TOUR AMERICA 2022, BISMARCK KOA, BISMARCK, ND

June 10, 2022

Temperature 85 Degrees, Abundant Sunshine

Medora Musical, Medora, ND

We visited Medora, ND for two reasons and this was one of them. Opening night for the 2022 season was Wednesday, June 8, 2022 and we intended to be there.

Be there, actually, in the amphitheater which was way down there. But no fear there is actually an easy way to get there.

While waiting for the doors, or in this case

the escalator gate to open to take us down

I had a chance to meet the man Teddy and his wife Edith. I made sure to thank him for the lovely national park that bears his name.

About the show, according to their web site:

In this high energy, country-western variety show you’ll see singing and dancing by the Burning Hills Singers and Coal Diggers Band, live horses on stage, a dramatic reenactment of Theodore Roosevelt’s famous charge during the battle of San Juan Hill and a BIG patriotic finale 

But I believe my sister put it best when she went to their web site: It looks like The Grand Ole Opry on steroids.

And that it was from beginning to end!

Our one host making his grand entrance. His name is Dusty Drake.

The Coal Diggers Band. What a phenomenal group of musicians. This band could play, and play they did. See that young lady in the middle with the fiddle,

Oh could she, and did she do justice to The Devil Went Down to Georgia! I’ve heard this song many, many times and this young lady could really play that fiddle.

Here we have The Burning Hills Singers with our second host, Calamity Annie in the middle wearing the red outfit. What a high energy, spectacular performance they put on for the whole two hours.

A few minutes into the show and we had our national anthem, The Star Spangled Banner. The poor rider on the white horse, that horse just didn’t want to stand still. I believe I caught him in a rare moment, because the rest of the time he kept twirling around and tying to go everywhere he wasn’t supposed to. The rider definitely had his hands full.

Continuing,

Teddy at the Medora town hall getting his picture taken with some of the town’s folk.

The men doing Elvira and oh did they nail it. They were absolutely awesome. My, could they sing.

Roosevelt’s Band of Brothers, The Rough Riders. A really moving tribute to this time in Roosevelt’s life.

And the night concluded with America the Beautiful. What I couldn’t take is a picture of, if you look in the second picture, high up on the hill behind and to the right of the Medora sign was a rider holding high the American flag with a spot light on him.

As part of the night’s performance there was also a special guest by the name of Lynn Trefzger. She is a ventriloquist/comedienne with a trunk full of zany characters. She also enlisted some unsuspecting members of the audience to be her human puppets as well. Take a moment and google her and watch some of her YouTube performances. At times some of us were laughing so hard the tears were rolling down our cheeks.

Bottom line this was a special night that we both will long remember. It was worth the trip here as well as the price for the tickets. I wish I could have embedded some of the videos I took but alas I am unable to do so. If you have a bucket list of things you feel you should do, and if you love county and western music this is a show that you just must see. You will not be disappointed. I know we weren’t.

Thanks again for spending some time with us.  It’s always great to be able to share our story with family and friends. Comments? Feel free to share them with me. And always remember, cherish every moment of every day that God gives you and live those moments to the fullest.

Our continuing mission remains the same: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before.