Still Alive and Kicking - North Dakota Here I Come!

Tue. Aug 18, 2009 (Rode 70 miles today from Sleeping Buffalo Rock RV Camp to Nashua) Pretty rough day. I am not sure exactly why, but I was just “Out of Gas” all day. Perhaps it was because I rode quite a ways yesterday, I am not sure but I could just not get it going today.

I got up early, and had a nice hot breakfast at the little café at “Sleeping Buffalo RV Park”. The regular cook was gone so the all around go-to kid was the cook this morning. He did a decent job though.

He told the man next to me that today was the first day he ever cooked a pancake and he wanted to know if it was a good pancake. Some things are better left unsaid. My breakfast was fine.

Anyway, I got on the computer because I had electricity and a phone signal and answered a few emails and did not get going down the road till about 10:00 AM.

The wind started out in my face then within an hour became a slight tail wind. It seems to change depending on the storms and clouds. Anyway I had a slight tail wind till I got to Glasgow about 50 miles. I ate a chicken grilled burger at Dairy Queen and got back on the road. The wind picked up and blew in my face and began to sprinkle for the next 20 miles to Nashua. I was pretty shot by then.

A lady at Dairy Queen said the town let people stay in the city park in Nashua so I found it and went looking for a gas station to get some hot water for a sponge bath.

I got to the Lions Club Park and they were selling some stuff there and they told me that was the city park and it had a bathroom and shower. So Nice and Free to boot. Got cleaned up and washed my clothes in the shower and set up my sleeping bag under the picnic covered area just in time as it started to rain pretty hard. I’m glad I stopped in Nashua. I would have been soaked in the rain otherwise.

All in all the day was not too eventful. I am very tired today and I struggled most of the day to keep going.

The scenery in Montana is very pretty but today was just more unending wheat fields, train tracks and rolling hills. Nothing too spectacular.

I met a young man traveling by bike from Maine. His name was Ira and he just graduated from Law School.

I met another man riding a bike that was very interesting. He appeared to be about 50 but was pretty worn. He had long hair and a long beard and was somewhat grey. He had a broken down mountain bike with a 4 foot wide bedroll on the back and a plastic milk crate tied to the front with a bunch of stuff in it. He looked very much like he was riding a 4 foot wide grocery cart down the highway.

He was bucking headwinds and with his 4 foot wide bedroll and I imagine he was having a pretty bad time. I rode over to him to say hi and he immediately asked me if I had one of those Power Bar things. I did and I gave him one. He said thank you and gave the wrapper back to me after he ate the bar in about 3 bites.

He said he was riding from Palm Springs Florida and he was trying to stay away from girls in bikinis because they ruined him. He said people ruined his body and he was a recovering alcoholic. He also said two or three times that he was pretty sure he was a Prophet. I am pretty sure he was NOT a Prophet. You guys think I’m a weirdo; well this guy beats me all to heck.

I met a rancher later who had seen him and he asked me about him and I told him I was pretty sure the man was hungry. The rancher was nice and he took him some more food.

I am getting close to North Dakota. A couple more days and I should be there. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I might be riding in the rain all day. I’ll just have to see. Tadpoles like the water anyway.

As I have been merrily riding along I have come to have a new perspective on some things. Lori and I have traveled from Arizona to Vermont a few times and because finances were tight, we drove straight through without stopping. Not too much fun and we were pretty tired when we got to Vermont.

However, pedaling my bicycle across the country gives a whole new meaning for me concerning the term “Weary Traveler”. In the evenings many times I don’t know where I am going to stay as my day gets close to an end. I try and plan ahead but stuff happens. Wind, rain, heat, etc and sometimes things just don’t work out. Many times I am searching for a spot to stop and stay; a city park, an RV camp ground, a Forest Service camp ground, the side of the road, whatever.

I was thinking today, How must Mary and Joseph felt after traveling so far to pay their stinking taxes and then going slower because of Mary’s condition, on hot, dusty, dirty, rutty, roads, and then stopping at night and having no place to stay. No hot shower, no nice bathroom, no nice tent, no nice bicycle to hang laundry on, etc.

I wonder how the Pioneers felt as they came across the plains in the cold, mud, heat, lousy trails, river crossings, etc and had no place to stay.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I am not comparing myself to Mary and Joseph or to the Pioneers. I am traveling on nice black top roads (Most of the time) and my conditions are much better than their conditions were.

I did not have to ride a Jack Ass on a dusty dirt road for um-teen miles and then not have a nice place to stay. Lori also did not have to ride a Jack Ass for many miles to have her babies BUT she is married to a Jack Ass and I have taken her on quite a few dusty trails and that should count for something for her. I am sure God will give her some Brownie Points for putting up with me. She should get into the Celestial Kingdom pretty easy for all the Hell I have put the poor woman through.

I was just thinking that things are a much easier for most of us than they used to be in earlier times. Pedaling across America and feeling pretty worn out at the end of the day without really knowing where you are going to stay for the night is a little different than jumping in the car and going 500 or 600 miles and then staying in a nice Hotel. It just gives you a little different perspective than some other forms of traveling. I guess it makes me a little thankful that we have all the Luxuries of life that we have and we don’t even realize it most of the time.

Wed. Aug 19, 2009

Got up early and ate a couple of eggs, toast, and sausage for breakfast and got on the road by 7:30. I rode about 94 miles today to a town called Culbertson a few miles before I get into North Dakota. I still felt pretty ok when I got to Culbertson so I was going to try and get a few more miles down the road but a man here in town told me there is construction 12 miles down the road and they won’t let bicycles go through the construction. We either have to ride an extra 30 miles and go around another highway, or we have to hitch a ride in the back of some nice guy’s pickup truck. I decided to stay in Culbertson and try and talk someone into giving me a ride in the morning in the back of their truck through the construction. I need to make Minot no later than Sat morning to get some mail from Lori and that is still 175 miles away. I have a lot of hills to climb over the next 40 to 50 miles.

Today went pretty good. The wind was quartering at my back for 40 miles or so. 20 miles or so was a strong crosswind and that makes it very hard to stay on the road sometimes. The last 20 miles or so was a nice headwind again but not terrible.

A Semi-Truck passed a car today coming at me and threw a rock out of his tires and hit me in the stomach. It was about the size of a marble but it hurt pretty bad. I Lived. It would have killed a lesser man! I really did not enjoy that particular experience though. About 20 minutes later the same thing happened and a rock hit me in the forehead. After that I thought the rock in the stomach was quite enjoyable. I guess it all depends on your perspective. You think sometimes that things are a little rough and then they get worse and you realize that the first experience was not so bad after all.

This little town has a nice park to sleep in and they open the pool between 6 and 8 pm for bikers and other vagrants like me to take showers. However, tonight they decided they would not open the showers for some reason. So I got to take another nice Freezing Cold sponge bath in the park bathroom sink. Love that cold water. At least I am somewhat clean.

I felt good enough to do my pushups and sit ups this morning. 60 pushups and 70 sit-ups. They probably were not perfect form but better than nothing. I have a PT test to take when I get back home that the military will graciously give to me. I can hardly wait.
Much of Montana has large swarms of blood thirsty mosquitoes. I thought they were bad at home, but some stretches of highways here are horrible. They would follow me like hungry packs of wolves and chew on me. I put on repellent and it just attracted them more. I don’t know what was up with that.

I saw some more pretty country, a few antelope, some pretty garter snakes with blue bellies, and a couple of very nice little green snakes about the size of night crawlers that I have never seen before. (See Photo)

All in all a pretty good day. I have a couple of tough days ahead of me to get to Minot by Sat AM.

Later,

Dan