Around the World With Uncle Moose: Moose Jaw, North Dakota, Deadwood and Sturgis

28 July 2013

We were still in the dinosaur region of Alberta, so we started off the day at Dinosaur Provincial Park, and then headed for Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Hoodoos near Dinosaur Provincial Park

Uncovered dinosaur bones at Dinosaur Provincial Park

This is what eastern Alberta looks like--oil and wheat.

This is what Saskatchewan looks like

About 50 miles west of Moose Jaw, we encountered my new favo(u)rite town--Morse, Saskatchewan.

We rolled into Moose Jaw at about 6:00, in time to encounter our first rain in about a week. Despite having a great name, Moose Jaw itself isn't that exciting, although it does have several nice murals on the sides of buildings.

A mural in Moose Jaw

Another mural in Moose Jaw

Downtown Moose Jaw, such as it is

After dinner, it started clearing up, so we went to see Moose Jaw's greatest attraction--Mac, the world's largest moose. We got a bonus rainbow.

Mac, the world's largest moose

As an additional bonus, next to Mac was a display of a Canadian Air Force Jet, which also came with a rainbow.

And to top it off, I discovered that Mac the Moose's best friend is Morse Moose. Can it get any better?

That was all the excitement we could take for the day.

29 July 2013

Today was a heavy driving day, going from Moose Jaw to Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. But I would knock off two items on my bucket list.

The first was a stop in Rouleau, Saskatchewan (the fictional town of Dog River), where the Canadian TV series "Corner Gas" was filmed. If you haven't seen Corner Gas, it's well worth it--check it out at http://www.youtube.com/user/cornergastvshow. If you have seen it, you know why it was absolutely necessary for us to stop in Dog River. After the series ended filming, the town kept all of the buildings as they were in the series (which is why the grain tower and hotel say "Dog River" instead of "Rouleau".

Inside the gas station

Inside the Ruby

Dog River Town Hall

After leaving Dog River/Rouleau, we traveled through 100 miles of wheat and oil fields so I could cross the border into North Dakota and collect my 50th state.

W00T!! 50!!

My delight in being in North Dakota nonwithstanding, I must say that I can add northwest North Dakota (Williston) to the Opryland Hotel and Manta, Ecuador on the list of Places I Don't Need to Go Back To. The area is a big oil drilling and fracking boom town, which means:

Oil rigs everywhere
Bumper to bumper traffic of huge oil trucks and equipment carriers
Trailer parks
Extended-stay motels
More trailer parks
Bars
More trailer parks

Oil rigs everywhere

Bumper to bumper traffic of huge oil trucks and equipment carriers

Trailer parks

This is what North Dakota is supposed to look like

Eventually we escaped from the Williston area, and arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, a couple of hours south.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Next to the National Park is the town of Medora, where Roosevelt spent a lot of time during the late 1880's. We spent the night at the Rough Riders Hotel, which I highly recommend (especially the restaurant). Medora turned out to be one of the pleasant surprises of the trip.

Rough Riders Hotel

Central Medora

Medora commercial district

30 July 2013

Today we headed back through the Black Hills to Rapid City. Our first stop was Deadwood, which we had bypassed on our drive through the Black Hills at the beginning of the trip. Deadwood is an old Western town, that has been transformed (not to its benefit) into a casino destination.