We got a nice early start on Wednesday and crossed into North Dakota at Fargo by 8:00 AM  We were able to make better time since we were now on divided highway. Our breaks were at rest areas along I-94. Driving through North Dakota reminded me of driving through Nebraska. We started out with corn fields, changed to mostly wheat and then much drier, more rugged terrain on the west side.

We stopped just before the National Park at the Painted Canyon overlook and got some good shots there.

Five miles up the road we exited for our first National Park visit of the trip - the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Once we were in the park we discovered that our campground was five miles in with the only access over some pretty steep and curvy roads. Piece of cake for my excellent motor home driver :-) Right at the entrance to the campground we came upon a group of 30+ bison. We found our campsite, parked the camper and walked back to take some photos ... at a safe distance unlike the guy on the motorcycle in the video:

We went back to the camper parked on this fabulous site ...

... that we would not get to use (the rest of that story coming up) and decided to drive some of the scenic loop around the park. We had to wait at the campground entrance for the bison to decide to share the road but that gave us some more opportunity for photos and video.

We started on the scenic loop for a couple of miles and stopped at a couple of turnouts for some great photos ...

... but then decided this was not the road to take with a motor home. It was steeper and curvier than the road to the campground so we turned back and decided to leave the park and check out the town of Medora just outside the park.

We filled up the tank and as we were pulling out of the gas station Jim noticed the breaks were very soft so he pulled over on one of the side streets of Medora. We walked back to the gas station and bought some break fluid and he put some in but the fluid was not down much so that didn’t seem to be the problem. After the camper sat for awhile the breaks were performing better again however we realized then that returning to the Cottonwood Campground would not be a good idea. Instead we drove over to a private campground in Medora and got a spot there for the night. Jim called Ron Overbeek for some advice and decided that there was most likely air or water in the break lines (which was aggravated with the driving we had done in the park that heated up the breaks). Jim jokingly said to Ron that he should make a service call to which Ron replied that he would be coming our way next week. Come to find out they are heading out to Glacier next week and our time in Glacier will probably overlap with theirs. The unbelievable part about that is the only other time we visited Glacier National Park, about 15 years ago, Ron and Linda were also there at the same time and we met up with them for an evening together.

So our time in the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was much shorter than planned but once again God’s hand of protection was very obvious.