Thursday, July 22, 2010

Montana

Today, I journeyed to Montana. I will post some pictures and stories soon.

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Tourism and the American Family

Medora claims to be North Dakota's #1 Vacation (obviously they've never been to Whapeton, which is the only other place in ND I've ever been besides Maddock, which was a terrible trip.) One of the big marketing ploys is that kids get in free to the Medora Musical on Sundays and Wednesday when accompanied by an adult. Everything is supposedly kid friendly. Some of the songs in the musical have been tweaked a little or else it's just overlooked. Lexie works hard and plays harder but her dad is the producer so...we just let her party til her last dollar.

Almost the entire town tries to cater to families from the gift shops to the motels to the other random attractions.




















Teddy's Bears, Stage Barn and Cowboy Lyle's Candy Shop all cater to children or the child at heart. Many a child comes out with their newly stuffed animals and the parents with a slightly lighter wallet. Shopping experiences are never a really a bonding moment for families. Kids burst with envy when their sibling gets more than them or get something that they just realized that they wanted too. This results in a red faced, screaming and crying child. Why not take that child to get ice cream?
Medora Fudge and Ice Cream Depot and the Marquis de Mores Ice Cream Parlor both cater to the ice cream need.














There's nothing better than treating a tired and crabby child to whole cone of sugary goodness.
When working the front desk, the best part is when the children run around pretending to be dogs while the mom is hurriedly trying to check in. North Dakota is a large sized state so it's at least two hours from anywhere to Medora. By the time they get here the moms are stressed the kids are hyper and the dads are tired from driving. It doesn't help the kids have been eating junk food for most of the trip either, if they got their way.
Some of the cast of the musical sings and face paints on Wednesday and Sunday afternoons at 5pm to get the kids excited for the musical. The songs include "The Wheels on the Bus" with the lovely line that the bike on the bus goes "I'm a bike."














This is Buffalo Alice painting a child's face.

Tourism really brings out the worst in people. So while everyone coming here is tired and crabby, us employees are just trying to make money to go to college so we'll do anything for tips.