Rained Out

One of the places we planned to stop on our way west was at Teddy Roosevelt National Park, which is set in the North Dakota Badlands. We spent the night in Bismarck and headed to Medora in the morning. As we traveled, the landscape suddenly shifted from flat, green farmlands to what are known as the Badlands. The Native Americans gave the lands this name, as the terrain wasn't much good for settling in. It sure is amazing to look at, though! We saw bison, deer, prairie dogs, and wild horses in the park.

My one planned golf excursion was also going to be here in Medora, at a new golf course called Bully Pulpit. Some courses are shaped by excavators and dump trucks and designs that reshape the land, but Bully Pulpit is one of those courses that embraces the land that it's given and uses its natural beauty and/or ruggedness to determine the layout of the course. The picture above is the green at #1, and you can see one of the Badland ridges in the background. It turned out to be 25% of my golf experience, as it started raining on #2, started pouring on #3, and pretty much turned into a typhoon on #4. I've played in rain and snow, but this wasn't making it. Half the purpose was to photograph the natural beauty, but I didn't dare take my camera out after this hole. Oh well. I do need to mention that, unlike many courses, I did get a full refund. Kudos to Bully Pulpit! If you want to see more, check it out here: http://www.medora.com/bully-pulpit/

All was not lost, as we got an earlier start toward our destination for that night. Originally we were going to stay in Glendive, MT, but we were having a hard time getting a decent price, even via Priceline. So we tried Billings and had much better luck. We passed through Glendive on our way, and I'm not sure who Glen is, but the place seemed to be pretty much a dive. Because of the rainout, we didn't have to drive until midnight to get to Billings.

As a result, we changed our plans from a northern to a southern route through Montana, and it turned out to be a good choice. The scenery here is quite beautiful. Our journey the next day took us through Bozeman and Helena on our way to Kalispell. It just so happened that while we were refueling in Helena, the Thunderbirds F-15 team flew over our heads, low and loud! We had driven into the middle of an airshow! We pulled away from the pump and into a parking space to watch the show. Bonus!