Bob and I are currently in a Motel in Mobridge, South Dakota, so called because it features a bridge across the Missouri (MO) River. Because we’re planning as we go, we were pleasantly surprised that we’ve arrived during this town’s largest annual celebration, July 2-4. In addition to US Independence Day, they also have a nightly rodeo + tent dance, and hold high school class reunions. I biked down to the parade yesterday – it was a typical small town parade, but it was cool that each graduating class had their own float. Last night I went to the rodeo while Bob hung out with Sammy in the hotel. I was able to enjoy mutton busting for the first time (last time, I was the kid on the sheep).
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Today is our first rest day since Miles City, Montana. Since then we’ve covered 428 miles (689 km). That included our leg through North Dakota – the one I had dread the most, but which honestly turned out to be one of the best thus far. It’s a rainy day here, off and on, which is helping us remain focused on route planning (more on that later). But the sun has come out for a moment, so I’m cooking up some burgers on the Coleman.
The country flattened out significantly in eastern Montana. While the scenery may not have been as exciting as the west, everyone we met out there was very friendly. As I mentioned, I’d been dreading North Dakota, and those feelings felt confirmed when I crossed the border on the shoulder of I-94, only to find it construction that made it a 2 lane with no shoulder. But things quickly improved at Beach, ND, where I caught Old Highway 10, and could go miles without any vehicle traffic.
We stayed the night in Medora, which is just outside Theodore Roosevelt National Park. While I arrived pretty late, I talked Bob into going into the park and driving around before dinner. This isn’t a park you hear about much, but it was beautiful, with a lot of wildlife. We were welcomed by a herd of buffalo right at the entrance, and saw more inside, along with several wild horses. The next morning I pulled into a rest stop just outside of Medora and found more buffalo roaming the parking lot.
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The next day was a slog. It started with 15mph headwinds which grew to 25mph+ by lunch. I tried to get ahead of it by starting early, but that plan was hindered by my phone not automatically changing timezones so my alarm went off an hour late, and then I got a flat a couple hours in that took a while to fix. It finished with about 10 miles of gravel that I wasn’t expecting. There was also a surprise highway closure for bridge work that my routing services didn’t know about, and Bob got to watch my GPS icon frogger up an exit ramp and across both lanes of the interstate to get across. It ended up taking me 13.5 hours door to door. But it was cool, with low humidity, traffic was low and the gravel was actually really fun now that I have appropriate tires.
In other news, I have developed a terrible donut habit. I blame Denise for getting that started, and the bakeries in Dickinson and Mandan for keeping it going. Luckily the one across the street from me is closed for the holiday.
My friends Heather and Curtis drove out to meet us in Bismarck. Curtis is working on a goal of biking 100 miles in each of the states, and this was his chance to capture North Dakota. Curtis and I road together to the North/South Dakota border – 80 miles of no towns, beautiful farmland, nice roads and very little traffic. Having Curtis to talk to made the ride fly by. Here we are in Middle Dakota, doing our best Mount Rushmore impersonation:
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After this morning’s planning session, we now have a target destination – Portland, Maine. That will put the total mileage at about 4300. That means we should be crossing the half-way mark in the next week! We’ll be travelling south to Fort Thompson over the next 2 days, then start travelling northeast to Minnesota. We expect to land in Minneapolis around July 18. Whitney is flying in to spend the weekend with us, and we’ll be hosted by our friends Chris and Doug, and also catch up with the Madetzkes. Then we’ll move on to Wisconsin, where my mom plans to fly in and meet us for a Brewers game. From there we plan to ferry over Lake Michigan, where we hope to meet up with some of Bob’s friends Jimmy and Jean who should be travelling back west at that time, and I’ll ride into Canada for a section to see Niagara falls. From Buffalo to our finish in Maine we plan to mostly follow the “Northern Tier” bike route. We’re hoping to finish with enough time that I can drive back to Colorado with Bob and still have a week or so to catch up with the family before I start back at work in September.
But before all of that, we need to finish celebrating our rest day and the 4th in the most American way possible – with fajitas and margaritas!