Chapter Five

Chapter Five – Lewis and Clark Senior Style
Medora

Medora is a charming western town tucked in the Southwest corner of North Dakota.  It is adjacent to the Theodore Roosevelt National Badlands Park, and is the town near where Teddy Roosevelt experimented with ranching for a few years when he was in his mid-twenties.  Roosevelt memorabilia abounds everywhere in the town.   We stayed at the Rough Rider hotel, an accurate reproduction of the original turn-of-the-century hotel located at the same corner of the town.  As soon as we were settled in our room, Russ decided he needed a nap, so it was my opportunity to hit the shops.  The town was delightful, but I didn’t find much that appealed to me in the stores.  There were several tempting ice cream parlors, however, and lots of multi-generational families and young children.  I was delighted by all the children as I miss hugging my beautiful grandbabies.  Late in the afternoon I was lucky to witness the local patriotic parade.  Horse drawn carriages and pick-up trucks pulled flatbed trailers filled with local business leaders, politicians, firemen and rescue workers throwing candy to the children along the parade’s path.  The parade didn’t last long, but it was a hit with the kids.  

 South Dakota Badlands

The next day we drove through the Badlands National Park which was equally beautiful to the Badlands in South Dakota.  We saw a few buffalo grazing atop one of the hills and a village of very active prairie dogs.  Inside the park we passed a ranch house that was identified as Teddy Roosevelt’s.  I read information everywhere, including the Park Visitors Center, on Roosevelt’s stay in the area.  Oddly, none of the information mentioned the true reason why Roosevelt decided to leave his New York home to reside in the Wild West, probably because the reason is so tragic.

When Roosevelt was only twenty-two, he married Alice Lee, whom he had courted relentlessly his last year in college.  He sent her flowers, gifts and notes, and even recruited his family and friends to plead his cause.  Alice finally succumbed to his advances and following the wedding the young couple lived with his widowed mother in Oyster Bay, New York.  Politically ambitious, Roosevelt was elected to the New York State Assembly, and was in Albany, when his wife gave birth to their first child, a baby girl.   He left Albany immediately, arriving at his home at midnight.  He found that his wife was nearly comatose due to childbirth complications and that his mother was also seriously ill. He went immediately to his wife, holding her for two hours until told that his mother’s condition was critical.  He went downstairs, where his mother died in his arms an hour later.  Roosevelt then rushed upstairs to his wife.   He held her for several hours until she also died in his arms.  It was the afternoon of February 14^th, Valentine’s Day, the fourth anniversary of his engagement.  Roosevelt was totally devastated.  He had to go somewhere to heal, and he went to North Dakota and became a rancher.  Driving through the beautiful scenery of the park we could see how Roosevelt was emotionally restored by his retreat into the area.  Later in his life, after he had remarried and had five additional children, he returned many times to the beauty of North Dakota.

Our last day in Medora Russ and I played golf at a course called “The Bully Pulpit”, which was again a reference to Teddy Roosevelt.  The golf course was etched out of the badlands and provided

Bully Pulpit Golf Course

breathtaking views.  Neither of us played well, but the experience was amazing.  It had been a beautiful day and we decided to buy tickets that evening for the Medora Musical, billed as The Best Musical in the West.  A dinner of steak or chicken with all the trimmings was available prior to the Musical, which was held outdoors on a high hill overlooking Medora.  We, of course, bought tickets for the dinner as well as the show.

We changed from our golf clothes and drove up the hill where the dinner and concert would be held.  Overhead dark clouds had formed just west of us, and we grew concerned as to whether the concert would take place.  The wind had picked up, but it didn’t disturb the two hundred or so people eating at benches in the open air.  We were each given a large metal tray similar to the ones used in prison movies of the 1930’s and 1940”s.  Actually, eating at our benches we looked a little like we belonged in one of those old movie scenes.  The meal was basic beans, meat, salad and bread, but very good.  At 6:30pm there was a mass exodus from the dining area, and we assumed they were anxious to get down to the amphitheater just below us.   We had reserve seats and the show didn’t start until 7:30pm, so we remained at our bench with a handful of other stragglers and

Everyone else is Leaving

enjoyed the view.  After a few minutes we meandered to the edge of the overlook and looked down at the town.  The wind was blowing from the east, and as the storm was to the west we assumed the show would be performed.

 Storm Overhead - Ignorance is Bliss

Suddenly, out of nowhere the wind shifted with a tremendous force, and the storm was moving toward us.  Now, I am an adopted Texan, and I’ve seen lots of prairie storms, but I never experienced anything like this.  Russ said later he thought the wind was blowing sixty miles an hour at us, whereas moments before it had been blowing in the other direction.  We literally had to crouch into the wind to fight our way back to the car.  A cowboy hat blew passed me.  Russ managed to catch it, but the owner was long gone.  Dust was blowing into our eyes and face like pellets.  I could barely keep my eyes open, but had to force them so I could see my way back to the car.  We found the car and got into the front seat with a gasp of relief.  It wasn’t raining yet and Russ started the car.  The dust was swirling around us like the Wizard of Oz movie, and we entered the short line of cars filing out of the parking lot.  It was at this moment we realized that the experienced Dakota natives knew to beat it out of there before the storm hit.  We were the Morons.