Yesterday we were shown over and over God’s sovereignty and how much He enjoys surprising us with beauty and joy.
I’ll just go ahead and jump into it. Medora, North Dakota, is awesome! It is also one of the strangest little towns, I just can’t quite figure it out. But we’ll get there.
We began our journey 650 miles east of Medora in the town of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. Before we left we stopped at this cute little coffee shop called The Living Room. The barista was really nice and we had a good conversation before heading off for the morning.
I could smell it when we entered the shop, but I was still shocked when I took my first sip of the Living Room’s coffee. Their classic normal brew was a flavored roast. It had a strong cinnamon flavor or something similar. It was really really good, but it was still different. I was expecting just a normal cup of coffee, but their norm was cinnamon apparently.
The coffee was just one of those fun surprises already this early. God knew we would stop at the shop, and it was already something unexpected to us, but fully expected by God.
The next hour and a half we spent studying Revelation, listening to Harry Potter (we finished the first book today), and then stopped in Minneapolis.
You may or may not have heard of the little chain coffee shop, Caribou. In the south, they have them sporadically; usually just like 1 in each big city.
You also may or may not know this, but Caribou started in Minnesota. Up there they have a Caribou at every exit! Like Starbucks everywhere else.
Taylor and I love Caribou! They make her hot chocolate with a shot of caramel and cinnamon/cocoa on top perfect! The coffee is great too, haha!
When we figured out the original Caribou was on our route, we had to stop! It was a lot of fun! We didn’t explore all of Minneapolis, but that little subsection was really cute. We refilled our coffee and hot chocolate and then continued on our journey, listening to Harry Potter the whole way.
A few weeks ago as we were planning our trip, we probably went to Caribou several times to do it. Not once did we even think about going to the original location. They have the state of Minnesota all over their cups, but we didn’t notice.
However, going to the original Caribou location was a really special thing because Caribou has a special place in our hearts. This was another one of those special surprises the Lord had in store for us. It was not part of our plan at first, but it was part of the Lord’s.
The next portion of the drive was long, but easy. It was strange to drive like 500 miles across the same empty farmland. Every 100 miles or so you’d see a small town with some houses. One town even had apartments! Dickinson, ND where you can find a nice 2 bed, 2 bath apartment for $800 a month!
I’ve heard stories of people getting stuck in the middle of North Dakota during winter and then freezing to death. I never really grasped how that was possible being from the South. And I don’t just mean the freezing to death part. I mean if you were stuck on the side of the road in the south, you could walk to a town, wave someone down,or any number of things. You wouldn’t just freeze to death.
Out there, though. Where along our drive we saw like 4 cars, each going at least 80 (75mph speed limit), and the closest town is 100 miles away? Yea, I can see how being stranded out there would be dangerous. Add a harsh winter where snow can cover you in a few minutes and temps are below 0? It started to make sense how you could die out there.
As we drove across the land, it was just strange to think that people live out there. Not a lot, mind you. The population of Raleigh is like 450,000 in one city. The population of North Dakota, an entire state? Just 762,000! The majority of their state is farmland and it shows.
It looked similar to the farmland you can drive through in eastern North Carolina. Except multiply it by like a hundred. The land has sparse trees and spans to the horizon on both sides. It was mind-boggling, to be honest.
Just flat, empty land. I think we saw more cows than people.
However, God had another surprise for us. We had no idea it was there, but the little town we’re staying in is nestled in a really pretty canyon called the Painted Canyon.
It is absolutely gorgeous! Our jaws dropped as we drove in and looked over to see a massive canyon filled with bison and wild horses!
We knew that Medora was next to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. We didn’t know how pretty the park was; we just figured it would be long grassy rolling hills with bison. Not a gorgeous canyon expanse with wild horses on the ridge just screaming the wild west still exists.
Medora itself? It’s this really small old western town. I mean minus the whole robbing and murder danger that a lot of those towns had back in the day. In this town everyone is nice because they’re just nice, and who wouldn’t be in that beautiful terrain?
The thing we couldn’t figure out in the town is that most restaurants are only open in the summer. Like June through September. Was it Covid? Is the whole town just a little seasonal town? The population in Medora is a whopping 134!
But it’s seriously just straight from the west. The boards even make that noise as you walk over them like in all the western movies. If you’ve seen Psych, it’s just like that episode, High Noon-ish.
It’s surreal being here. I mean we ate dinner in an old saloon where people from all over have nailed cowboy hats and dollar bills on the walls and ceiling. The gas station is the super old kind with the analog numbers.
Everyone working around here, though, didn’t seem like they lived here. They were from all over; almost like this whole city is a summer camp you can stumble into. It’s so so so strange, but we would highly suggest stopping by if you have the chance! You can sit out in the evening and listen to the local music, or just hear birds chirping all around while you stare at the canyon wall and watch wild horses graze on the high ridge above. No city noise whatsoever.
Medora and the Painted Canyon were definitely a gift from God. We had no idea it was going to be there and it has just blown our minds. This is the nature of God, though. We don’t know what His plan is, but it will always be better than anything we could do on our own.
Such a cool little town! Yes, reminded me of Psych also. But back to the picture of the farmland with the beautiful blue sky, what is that sculpture type thing? Is it a water sprinkler.