Dickinson Travel Guide

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We left Custer, South Dakota for our 3 day visit to North Dakota. On the drive up to Deadwood we saw Spearfish rock layers on the rock outcropping. We had learned about this earlier in Hot Springs when we visited the Mammoth Site. By staying in a place for a week, the area almost becomes a tour guide in itself. Everywhere we went, one thing related and linked back to another. The drive on Hwy 85 North was a two lane highway and we saw very few cars - it was a great drive. We turned onto Interstate 94 East and stopped in Dickinson, ND at the Comfort Inn there which set us up for our daytrip to Medora.
the next day, driving on Interstate 94 west we saw huge fields of sunflowers before we turned off to the National Park's visitor Center. and we used our Golden Pass here. We saw a short video about Theodore Roosevelt and his time spent in Medora when he was a young man. His wife and mother died on the same day, leaving him with a two day old daughter, Alice. On to the cabin where TR stayed during this difficult time - they had a very informative video here also and quite a few items of interest about his life and activities, guns, etc.
TR stayed in a very small cabin here, but he entertained quite a bit and had a huge library; he read hundreds of books while he was here. It was here that he realized that most of the wilflife on the plains was gone. Here in this desolate area his thoughts turned to the idea of establishing National Parks for future generations.
While driving the desolate 37 mile loop of Badlands we saw 6-8 horses on a hill, manes and tails blowing in the wind while they watched us from their perch. We also had to stop because several wild horses were on the road. They looked pretty rough, but appeared well fed. They are wild! We saw one bison here, lying down. And we saw lots of sage growing. But I also remember the frequent smell of fresh clover here and there. We saw lots of bee hive boxes in this part of the country. We saw more prairie dogs on this loop drive. Glad we were driving because it was really hot in these Badlands.

After trying to get a nice motel room and ending up in a substandard one, I looked for a place to eat. I did not see too many choices near the motel and did not want to spend much time looking, so I stopped at this Chinese Restaurant. There is no buffet, you order off the menu. The food was pretty good and the service acceptable. Not a bad choice, but not great either, for dining in Dickinson.

Favorite Dish: The Garlic Chicked was pretty good.