Into Montana

We had a great start yesterday and did an easy ten miles to the Painted Canyon Visitor's Center in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The scenery here was stunning. There were buttes and cones, eroding hillsides and winding canyons unfolding for miles and miles beyond our hilltop vista. And there were bison too. We managed to spot two from up above the grasslands. I'm sure there were many more down in the park. Rach and I chatted with a number of vacationers interested in our travels and handled a bison horn and hide in the visitor's center. As we left we saw a group of prairie dogs poking their heads up from their holes at the side of the freeway.

After a few snacks, we hit the road again and did about seven miles to the western town of Medora. The town proudly proclaims its historic claim to the pioneer days with a miniature shooting gallery for kids, museums documenting the settling of the American west, and tons of buildings built with raw, gnarled wood to give it a proper sense of the past. Rach thought they might have been hamming it up a little for the visitors. We had a sensational lunch at the Cowboy Cafe. It was Saturday so the place was humming and we enjoyed our black bean burgers while taking in all of the framed photographs of the local notable cowboys on the wall. Medora also had a well-stocked bike shop and I got a great replacement tire for a great price as my rear tire had just about bit the dust.

We hopped back on Interstate 94 to continue on. (There are very few roads out here so bicyclists must use the freeway. It has a wide shoulder.) This is the point when the high times of the day would conclude and things got a little too memorable. We exited the freeway for Route 106 and the wind began to pipe up and our pace began to slow down. When your chain begins to strain and gasp in protest of the effort of your legs, things are not looking good. Then it began to rain. There was an abandoned wooden shack just off the road so Rach and I hid in there for a while. While it no longer had all of its roof, it did help. We continued and the wind grew stronger and stronger. Our progress slipped into the single digits and we had to be sure to ride with both hands on the handlebars as gusts shoved us around the road. Thankfully there was next to no traffic during this stretch.

We arrived in a tiny town called Sentinel Butte to find that the only store was closed. By this point, the day was dragging on so we modified our first plan of camping farther along the route for stopping short at a motel. These final miles went by slowly as we crawled down the road. It was blowing 20 miles an hour against us and the sky was a frosty white with barely a tint of blue. Finally, we made it to Beach, North Dakota and Rach squeaked in just as the grocery store was closing to buy us some fixings for dinner. We found our home for the night at the Buck Board Inn and rested from the struggle of the miles gone by.

Today the wind was not as bad but was certainly not our ally either. The morning offered a cold start as we both wore our arm warmers until hours later the sun began to gather strength. We entered Montana and by now only have five more states to go: Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California. My mind was mush at first. I was groggy and cold but some dates eventually began to perk me up. We did another shorter day to a town of around 5,000 called Glendive. Our stove had been having issues recently and we discovered that one of its o-rings was crushed and preventing a proper seal between the stove and fuel canister. To our great delight, we found a large hardware store open on Sunday just as we came into Glendive. The folks at Runnings were very helpful and our replacement part cost a whopping 43 cents. This was important as hot drinks and hearty oatmeal are important for morale.

The short day gave us more time to rest this afternoon and evening and we walked downtown to a place with great beer and adequate pizza. Rach stocked us up on food as we're approaching another stretch of limited stores. Tonight we camp in Lloyd Square Park and tomorrow continue across Montana.

Keeping warm in the latest fashions

Spot the bison

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Badlands

New state!

In Glendive