The 'Peg and Rough Riders, Day 12, August 18, 2024

 We were sorty to leave the Badlands and watched the scenery slowly slip away and change into the rolling and then flat prairies as we went further eastward.

East of Dickinson you can get off the Interstate and take the Enchanted HIghway, which features a series of scrap metal sculptures, all made by one man. We exited at the first sign we saw and went to this statue of leaping deer. 

On the other side of the Interstate is Geese in Flight, the world's largest scrap metal statue, and it is indeed huge. 

From there, however, we did not see any indication as to where the remaining statues were located, so back to the Interstate we went.

But this was to be the day of large sculputures! Our next stop was Salem Sue, the World's Largest Holstein Cow, near Salem, ND. She proudly stands on top of a hill. 

Before we got back on the Interstatem we stopped to fill up the tank at a place which seems to offer everything one might need. 

We had yet another McDonald's lunch in Bismarck. From there we started seeing huge fields of sunflowers, and I do mean huge! 

As I said, it was Big Statue Day, and of course we felt compelled to see the World's Largest Bison in Jamestown, ND.

He is 26 feet (7.9 meters) high. Yes, it is male, Yes, it is anatomically correct. Yes, I looked.

We had a good laugh at the person who wondered how they carved such a big statue. It is, of course, poured concrete

Right around the corner is the North American Bison Discovery Center, formerly the National Buffalo Museum. We found it quite interes

ting and informative, and were glad we visited it. 

At one point in the late 1800s, railroad companies offered "hunts". They would supply passngers with rifles, stop the train, let the passengers shoot as many as they wanted to, and then drove on.

Live like a bsion.

Afterwards we made our obligatory Walmart stop. It was a shock to see this sign at the entry 

Although I must say we did not see any weapons anywhere at all. Thank goodness,

I was also not thrilled to see these M&Ms. Is nothing sacred??

Our motel was a bit strange. We drove up to the Econo Lodge, where we had our reservation, only to see a handrwitten paper sign saying "Check in at the Super 8", on the other side of the parking lot. The young woman there basically said that she ran both of them, everything was cool, and that we could have breakfast at either one the next morning.

We went back and unloaded our suitcases and were the only ones in the building, which was a very odd feeling!

Dinner was across the road at Applebees, and when we got back to the motel there were a few more people there. The room was nice enough and the breakfast fine, but I still had a strange feeling about the whole sitatuation.