Wright Travels

WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

September 1, 2021

The afternoon before we left IL I was able to join three dear friends and celebrate a 75th surprise birthday party:

Carol, Mame, Audrey and I worked together for many many years and ate may lunches together and have continued to stay in touch and get together whenever we can.

We left Illinois 2 1/2 weeks ago and we have been on the go!! We started out spending 5 days in Pelican Lake, WI with my son Stephen and our grandson Vincent.

The motorhome tucked in amongst all the shade trees

Stephen and Vincent tented it in a lovely site right by the lake, piers and playground

Vincent made good use of the playground most everyday

And sometimes one just needs to take a nap so that more playing, fishing and swimming can be done!

We had the opportunity to visit my cousin, Mary Butterfield Peddle, and her husband Jim

it was so good to see them

The next day we drove to visit my niece, Val O'Neill Strzyz, and her husband Tom at Pickerel Point Resort. They bought the resort a few years ago and did a lot of remodeling and the first week they were open they were shut down due to Covid!!! They used the time to do more work on the resort and have been fully open this summer. They have cabins, restaurant and bar. We had only planned on spending one day there but we had such a great time went back for another and Steve & Vincent are going back up next week for a few days and staying in a cabin.

Val and Tom

Steve and Vincent doing what dads and sons do

Vincent learning to paddle

Be still my heart

Val & Tom had just come up with a recipe for BLT Pizza and it got our approval!!

Vincent helping Nana make Daddy's birthday custard pie

But all good things must come to an end - so it was time for goodbyes and Nana and Grandpa to hit the road. Will certainly miss these two.

Highway 2 runs from Michigan to Washington and we had decided to take it out to Montana. We picked in up in Minnesota and spent several days near Duluth. Jerry visited the Richard Bong Air Museum and we also drove part of the North Shore Scenic route up along Lake Superior. The route is 61 miles long and ends at the Canadian border. There are a lot of small towns and 8 state parks along the route. We did not go all the way - how many miles of beautiful coast line does one need to see!

Teddy wading in Lake Superior

Our first night in North Dakota was spent at Prairie Village Museum in Rugby, ND We were able to spend the night in their parking lot with Harvest Hosts and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the museum. They had 26 historic buildings and 6 exhibit halls arranged as a quaint village square. Like walking through a turn of the century prairie town.

The village was so real looking you expected residents to walk out at anytime.

There were no restrictions you could touch anything. Really enjoyed our time there.

Once we got to Minot, ND we turned south to head down to Bismarck and then to

Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

We had an opportunity to take a tour of the state capitol. Built in 1955 it is a 21 story art deco tower.

Beautiful elevator doors

View from the top of the tower

We spent the night at an Elks Lodge in Bismarck and they have the Theodor Roosevelt Bar

It originated in St Louis and was eventually brought up the Missouri River to Pierre. Then shipped to the Black Hills and to Medora, ND. The bar was frequented by Teddy Roosevelt and Tom Mix. In 1961 the bar was sold to the ELKS lodge.

One never knows what one will see while driving down the road. One unusual thing we saw this trip was a giant fiberglass Holstein cow on top of a hill. Went by to fast to get a picture but learned she was named Salem Sue and sits above New Salem, ND. As we were driving down Highway 2 suddenly 6 bucks jumped in front of the motorhome to get to the other side and on another stretch highway we saw huge replicas of various dinosaurs!!

Here we are at Sully Creek State Park in Medora, ND We spent several days here and visited.

There is a South and North Unit of the park - the following pictures are from the South

There are estimated to be 400,000,000 prairie dogs in the national park that live in various prairie dog towns. They are everywhere

This guy is on guard duty so the rest can walk and run around freely

Not long after entering the park we saw a heard of wild horses

As they always say pictures don't do it justice

As we left the park we actually had to stop for some of the wild horses to cross in front of us

These two actually walked over and started licking the bugs off the hood of the car

We had a great day visiting the south section of the park but were a little disappointed we didn't see any bison.

That night we went to a wonderful musical in town. It was in a large outdoor amphitheater and the weather was perfect. The show is dedicated to Teddy Roosevelt and told his story and was very patriotic. Really was a great show.

Teddy Roosevelt even made an appearance

The next morning we drove up to the North entrance to the TRNP - we had been told it was prettier and I would have to agree PLUS the bison did not disappoint

We hadn't driven very far and this guys walked right in front of the car!!

The Little Missouri River

We had heard of the Enchanted Highway and our friend Barb encouraged us to take the drive and we are glad we did. It is a 32 mile stretch of highway with the world's largest scrap metal sculptures constructed at intervals along the highway. Each one has a nice pull off to drive in and take pictures.