This morning we set out to explore this tiny down in the daylight! At the beginning of our exploration, there is a bridge we have to drive over and it has a very distinct road noise when cars drive over it. Levi hated it! Once we were across, we realized we had gone just a bit too far and turned around to come back over it! Trista said to Levi, “Oh no, we are going back over the bridge you don’t like.”
Levi’s response was, “That is very unpleasant.” I don’t know where this kid gets his vocabulary!
Our first stop was a coffee shop to get some java! Then we headed into town and stopped at the park that the kids were anxious to explore!
Eventually, Trista somehow managed to get stuck under, yes, under the playground and John had to snake his way down there to get her out!
While we were at the park, we noticed a zipline over our heads that flew over the park. The brave members of our party really wanted to ride this thing, so, they did!
While they were in line for this, I took Levi over to see what this sideways shed that we saw was all about (I also wanted to get him into some air conditioning as today I am more worried about heat stroke than Covid). There is a place in Medora called Perception and it is based around magic and optical illusions. We got the info and then went to watch John and Trista fly through the air and then raced back over to do the Perception thing.
The first part of the experience starts in a normal looking building. There is a short video and then a number of illusions for you to play with.
This part of the tour was fun. When we were finished here, we were led over to the evil shack of horrors that is still making me dizzy! I fully understood what was going on and how the illusions work and all of that, but I was COMPLETELY unprepared for the actual experience. The shack is built on a 22 degree angle. There are elements inside that are oriented level with terra firma. Our guide explained to us that we were going to go inside and that there were handrails everywhere and it was important that everyone grab onto a handrail. Inside, I thought his warning was a bit much, but I understand safety and liabilities, so I intended to do as requested. I had no idea that once I crossed that threshold, I would grab onto that handrail with everything I had and NEVER want to let go!
Water runs ‘uphill’.
You walk into this building and your brain tells you one thing and your body tells you something else and it sends your senses into a battle for the record books! One of the ‘things’ in this building is that they have places where you can stand that are actually parallel to the ground. I was able to climb up, with a death grip and my eyes squeezed shut, but then I had a heck of a time standing straight up!
One kid on our tour (from another family) marched and climbed all over the place like a mountain goat, John seemed to be ok, but I needed to sit for a few before I was able to move on!
On our way back, we saw one more illusion opportunity!
At this point it was time for us to head back to Romeo, scrape together some lunch and get showered up for our family photo session!
So, a friend of a friend is an amazing family photographer in Minot, ND. She is so talented that I wanted to figure out how to get her to Denver to do newborn or family pictures with Cheyenne. Not long before we left, she put out a request on facebook for a certain (somewhat outdated) style of wicker chair (which would be amazing in her studio). It just so happened that our mutual friend had the EXACT same chair in her basement and we were planning a trip to North Dakota! We agreed to meet to exchange the chair and have a mini session in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This came up after we were on the road, but we managed to put together some coordinating outfits for the occasion. I was blow drying my hair in the park bathroom and some lady looked at me and said, “You are WAY too dressed up for Medora!” This is the most dressed up I have been in a while (I don’t want to admit how long it even took me to locate my makeup bag and in the end I didn’t even wear any make-up at all).
We met up with Lu and her daughter and enjoyed our time together! The chair has found it’s new home! We’ve been hauling this chair around with us for over 2 weeks. One gentleman in SD inquired about the chair. I texted Lu and Jeannie, “Had a chance to sell the chair. Didn’t. You’re welcome.”
It was pretty hot after this so we headed back to cool off. We had a new family staying in the spot behind ours and of course, Trista and John quickly made friends. Trista came into the RV to tell me about Paige. I said, “Wait. What?” Apparently Trista has a Paige in every port… She has a friend in Dubois named Paige that she loves to play with, in South Dakota she made friends with Paige from Wisconsin and played for a couple of days and now we are parked next to Paige from San Francisco!
When I came out of the RV, I brought the state stickers with me so that I could give Romeo some new bling!
Our new friends from San Francisco were quite excited to witness the ceremonial application of new stickers to our state map. We have actually had a few conversations about our map on this trip.
We finished the day with dinner outside under this gorgeous sunset!
