Bismarck.

the highway signs are a trip by themselves. not pictured, but witnessed by us both:

Home On The Range, MT (had its own sign, with an arrow - we missed the pic, sorry)

and my favorite, which went by too fast:

Hebron, ND: The Brick City
Home of Historic Fort Sauerkraut

we came very close to going to see what such a fort would be like, but we feared both for time and the potential for really a very very strong smell.

Montana went on for what seemed like years - North Dakota was a monstrous relief. My well-travelled old friend Karen (who we will have the pleasure of seeing tonight in Minneapolis) told us to make sure we saw the badlands in ND, and so we stopped at a scenic lookout. what we found was, first of all, buffaloes.



right near the car at the lookout. yes, the look on my face is, in fact, saying: "Should we be this close to this buffalo? Shouldn't we move the car???")

but he wasn't interested in us - he was dining on the lookout grass and completely oblivious to the large number of cars who were hovering around him, either too nervous to drive by or amazed and taking pictures.

and when we parked and went to look at the badlands from the lookout, this is what we saw:


it's hard to see with the picture so small, but it's really quite amazing. and Eva is also kinda cute.

Eva wanted to drive the 36-mile loop, but it was late and we were still nearly 2 hours from Bismarck so i protested. in the end we didn't do it, which turned out to be a very good thing, as the time had changed on us and we were unaware. we were so confused when we got to the hotel that we had to call the front desk and ask them - sheepishly - what time it actually was.

luckily we're in central time for a few days. no more confusion until after chicago. off we go.