Current Location: Medora Campground, Medora, North Dakota

Today was a longer travel day. When we planned out our stops, today’s stop would have originally been in the middle of oil field country in North Dakota. Campgrounds in oil field areas are full of workers and typically don’t have spaces available for travelers. We decided to make today a longer day and ended up in Medora, which is the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It was really a better stop.

Traveling across North Dakota was admittedly fairly boring. Some sections of road weren’t particularly well maintained and there really aren’t many places to stop along I-94. We fueled up at the only Flying J we found most the way across the state. There were a lot of sunflower fields, which at least broke up the tedium.

Same ol’ same ol’

Field of sunflowers

We stopped at a rest area which was also an information center for Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the nearby North Dakota Badlands and nearby canyon area. It was a fun rest stop. We stamped our National Park Passport book, picked up postcards and a t-shirt and a couple other gifts. We also grabbed some pictures.

Park entrance sign

Scenic overlook

Don’t get close to that edge

While stopped, we also called up some friends we met on Instagram, the Farnsworths. We had exchanged phone numbers earlier in the week. They were running not far behind us. We went on ahead into Medora to see if we could get two spots at the campground next to each other. We lucked out that they just had a recent cancelled reservation, so we got two sites next to each other. They ended up arriving about a half hour after us.

Our site

The Farnsworth’s invited us over for dinner – their treat. We brought drinks and a package of Oreo cookies for dessert. They travel full-time with four children (ages from 5 to 14) and homeschool on the road. They’ve been traveling for a little over a year now. We sat and talked to them for a couple hours after dinner until it was time for them to get the youngest two ready for bed.

We said our goodbyes and headed back to the trailer for the evening. Tomorrow morning, we head on into Montana. North Dakota is our 34th state that we’ve stayed in. We probably won’t get our 35th state until next year, based on our current travel plans. We primarily have the northeast yet to conquer.

Adding North Dakota to the map

Today’s license plate count – 22 of 51 plates.

License plates