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TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
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“And the heat only cooked the smell of animal urine....” |
Our last day in Bismarck was the hottest of all our days on the trip. We decided to check out the city’s Dakota Zoo. After attempting, with failure, to get a cup of coffee at the world’s worst coffee house in town, we got protein shakes at an excellent juice bar along the way. The zoo opens at 10 and we were there when the gates opened. By 10:10 the heat started to get intense. The zoo could be nice, though we were a little disappointed. The chain-linked fence cages were covered with moss and the heat only cooked the smell of animal urine among many of the cages. The real annoyance came from the swarms of bugs that bit at us along our walk through the zoo. But, in the spirit of Joe and Frannie, we pressed on and still were able to salvage enjoyable moments throughout the morning. I was able to pet the velvety horns of a young buck deer that was feeding near the fence’s edge and Joe mastered the mating call of the elk so much that all the ladies in the elk herd came out of muddy waters in response to the mating call button he kept pushing from the observation areas of the elk. We had seen the whole zoo by noon and left for a cooler spot.
In downtown Bismarck, we stopped in at the scrapbook store for local supplies and then headed for the Peacock House for a few cold beers. After our afternoon of cold beers and hot sun, we headed back to the hotel for our last afternoon in town. Back at the pool, we cooled off and baked in the warm sun for a while. The gas station, visible from the deck of our hotel advertised the weather in Bismarck that day at 109 degrees. Although the heat would seem unbearable, and was for many of the residents of North Dakota, we embraced the dry sauna-like, no humidity. After a few hours of relaxation and sunshine, it was time to get ready for our last night in town. Our final go round would be the culmination of our vacation, a night at the PBR Rodeo at the Bismarck Civic Center.
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