Day 28-August 8

 Photos from Day 28

Clean Coal?

The typical coal train had two engines in the front and one in the rear.

Comments from Day 27

Our route on Day 27

We left our campsite at 6:30 this morning, anxious to tour the park with minimal crowds and hopefully maximum wildlife.  The buffalo had moved on from the area surrounding our campsite but as we followed the main road through the park we eventually encountered two different large groups of buffalo,  plus a mule deer, and lots of prairie dogs.  It was a real treat to be touring the park at such an early hour, selfishly we didn’t want to share this drive with anyone else.. 

One of our first side trips off the main road was to see Theodore Roosevelt's Peacefully Valley Ranch where TR stayed on one of his first visits to this area. Both his wife and his mother had recently died and he wanted to find peace and seclusion while he recovered from the grief of their deaths.  

We originally intended to spend the whole day in the South Unit of the park, but since it was lightly misting, we skipped the hikes that we had planned, and headed east to our next destination.  Since we were ahead of schedule,  we decided to push on, finally stopping for the night in at a Marriott in Fargo, which is North Dakota's largest city.  

It had been 5 days since he had last showered, and finding go WiFi was equally as challenging, so we were happy to spend the extra dollars on some creature comforts.

Fargo was a surprisingly modern and growing city, nothing like the cold, drab, rural town that we imagined after watching the movie by the same name which was released in 1995.  Taking advantage of our urban setting, we went out for dinner at an Indian dinner of samosa, naan. chicken tikka marsala, and biryani.