TR Mosaic

Yesterday, the temperatures here rose to near-tropic levels as the thermometer hit 31 degrees Fahrenheit. Because it felt like springtime, I was inspired to see if my car still worked and take a quick drive through the park. The late afternoon sun mixing with the snow-covered bluffs was gorgeous. I thought it might be nice to share some of the pictures I've taken in the park so far this winter. Here they are:

Big Bird: This guy could get into our bird feeder by climbing up the porch railing and across the screen. The day he knocked the bird feeder off the window and fell with it to the ground was the last day we saw the squirrel.


Keyhole: Nathan and I went hiking the day before Thanksgiving. It was a great idea and an awful idea. Great because the weather was beautiful and we were surely the only ones hiking the park that day. Awful because the trails were very, very muddy from all the snow...and I fell :)


Crystal Light: These feathery ice crystals appeared on our back door for Cowboy Christmas.


Sun dogs: Have you ever seen this happen? It's amazing - formed when the cirrus or cirrostratus clouds are made up of ice crystals according to wikipedia.


Snowy Trail to Heaven


A River Runs Through It


TR's Frozen TundRa


3:45pm: Sentinel Butte at Sunset

A Medora Christmas

I have to admit, I was a little bummed to find out that I had to spend my Christmas in Medora, ND this year - no one around, not a whole lot to do. However, there are some fantastic things that happen in Medora around Christmas time - here are just two:

Cowboy Christmas
Back on December 5th & 6th, we got to experience our very first "Cowboy Christmas". It's a two-day celebration that includes everything from Christmas Dinners & Dances to a Fowl Fling (I never did find out what that was...). Starting Friday night, there are a whole series of events and we went to just a couple of them.

Chowder @ the Cowboy Cafe - None of the restaurants in Medora are open, so when we found out that the Cowboy Cafe - literally 20 feet behind our apartment - was going to have an Oyster Chowder night, we were there. It's always pretty comical to walk into a room of native Medorans. No one really knows who you are and this room seemed to have an unspoken rule that if you didn't have gray hair, you weren't allow. Of course that not true - everyone is really friendly and the dinner of chowder, a sandwich, and tiny cheesecake bite was pretty good! We opted not to go to the Cowboy Christmas Jamboree, which took place both Friday and Saturday nights.

Eats on the Streets - The next day was the main event and we started off by participating in Eats on the Streets. The whole town opens up for three hours and everyone serves homemade food & treats. On the menu was pulled pork sandwiches and cookies at the Schaeffer Heritage Center, Bison Chili at Woolly Boys Saloon, and some BBQ sausages & corn on the cob at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. We had to quit early since Nathan had to go back to work - but never fear, the Visitor's Center was participating as well with cheese, crackers, and olives. If you're thinking of coming to Medora in the winter, I would recommend timing it to coincide with Eats on the Streets.

Fireworks - Saturday night there was another dinner, a mass, a jamboree, some other events, and finally everything was topped off by some fireworks. Not just any fireworks, though - fireworks shot off the bluff right next to our apartment! Just when the show was about to start, it began to snow. It was beautiful - snow fireworks against the bluffs with a couple of misfires lighting tiny fires in the backyard. You can't beat that!



Audubon's Annual Christmas Bird Count
On Sunday we did something really stupid - we braved the -40 degree wind chills, hopped in the a Durango, and headed to the closed loop road to count birds. The Audubon Christmas Bird Count is over 100 years old, making it the longest-running Citizen's Science project in the world (I'm not kidding, check out the full press release here)!

Nathan has been excited for this for weeks, so a little cold weather wasn't going to hold him back! However, it did hold back the birds. Along an entire stretch of the 36-mile loop road we saw 16 birds - that's it!! The most exciting of which were a Golden Eagle and a Falcon-thing we didn't fully identify. We, however, did see a lot more mammals than birds - bison, deer, very close elk, and a group of around 60 pronghorns (which I've never actually seen in the park), made the trip totally worth the frost bite and finger amputations.

Natural or Artificial Flavor

For anyone that's ever wondered whether it's better to have a Natural vs. Artificial Christmas Tree - here's your answer:

Christmas Tree Environmental Impact Assessment

If you don't want to wade through eight pages of detail, here's what you need to know:

Unless you keep the artificial tree for 20 years and continue to use it afterward, a natural tree has a smaller impact on climate change.

When compared on an annual basis, the artificial tree has three times the negative impact on climate change and human health. However, the artificial tree is four times better in terms of ecosystem quality.

My conclusion? I think we're all better off using a tree like the one we have in our North Dakota apartment. Made of recycled materials, minimal decorations, and the best part is, your pets won't try to eat it:



Merry Christmas!!

North Pole Post

I was just digging around on the United States Postal Website and found this FAQ: How to obtain a North Pole Postmark on a letter from Santa

At first I thought, hey, that's kind of cool! However, the more I thought about it, the more I started to feel like a giant Christmas scrooge. You see, the letter actually goes all the way to Alaska for the postmark. So, not only are you going WAY out of your way to lie to your children about Santa, you're also wasting quite a bit of gas to get your letter up to Alaska and back - all for someone that lives in the same house with you!

I know, I know, I bet kids would really get a kick out of this...but there has got to be a cheaper and GREENER way to feed our kid's irrational fantasies!

Truly Black Friday

This year, my first Thanksgiving in North Dakota, I briefly considered driving all the way to Bismarck (two hours from here) to shop some of the incredible deals I imagined stores having due to the horrible state of our economy. Luckily, I came to my senses and realized that I could get the same deals, be much more comfortable, and save time and gas by shopping online!

It was heaven. While others were out braving the cold and crowds, I sat comfortably in my pajamas checking off almost everyone on my list. Most places now allow you to order gift cards online and almost everywhere offered free shipping. I'm not really sure why you want to even leave the house on the Friday after Thanksgiving - not now that I know how beautifully simple shopping can be.

The reason why this Friday was truly black is this story: Trampled Walmart Employee

That's right, someone died just so that a couple hundred people could get their hands on the latest video game, toy, or electronic gift. I can't express how disgusting this is. We should be able to enjoy capitalism in an orderly fashion. In addition to these shoppers being prosecuted for what they've done, this man and the incident should be remembered in a way that prevents more insanely unnecessary deaths. My idea? Close all the stores on Black Friday next year and declare it "Fiber-Optic Friday". At least then it wouldn't have to be so black.

Movies in Beach

Over the past week and a half that I've been in North Dakota, the two most exciting things I've done have been in Beach, ND - the Bijou Showhouse to be exact. Click on that link and you'll get a tour of exactly what you'd see if you were there, in all its small-town glory.

The Bijou Showhouse is the closest theater to Medora, ND. I blogged about it last year, but as a recap, here's what you need to know. It plays one movie per weekend with Friday, Saturday, and Sunday showings only. The owner is a nice guy by the name of Emmanuel who is a Beach transplant - sent there by a spiritual adviser to start a new life. If you go to a movie there, you may as well stop for dinner at La Playa Mexican Restaurant, where it's ok to show up 30 minutes before the movie starts because you'll finish your food and be ready to enter the theater with the rest of Beach at exactly 7:30pm. That's right, there is absolutely no need to get there until the show is suppose to start because there are so few people in line and Emmanuel will wait to start the show until the main group has taken their seats. If you want something to eat during the show - no problem! For $5 you can get three boxes of candy and two cans of soda. Regular tickets are still only $6.

We went to see the Cohen Brother's Burn After Reading and Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist for the last two weekends. Last Sunday, we had a bit of a panic attack when La Playa was closed for dinner. There's really not much else in town, so we tried the Dairy Queen - only ice cream. So we drove back out to the highway and checked out the restaurant attached to the Flying J - Country Market. It turned out to be a very viable option - actually, who am I kidding - they had the best fried chicken I'd ever had. Mmm, mmm!

So, if you're wondering what we do in ND besides watch repeated episodes of Arrested Development. Rest assured that we keep ourselves busy enjoying the squishy, magenta chairs and comfy atmosphere of the Bijou Showhouse.

Curry Turns Back and Life In Camp

Today Show video on what life is like in camp:
Kili Camp

HOWEVER, don't get the wrong impression. NBC spent a lot of money on their team because a precious few camps have private bathrooms with seats and dining tents with tables. See my Kilimanjaro post to understand what it's really like in a Kili Camp.

Also, it appears that Ann will not make it to the top. I don't blame her - this hike is not a cake walk: Turning Back at 16,000 Feet

They missed a pretty spectacular glacier at the top, but I think their mission to bring footage of the melting Equatorial Glaciers was accomplished. Congratulations!