Medora Bound

So when we were planning our trip to the Dakotas, I asked the fabulous Tina where we should go, and she said Medora to see the musical, and this was probably the best advice anyone has ever given me in my life.  Medora is stupid beautiful, and the "South Unit" of the Theodore Roosevelt National park is here.  Teddy built a ranch, "Elk Horn," north of Medora, and this musical is in part about him.  AND THE AMERICAN SPIRIT.  We had dinner there (thankfully not the steak fondue, where pieces of meat are speared on pitchforks and dunked in boiling oil, because when we walked by at one point, the raw steak was on the spike leaning on a grubby railing.  Om nom nom) and then went on the backstage tour.

Dear Lord.

The poor girl who was giving the tour was adorable, but apparently not literate, because she was trying to read the history from a handful of lined notebook paper pages, and she stumbled over every word, repeated herself, and  said things like "the original show day-byoo-ted in 1958."  Anyway, the stage is on railroad tracks, and the buildings move 2-3 mph.  There are elks that come down on the butte sometimes, and the Teddy Roosevelt ghost rider was played by "Cowboy Lyle" for decades.  The show was originally called "Ol Four Eyes" (a nickname Roosevelt had) and then was revitalized as "Teddy Roosevelt Rides Again," and then just "the Medora Musical."  The cast trains in Minneapolis, and recruiting happens there, in Bismarck, and in Fargo.  The cast is diverse, one of the actors being from NEW YORK CITY.  The show started at 7:30.  We were seated next to this ADORABLE nana from North Dakota (they winter in Texas because of the snow) and she was impressed with my singing along with the National Anthem (Cowboy Lyle was there, and raised the flag) and since I am shallow, this immediately made us bff.  Watching her enjoy the show was almost more fun than watching it myself, because she had such a delightful laugh.  I wanted to take her home with me.  Onto the show.