Alaska Bound!

 Wednesday May 25, 2022 - We're finally off to Alaska!  We drove 5.5 hrs to the Wisconsin Dells, had a beer at the River Walk Pub, and walked around the town (which looked abandoned, but I'm sure will be hopping this weekend!  Then we drove a bit further and slept in the Mauston rest area on I90.

Pulling out of the driveway!

Dinner at a rest area in Wisconsin

Beers at River Walk Pub, while we waited for the rain to pass

River Walk

Wisconsin River running through the Dells

Thursday May 26, 2022 - We drove another 5.5 hours this morning to Fergus Falls, MN.  We got tickets to see Top Gun Maverick at the Fergus Falls theater.  What a crowd for opening day (there were about 10 of us)!  After the movie we wandered around the town and found a few little interesting spots.  They aren't kidding when they call Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes!  Fergus Falls was full of wetlands!  Once the sun set we went to the Fergus Falls Walmart for the night.  

Otto the Otter in Adams Park.  Fergus Falls is in Otter Tail County so I guess they thought they needed an otter mascot 

Kev thought he could ride the otter

A very abandoned movie theater for Top Gun, but it was really good!

in the evening we hung out at the Prairie Wetlands Learning Center

Dinner with a view

a bench that's part of the sign, how cool!

An after dinner walk around the wetlands, with a view of Tiny

Friday May 27, 2022 - We got up early and headed off to North Dakota.  We spent the afternoon at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (the "other badlands").  What a beautiful spot.  It's very similar to the South Dakota badlands, but much greener.  We did a hike from Painted Canyon rest area down into the canyon and then went to the South Unit entrance to see the Maltese Cross Cabin that was Roosevelt's when he first lived in North Dakota.  There was a small museum at the information center and a short movie.  Next we headed to Medora to walk around and have a beer before a night on BLM land (Scoria Pit dispersed camping).  What a beautiful spot for the night!  Kevin spent some time flying the drone and we enjoyed having a piece of the badlands all to ourselves. 

We got an early start...thanks Walmart!

We stopped at Painted Canyon Rest Area which is part of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, for a quick hike

We saw lots of bison cow pies, but only one bison

The Maltese Cross Cabin that Roosevelt lived in

This cabin has a bench built into the side!

love the antlers over the front door

We walked around Medora looking like locals

We have to stop here!

beers on the roof of the Little Missouri Saloon

We ran into my buddy Ted

Home for the night

A storm rolled through but missed us.  It was quite the beautiful spot

Kev's drone video of our campsite