked with unique and interesting items. We explored for a while, then Lori bought some cute new sunglasses (which she had been needing for the past two days). We left and drove back to the Bishop’s Beach area we had explored yesterday. A bakery called Two Sisters we had visited the day before, sold these cute stickers. Lori bought one yesterday and later pointed out that the logo of two women dancing could be us, which made me want a sticker too. So we returned to get more stickers from Two Sisters, then drove to the Bunnell Street Arts Center, an art gallery in the Homer Historic Old Town with a great mission to provide instruction, exposure, support, and residencies for local artists. We enjoyed walking around the gallery and talking to the curator, whose excitement about the native history of the area was palpable and contagious.

Next door to the gallery was a coffee shop called Wild Honey Bistro that served breakfast items, dessert crepes, mimosas, and delicious coffee drinks. Lori ordered a mocha with a bit of cayenne in it (WHY???) and I had a Bee’s Knees, which was a latte with honey and cinnamon. So yummy! We were grateful to have squeezed in there at 2:00 just as they were closing; we’ll definitely go back.

We thought the Historic Old Town would have a little bit more substance than it did, but I guess it’s mostly the history of the buildings and land that make it noteworthy. It’s clear that visiting this area after the season has ended makes for a much calmer, quieter experience than many of the descriptions in our research. Unfortunately, this also means that many places are closed until spring. We decided we’d had enough adventure for one day and headed back to the cottage. There are many more art galleries in Homer that we plan to explore another day, but for now, it was time to go home.

By 4:15, we were once again settled in on the couch to put photos in folders and do some journaling. At about 6:45 Tom texted that he was home, and once again we Zoomed with him for the tossing of the states. He’s becoming a states-tossing expert! Two landed face up – New York and Arizona! Lori and I immediately started talking about ideas for either one.

I started dinner just before 7:00, but we didn’t eat until 9 because we had bought a GIGANTIC ruby red sweet potato that took about 90 minutes to bake, but it was delicious! We also had some huge chicken breasts and some fresh asparagus. While we ate, we finished watching Unknown Number, a documentary about how a catfishing scandal changed the lives of several families in a community. The only commentary I will give is that Lori is traumatized for life. After the documentary was over, we worked a bit more on photo editing and journaling before going to bed at about midnight.

GIRLS WEEKEND 2025. HOMER, ALASKA

 

A viewpoint between Anchorage & Homer

Friday, October 10, 2025

After a decent night's sleep, I was up and about at around 5:30 am and Kathi was not too far behind me. Our Air BNB home away from home is lovely and we have a SPECTACULAR view of the Homer Spit (a "spit" is a geological formation consisting of a narrow, elongated stretch of sand or gravel that extends from the coast into a body of water) from our balcony, none of which we could see upon our arrival last night because it was pitch dark.  Some perks of this place: a heated bathroom floor, a heated toilet seat and a heated towel rack, along with the view.  It actually was still dark when we got up.  Sunrise was around 8:30 am and as the sun came up it slowly unveiled the view for us.

Sunrise from our Air BNB deck

    According to the weather app, today is the only day        that is supposed to be rain free. So I decided that we        would go to Bishop's Beach for some tidepooling.        Low tide was around 11am so we had a "slow"                morning of coffee and yogurt, while Kathi started            typing up the journal for day 1. Eventually we both        showered and dressed and got ready for our day's            outing. Kathi made sandwiches and packed lunches        while I was in the shower.  After she showered and        dressed we headed out the door to experience some of     Alaska!

    We parked in the parking lot of Bishop's Beach and made our way down to the water.  It didn't take us long to spot a bald eagle up in a tree. 

I have every expectation of seeing many bald eagles while here, which is fine with me because they are such beautiful and regal birds.  That being said, a bit later we spotted one walking on the beach and I was somewhat surprised by how much less regal they appear when walking rather than flying or just sitting perched.  

We walked around on the beach and I looked hard for tidepools, but disappointingly, found none. While I was looking for tidepools, Kathi took off in the opposite direction and was walking down towards the water.  She has fancy duck boot like shoes that are waterproof up to a point, so she could walk through shallow water and still have dry feet. I walked that way thinking I would join her when I realized that I would have to wade through

some water that was higher than I thought my hiking boots would be able to withstand so I just walked around the beach a bit more.  Soon I realized that the tide was now coming IN and it appeared that Kathi was quickly becoming surrounded by water that was gradually getting higher and was out on an island of sand.  She realized this too when she headed back towards me and stepped into a deep area of water and ended up with wet feet.  She shouted, "It seems like the tide is coming in!" and I said "it IS!"

Kathi on her island of sand

Once she made it safely back to where I was, we realized that we were both hungry, so we went back to the car and sat and ate our lunch, while she attempted to dry out her shoes and socks with the heater.  In the meantime we had a nice FaceTime conversation with my daughter who helped Kathi get her phone hooked up to Apple Car Play.  This Benz, while very cool, has had a steep learning curve in discovering all of its little nuances!!

After our little lunch break, we walked the Beluga Slough trail which took off from the parking lot. We ran into an elderly woman a few times while walking and she asked us where we from and we told her our story.  Then she proceeded to tell us her story, which was very interesting. She told us that her husband had passed away a few years ago, but before his passing they purchased 683 acres of land (a little bit at a time) on a ridge above the Bay to create a wildlife preserve.  He died before seeing the project all the way through, but eventually the land was donated to the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies to preserve a habitat for local wildlife.  The name of the preserve is Inspiration Ridge Preserve (https://akcoastalstudies.org/inspirationridge) It was Nina we were speaking to and she still serves as the property manager for the preserve as well as lives on the property.  She showed us pictures of the some of the views from the property as well as photos of the sandhill cranes that come through the preserve every year.  She is obviously very proud of her accomplishments, as she should be.  Unfortunately it is not currently open to the public for tours (only in the summer), so we realized that we would not have the opportunity to visit. 

After our hike we decided to drive out on the spit since it still wasn't raining. I also wanted to check on the status of the boat tour of the bay that I had booked a few months ago.  We were disappointed to find out that nearly ALL of the shops on the spit are closed for the season and the office for the tour company I had booked our boat tour through also appeared closed, so I called them.  "Oh!"  says the woman who answered the phone when I told her I was calling to confirm that the tour would happen rain or shine, "I must have overlooked your name, I thought I had contacted every one.  The tour has been cancelled because all of our boats are out of service." Another disappointment.  So glad I called, though!  After being assured that I would get a refund, and being told that another company MIGHT be running tours, we walked down to the Salty Dawg, which is a very famous saloon in Homer.  Many people who visit the place, write a note on a dollar bill and then thumbtack it to the wall.  There must be thousands of dollars in (mostly) $1 bills tacked up on every wall space in the place.  We went in just to look around but asked the bartender and the patrons about bay tours.  They offered us some suggestions and the bartender even wrote them down for us.  People are very friendly here!  We left and upon returning to the car we called Mako's taxi service and were able to book a "ride along" on one of their boats for 10 am tomorrow morning.  It wouldn't be a tour.  We would just be along for the ride, while they dropped a party of 4 hikers (plus 2 dogs) off at one place and picked up a party of 4 hikers (plus one dog) before returning to the harbor.  This sounded fine to us and we booked it!

We went back to our place and decided we didn't really need to cook a meal.  I edited my photos while Kathi worked on the journal.  I realized while in the air on the way to Anchorage that I forgot to bring our state puzzle pieces to toss to determine next year's destination. I decided that we could just FaceTime Tom and have him toss the states for us. Kathi thought a Zoom meeting would be better, so we did that instead. He found the Ziploc bag with the states and had a box ready to do the shaking in.  After chatting for a while, he put the states in this HUGE box, shook it, then turned it upside down and released the pieces.  The pieces that landed face up were: Arizona, Colorado and New York. NICE.  I love all of these!  We signed out of the zoom meeting with Tom and decided that we needed to watch the documentary "Unknown Number" upon the recommendation of Kathi's friend Katy.  We started it, but I just couldn't keep my eyes open and finally my body gave in and I fell asleep.  Kathi said she was nodding off, too.  She woke me up and said, let's call it a night.  Off to bed we went (at 8:41!) knowing we would have to get up and leave by 9:30 the next day to make it to our date with the Blue Too (our boat).

GW 2025. Homer, Alaska. Thursday, Oct 9 2025

Thursday, October 9, 2025

 

For the first time in a VERY long time, my travel day was more intense than Lori’s. There are so many more states in the eastern half of the country than in the western half. Since Lori lives on the west coast and I live in the Midwest, she usually has to leave home earlier and travel farther than I do. So, it’s only fair that once in a while the travel burden is heavier on me.

 

My alarm went off at 4:15 am EST and 30 minutes later sent the following text to Lori (for whom it was only 1:45 am): “The adventure begins! I'm in an Uber on the way to the airport.”  Lori would not need to be at the airport for another eight hours. This year marks the 28^th consecutive Girls Weekend, and I was so excited that it was underway!

 

I have been obsessing for weeks about packing for this trip. I was determined to do a full week in Alaska and take only a tote and a carry-on. I planned my wardrobe very carefully, focusing on layers. We knew the temps would be in the mid- to high 30s in the morning and warm up only to somewhere in the high 40s during the day. Plus, we knew there would be lots and lots of rain, and that we would be spending quite a bit of time outside. So . . . I started my packing list at least five weeks before the departure date. I succeeded in boarding the plane with only a (very heavy) carry-on and a tote. We’ll have to wait until later in the week to determine the success of my actual item choices.

BIG stuffed moose in the Anchorage airport

 

By the time I touched down in Anchorage, Lori had already been there for an hour, having been able to take a direct flight from Portland. Lori says it’s a beautiful airport with a gigantic taxidermied moose on full display. I’m sure she’s right, but upon leaving the plane, I headed straight for the bathroom and then for baggage claim to find Lori. Somehow, I missed the moose.

 

After our joyful hug fest, we set off to find the rental car. For the past four years, I have been acquiring rental cars exclusively from Turo rather than from traditional car rental companies. If you’re not familiar with Turo, think Airbnb for cars. Private owners renting their cars out for use. There are a few extra hoops to jump through, like taking a billion photos of the car through the Turo app before driving, but it is worth it. I save at least 15-30% or more on the total cost. For this trip, as a surprise for Lori, I rented a 2022 Mercedes-Benz SUV. It turned out to be a surprise for both of us since it took at least five minutes to figure out how to put the dang thing in gear, another five to understand that the button on the side of the seat did not, in fact, manipulate the seat, it was actually a mechanism in the door that made the seats move back and forth. We still don’t know what the button on the side of the seat does. The challenges continued once we were on the road. The stem coming out of the right side of the steering wheel that most often controls the wipers and windshield washer fluid was actually where the gear shift was located. It turned out the wipers were located on the LEFT steering wheel turn signal stem. It started misting on the drive, and I kept inadvertently putting the car in neutral WHILE ROLLING ON THE HIGHWAY rather than wiping moisture off the windows.

 

We did eventually safely arrive at the Fred Meyer in Anchorage to stock up for groceries. Lori had been warned that food was expensive in Alaska, and the warning was appropriate. The grocery bill was $240. The only meat we bought was one 4lb package of chicken breasts. Everything else was pretty much beverages, dairy products, bread, and fruit – we learned many trips ago not to over-purchase on groceries on these trips. Back in the car (and hopefully more adroit at manipulating the controls), we got on the road to Homer. Google maps told us the drive was 4 hours and 6 minutes. That was not even close to correct. It actually took 51/2 hours to get there. At just over 3 hours in, we decided to make a stop at a convenience store to grab a snack and go to the bathroom.

 

A couple of things happened as we approached a small town: a) the speed limit suddenly dipped to 45, and b) we saw a store on the left side of the road that came suddenly into view. The result of this was that I braked pretty quickly and whipped into the parking lot…followed quite closely by a state trooper who flipped on his lights. I have not been pulled over for speeding in maybe…20 years? This is not so much because I don’t occasionally speed, but rather that there seem to be no more cops on the streets of Indy who are concerned with such things. Anyway, my string of luck seemed to be over…but not really. Trooper Keith (who looked very much as if he was cutting high school and dressing up as a cop for Hallowe’en) introduced himself, informed me I had been going 58mph in a 45mph zone, asked for my license and registration, then took both back to his car to make sure all was well with my driving record. He returned relatively quickly and reported he was just giving us a warning, then proceeded to tell us that the salmon were still running and where we could go to see them. We also learned he had moved out to Alaska from northern California where he had a different career and decided to become a state trooper. Since he looked be about 17, his previous career must have been as a lemonade stand entrepreneur. All in all, it was a lovely encounter, and we chatted a while before he went on his way.

 

Before going into the store, I wanted to straighten the car in the parking spot, which was somewhat askew due to the emergent nature of needing to stop quickly. The car revved up but would not move a single inch either backward or forward. Somehow, during the encounter with the law, I had managed to turn on the apparently very effective parking brake. This was quite clever of me since I had no idea where the parking brake was. I finally found it, and soon we were in and out of the convenience store and back on the road.

 

Darkness had truly fallen by the time we reached our Airbnb at about 9:45pm. We unloaded everything from the car and settled in for a good chat. A couple of hours later, aside from a couple of short naps on my first flight, I had been up for almost 24 hours, so we headed to bed. What a full travel day – let Girls Weekend begin!!

Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Wednesday, October 16, 2024

Wednesday, October 16

We woke up today in Fargo!  We hadn’t really made any plans for what to do here, so I did what I do and went in search on the internet for things to do in Fargo.  Right away something popped up that looked interesting and unique and after reading the description to Kath we decided to go for it.  It is a “Murder Mystery Detective Experience” call “Motive for Murder”.  Sounds interesting, doesn't it?  We thought so.  You download an app on your phone which provides you with a map of locations where you go to gather clues as to who committed the murder.  Two maps are provided: one for walking and one for driving.  What a great way to get to know the town!!  We opted for the walking option, even though it is supposed to be windy here today (which is quite common if you listen to the locals) with a high of 67, but the wind makes if feel about 10 degrees cooler.  There is audio on the app, too, where I think clues are provided.  It could end up being silly, but what the heck, it sounds like fun. We also decided to continue our tradition of doing an Escape Room on our trips and booked an Escape Room adventure, too!  Gone are the days, it appears (probably because of COVID), where you join people you don’t know for an Escape Room.  All of the rooms/bookings are private.  The minimum number of people “required” for the one we chose, “Museum of Terror”, is three so, after Kathi called, we were told we could do it with two, but had to pay as if our party was three.  We really love our escape rooms, so we went ahead and booked it. We’ll see how we do in solving both the murder mystery and the escape room.

Before leaving for the Escape Room we went out the back door of our Airbnb to the “Art and Learning” store that is just across a parking lot from us. Our Airbnb host owns the store and works there and it seemed like it would have been a shame not to go over and introduce ourselves. So we went and chatted with him for a bit and browsed the store which is an art supply store as well as what I think would best be described as a teacher resource store.  Then it was near 1 o’clock and our escape room appointment was for 1:30 so we left and made our way to Puzzled Escape Rooms.  The door was locked when we arrived so we had to ring the bell a couple of times before someone came and let us in.  We were escorted into our room, where the woman told us the basic rules of an escape room as well as how to go about asking for clues.  Once she left the room, the hunt was on for clues!  Unfortunately, we once again, as so many times before, failed to solve all of the puzzles within the allotted one hour, but we were pretty darn close and we had a lot of fun trying.  The goal was to figure out enough clues to find the keys to five locks to keep Dracula from coming back to life. We found four of them and were only a couple of clues away from finding the key for the final one. Considering the room was created to be challenging for larger groups, we are pretty dang proud of ourselves.  I highly recommend trying an escape room if you have never done one.  It is a great way to spend an hour and test your problem-solving skills.

Next on our agenda was the Murder Mystery Detective Experience!!  First, however, we stopped at a nearby Starbucks for a quick pick-me-up, and we stopped at the house because I couldn’t remember if I had taken my morning meds and I wanted to check before we got any further into the day.  Turned out I had, indeed, taken my meds so all was well.  Next we stopped at the post office so I could mail out postcards to my grandkids.  Kathi wanted to get a mailing envelope to mail the postcard and the car bingo card she got for her granddaughter, Amara.  Once those tasks were accomplished, we mapped our way to the YMCA which was the starting point for our detective adventure.

This was fun although I think people around us must have wondered what in the heck we were doing.  We followed a map to different locations around downtown Fargo where we would stop and listen to the recorded “interviews” with witnesses and suspects.  We were also asked at each location to answer some question about the location. Questions about number of windows and doors or spotting certain characteristics of buildings that would help determine where the victim or the suspect was in “fuzzy” video obtained to help in the investigation.  In all we walked about 2.5 miles around town and it took us a little over 2 1/2 hours to stop at all the locations and listen to all the interviews and in the end, we were SUCCESSFUL in identifying the murderer!!  Kathi took selfies of us at each location to show that we truly were following all the clues.  We were very proud of ourselves for solving the mystery.

Once back “home”, we did most of our packing since my train leaves at 4:13am and I need to be at the train station by 3:30 so I can check my bag.  Crazy, right?  My hope is to try and catch some sleep on the train once I board, but I didn’t have much luck sleeping on the way here, so I’m not really hopeful!!  Kathi plans on coming back to the house because, heck, checkout time isn’t until 11am so she can take her time loading all her stuff into the car before starting the drive back to Indianapolis!

As always, we are sorry to see Girls Weekend come to an end but, as always, we had a wonderful time and feel blessed that we are able to take these getaways together and spend time in one another’s company.  We always feel refreshed after these adventures.

Until next year, blessings to you all and do your best to enjoy every day.

Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

(Addendum from Lori: there are NO photos from today because all we did was drive across the entire state of North Dakota, from west to east and the most interesting things we did were not photo-worthy!! So, instead, I will add a sunset photo from a previous day just to add some eye candy!)

Kathi here. Despite the VERY late night watching Mare of Easttown, which is rivetingly wonderful, we were up at our normal 7:30 this morning.

Today is moving day. Lori’s train leaves Fargo at 4am Thursday, which is really the middle of the night on Wednesday if you ask me, so we thought we’d spend a full day in Fargo to see what there is to see. We usually don’t travel on GW until much later on the last day so that we have at least a little time on our travel day to do something in the morning. I have clearly informed Lori that the next time she travels by train, if she has to leave this early it needs to be on Friday, NOT Thursday.

Checkout time for the Belfield Airbnb was not until noon, so we enjoyed a few hours couching and writing and gaming and chatting, but then it was time to pack up and get out. We had purchased enough food for the entire trip, so I focused on kitchen duty, getting it nice and clean and gathering everything we were taking with us on the kitchen table, while Lori packed up her bags. Then we switched and Lori took over packing up the kitchen stuff and loading it into the car while I packed. We are extremely efficient and productive as partners, and by 11:45am mountain time the place was clean, linens stacked by the washer, all trash bagged and placed in the outside bin, and we were loaded up and pulling out of the driveway.

The drive from Belfield to Fargo is almost 4 ½ hours (which is why we did this today and not in the middle of the night on Wednesday/Thursday). With fond memories of Salem Sue and the Enchanted Highway on our trip out to Belfield floating through our minds, we toyed with the idea of stopping at the Bismarck Zoo on the way to Fargo, but decided against it since we lose an hour on this trip and darkness seems to come rather early here.

The speed limit here is 75mph, and since I’m a rule breaker at heart, I locked the cruise control on 80 and we zipped through the plains. I-94 is as straight as an arrow from end-to-end in this state, and I was tempted to do 85, but as Lori mentioned yesterday, we have literally seen only three other Black people here—not surprising since Black people make up only 3.2% of the population. Although I’m sure North Dakota has some wonderful and kind state police officers who wouldn’t dream of dragging a Black woman out of her car for no good reason, the statistics here are not in my favor. According to https://policescorecard.org/nd, despite representing only 3.2% of the population, Black people account for 13% of people arrested and 19% of those killed by ND police. They kill more unarmed people per arrest than 96% of states, and as of 2021, there were NO Black, Latino, Native American, Asian, or Pacific Islander members of the police forces. So yeah – 80 mph is good. That’s just a little insight into the mind of any Black person traveling on the roads, and the reason why my husband was not at all at ease with my choice to do this drive alone. We are ALWAYS thinking like this. Don’t believe anyone who tells you differently.

The wind here is a factor that has to be accounted for AT ALL TIMES. I have often wanted to burst into a chorus of Oklahoma on this trip. The number of syllables even fits. “Nooooooooooorth Da Ko Ta where the wind comes sweeping down the plains…” On this drive it was very apparent. I started noticing that the car swerved whenever I went through an overpass and realized that the wind was coming so hard from the south that I was automatically counterbalancing it to the degree that when it was blocked even for a second, my pressure on the steering wheel would send the car swerving to the right. Four and a half hours on the road isn’t really that long, but between the straight-as-an-arrow path with no diversity at all and the constant wind factor, it was somewhat exhausting. We stopped for gas about an hour from Belfield, and then for ice cream in Bismarck, after which Lori took a little snooze, but when she woke up she started a game of jeopardy. That was fun and distracting and helped a lot. However, I was very glad to see we were approaching west Fargo, where out Airbnb was located.

We arrived safely, and easily found our way to the “quaint little house” as our Airbnb was accurately described on the website, arriving at about 5:45 central time. We usually have good luck with our Airbnb choices (Maine is a glaring exception for those of you who may recall that adventure) and this one is also great. It’s an old house with character and is quite comfy with a nice large kitchen and living area. We alerted the host that we had arrived and moved everything in. We took inventory of what we might still need over the next not-quite-two days which mostly involved items to be able to make ourselves sandwiches for our trips home. I ran to the cute little grocery only 1 ½ blocks away while Lori made dinner (tonight it was chicken breast with dill and thyme, green beans, and couscous). We settled in to watch more of Mare of Easttown with our dinner. We got through 1 ½ episodes when I caught Lori snoozing again, so I declared it bedtime.

Girls Weekend days are great days even when all we do is move from one place to another!

Girls Weekend, North Dakota. Monday, October 14, 2024

Monday, October 14

Another slow start to the day.  We were both up by 7:30 and worked on finishing up our respective journal entries.  We usually take turns every other day because this journaling thing is a bit intensive and takes a lot of thought, time and effort so we share in creating them.  We had some yogurt and bacon for breakfast.  Our intention for the day is to return to the South Unit of the park, which is only about 30 minutes away and stop and do little short hikes at various stopping points along the scenic drive.

Once we both are dressed and ready for the day, we hop in the car and head towards the Park Entrance, which is in Medora.  Believe it or not, we get distracted while driving through Medora by one of the small shops there that we just saw a woman enter and thought was open, so we parked to go in.  Kathi has been saying that she wants a new pair of pajama pants with animals on them.  At one time she had a couple of pair that she remembers buying at a National Park visitor center/gift shop, but we thought she might be able to find a pair at one of the gift shops here in town.  When we went to enter the shop we found that the door was locked.  The woman inside came to the door and told us the shop was closed but she said we could come in and browse if we wanted to.  She was the owner of the shop and was there to do a little bit of work.  We found no animal print pajama pants but we did find some nice warm sweat pants that say “North Dakota” down one leg and both decided that we could use a pair of these.  This shop, called “The Hitching Post” is pretty big and has a fairly large assortment of souvenir type items.  While browsing, I came across some Car Bingo cards.  Oh my gosh!!  I remember playing this in the car with my brother whenever we traveled long distances in the car but I have not seen any in ages!  I bought some for the grandkids.  Beckett is old enough to to play, but Margo and Theo aren’t quite there yet, but it won’t be long.  I got one version that was for state license plates, and one version that was just spotting common things on the road (interstate signs, trucks, that kind of thing).  Kathi decided to get one for Amara, too. After having luck at this shop and having NOT explored Medora we decided to drive around the cute little town and see what else we might find.  There were a couple of other shops open and I bought Margo and Theo each a pair of pajamas in one and we found an open coffee shop where I got a chocolate- chocolate chip muffin and we each got a cup of coffee.  The K-cup coffee in the Airbnb is absolutely dreadful so this coffee was quite a treat!

Medora truly is a cute little town that looks like it would be a great place to bring a family in the summer months.  Along with the Medora Musical, for which the town is famous, there is a great-looking park with climbing structures that are labeled like an old western town.  There’s a “bank” and a “jail” along with a “stagecoach” and “train engine”.  It looks like a park that kids would LOVE!  There is also a community pool that is a lazy river pool and is modeled after the Little Missouri River, which is the river that runs through Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  If my kids were still little, I would be tempted to bring them here for a vacation!

Having explored just about everything that was open in town, we entered the park and stepped into the visitor center.  When we were here on Saturday, we arrived late in the day and were not able to watch the movie that they run every thirty minutes, so we watched it today.  We learned what a forward-thinking person Teddy Roosevelt was in regards to protecting and saving the environment and natural resources.  He was born in Manhattan, but fell in love with the Dakota territory when he made a trip there to hunt bison.  He became a cattle rancher near Medora and would shuttle back and forth between the ranch and his home in New York.

While waiting for the next showtime we wandered the exhibit about Roosevelt’s life that is also in the visitor center.  I had left my coffee in the car and decided to go back out and get it before it got cold and on my way out to the car, I spotted a Black man that was buying an entrance ticket to the park and I ran back to let Kathi know.  The reason I mention this is because we often keep count of how many persons of color we see when we are on these trips.  Many times, Kathi is the only one.  This man was  only the third Black person spotted on this trip.  The first two were at the car wash we went through on Friday.

After watching the movie, we went back to the car to make the drive through the park.  We didn’t make it all the way to the end of the scenic drive when here on Saturday, so that was our goal today.  I had read this morning that once at the end, that it was possible to hike to the Old East Entrance to the park and we decided that we would do that, then stop for other small hikes as we made our way back out of the park.  

Once again we were blessed with seeing lots of wildlife.  In the distance I spotted a herd of pronghorn antelope, then later we rounded the corner and off to the side of the road was a pretty large herd of bison (Kathi counted 48!).  We sat and watched them for a while because they are such fascinating creatures.  A couple of them were sparring.  It didn’t look too serious but they were at it for a while.  We also saw a number of mule deer along the way.

We reached the end of the road, parked and made the walk through a large prairie dog town to the Old East Entrance where a bit of fence and the guard building still sit.  The prairie dogs barked and chirped at us the entire way and they ran around and dove into their holes. Fortunately that was as aggressive as they got.  They really are pretty cute little critters! 

We then walked back to the car and had a sort of picnic in the car and realized that we were losing daylight fairly quickly.  This meant no short little hikes on the way out, but we did have another beautiful sunset.

We made our way back to Belfield with a stop for gas since tomorrow we travel to Fargo for the remainder of the trip.  My train leaves from there at 4am Thursday morning, so we decided to make that drive a couple of days early rather than driving through the night and explore Fargo a bit.

Once back in our home away from home, we settled in to watch the last available episode of “Murder in a Small Town”, which, while better than “The Regime”, it is still just kind of “meh”.  We were still pretty wide awake and searched for another show to watch and we decided on “Mare of Easttown”, which also stars Kate Winslet.  This show proved to be a winner for us and we stayed up until around 2am watching the first 3 episodes!!  Knowing we had to pack and make the 4 1/2 drive across the state tomorrow, we called it a night and went to bed.

GW North Dakota. Sunday, Oct 13, 2024

Kathi here. We were up around eight again this morning and launched into the GW routine. We made a breakfast of bacon and eggs and added English muffins. Yummy! We watched the temperature all morning, because it started out at 31° today, and we did not want to hike in 31°. Not that we would have left the house early anyway since we’re making up for last year, but still. Eventually we deemed it warm enough to venture out, so we got showered and dressed, headed out of the house around 1:30pm, and arrived at today's destination around 2:30pm. But that was really 3:30 because by the time we got there, we had crossed the timeline again and were back to central time.

Today we are exploring the North Unit of Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which is about an hour north of where we're staying. It is much smaller than the South Unit and possesses a slightly different topography. The Little Missouri River runs entirely through this section of the park. It also runs through the South Unit but seems to be more constantly visible here. There are no wild horses here like there were in the South Unit, but there are bighorn sheep along with bison, prairie dogs, cows, and also Longhorn steer. Our goal was to hopefully see them all.

We had NO trouble sighting bison, and probably saw probably around 30 of them in all different types of situations including walking along the side of the road, crossing the road in front of us, and out in the grassland areas. We spotted them singly, in pairs, and in one field, a full herd that included a baby! I think the bison baby looked slightly like a less-slippery, furrier hippo baby crossed with a fat, hump-shouldered goat baby.

Another delight that Lori spotted as we were driving along was a little sharp-tailed grouse (thank you, Google) trekking along the side of the road. I had already passed her (the grouse) but did a U-turn to go back and find her. We slow-stalked her for a good 20 minutes trying to get a good photo; it was tricky because that girl was quick and moving at a constant clip.

Rather than a full loop road like the in the South Unit (although part of it was closed so we weren't able to go all the way around and instead had to turn around and come back out the same route) this north unit has one long road that goes from one end to the other, then you have to come back out the same way. On the drive out we stopped several times to either admire the stupendous views or take photos of wildlife.

At the end of the road, we parked for a while and decided to stretch our legs with a walk on a nice, easy trail through some grasslands. The wind was quite tame today, the skies were clear and blue with some wispy clouds, and we couldn’t ask for better weather.

This walk was indeed somewhat gentler than the one in the Painted Canyon that had surprised us yesterday, but the trail was really a pretty narrow track weaving through the grasslands. It was also a really sneaky but steady uphill climb that you really don’t notice until you do. One of the main features of this particular trail, however, was the preponderance of bison poop.

There was soooooo much bison poop!!! It seemed as if the bison who wandered through there were actually aiming for the trail. “Hmmm, I’m thinking I might need to take a dump soon, and I’m surrounded by all this wonderful grass and brush. I should just . . . NO! Look, a trail! I shall poop right there in the middle of that trail, and I will tell all my friends to do the same.” Keeping in mind that the trail was not much wider than a thick tire track, we had to be vigilant about where we placed our feet. We eventually developed a system, and whichever of us was leading would holler out "bison poop!" to warn the person in the rear of the imminent danger. This level of vigilance was exhausting, especially with the slow sneaky uphill slant that had us panting a bit. Once we were ¾ of the way through the trail we called it good and turned back. We’re just grateful none of the huge beasts was in the midst of doing his business as we rounded a corner.

Once we were safely (and bison poop-free, we are proud to say) in the car for the drive back out of the park we started praying to see the two main animals we hadn't seen yet: Longhorn steer and bighorn sheep. Lori, the avid naturalist, is sharp-eyed and always spotted the wildlife before I did. This would have been true even if I were not the driver. With only about two miles to go to the entrance gate she told me to stop. She had spotted a herd of Longhorn steer!

After getting some great photos we continued on, but alas, our quest for a bighorn sheep sighting was fruitless. Because of the hour-long drive home, we didn’t stay for the sunset.

We enjoyed leftovers and snacks for dinner, then settled in to do some journaling and photo editing, and then watched another episode of Murder in a Small Town. They were still in a small town and there was a murder, so there is absolutely no false advertising going on there. We turned in around 11, happy and satisfied at the end of another great day.