We crossed into North Dakota today. This was the easiest ride of the trip. We were on Freeway I-94 all day. The reason it was the easiest was because (1) it was 37 miles, (2) the Freeway builders filled up the low spots and chopped off the high spots so the climbs were much more gradual than in the last several days, (3) there was an 8 foot shoulder so it was a very relaxed ride in the sense of worrying about getting run over, (4) every time a truck went by his draft would pick up my speed by 2 mph for a minute, and they were coming by very often, (5) and it was overcast with a little rain so we were nice and cool, unlike yesterday’s 97 degrees.

Couldn’t find any campgrounds in the area, and Motels were all full, but I cried on the phone as I was checking for places and said we were two old, tired guys riding bicycles from the West Coast to the East coast and we really needed a place to stay for the night, so this lady took pity and gave us a room in the basement with one bed. John gets the bed and I have my very fine blow up air mattress on the floor. No air conditioning, but it does have a working ceiling fan and a shower.

Tomorrow we are headed for Dickinson, North Dakota about 64 miles ride. We will have our rest day there. I found a campground that is advertised as tents only and called and reserved a spot for us. Zoomed in on it with Google Earth and it looks like somebody’s backyard. The lady said that they had showers so it should work. Love you all. Dee

Today was supposed to be our easy day. 16 miles gradual uphill and then 40 miles gradual downhill that would be easy pedaling. I was so much looking forward to an easy day. The first 16 miles went as well as could be expected going uphill. When we started the downhill part the wind started blowing hard from the east. We had to pedal hard even to maintain 7 mph and we could have coasted faster than that without the wind. On top of the wind was the heat. It was 97 degrees when we arrived at Glendive, Montana. When we got here we pedaled to the camp site that we had planned on staying at. It had no showers, no bathroom, and no water. No thank you! We headed off to another camp ground and it was about the same. By this time I am totally run out of gas. So we are sitting in a motel room with air conditioning, nice beds, a hot tub, and free wifi. So a tough day ended well!

i am thinking that the reason that we had that big wind in our faces is because John sinned, but he thinks it was me! 

Tomorrow we enter into North Dakota. We are finding that the oil boom has made finding a campsite or motel very challenging. We might have to camp along the road. Love ya all. Dee

Rode 67 miles today and it is the new champion for the hardest day of the trip. We went up and down over 50 hills. 25 mph going down and 4 mph going up. I had to push my bike 6 times because the road was to steep for me to pedal it up. I started getting a bit whinny in my self talk as I would crest a hill thinking surly this the last one and see a literal roller coaster of them as far as I could see. I then reminded myself of some of my goals for doing this bicycle thing. Get in really good shape. Yep, these rollers were doing that for sure. Lose weight. I have lost 15 pounds so far and I have been eating like a pig and today I lost over a pound. Hills are wonderful things! Another goal for the trip is to Learn to be tough minded and develope a strong character trait of endurance. So I kept saying at the top of every hill upon seeing some more, “enjoy the challenge”!

We are camping in a field next to an RV park. There is a bathroom in the laundermat, but no shower but a truck stop a couple blocks away had showers for $5.  Well spent money. We were scheduled to bike 90 miles tomorrow, but we were so tired that we decided to do it in 2 days. We have 4 extra unsceduled days so we decided to use one. Good decision.  Love you all. Dee

I think one of the most annoying things riding a bicycle is bugs. A couple days ago we rode by a bunch of bee hives. As we rode by there were bees flying everywhere. One went in the front of my shirt and went all the way around to my back. We were barreling down a steep hill at 25 mph and I got braked and stopped as fast as I could, and as John rode up wondering why I stopped I was pulling my shirt off over my head. Got him out and didn’t even get stung!

one night camping I hung my socks on a bush to air out a bit. I only have two pair so they get kind of stinky. In the middle of the night some kind of mean bug crawled into one of my socks. The next day while riding I felt something bite me on my ankle under my sock. It was a very painful bite. Stopped quick and pulled my sock down but didn’t find the critter, but my whole lower legg swole up and I had a rash all over it as well. It all cleared up by the time we reached camp that evening. I shake out my socks good now before putting them on.

today we rode through an area that was thick with these little, bitty bugs. Hundreds of them got stuck in my sweat. They didn’t bite but as they buzzed around in the sweat all over my body trying to get free and it drove me crazy. Kind of like being tickled by a whole bunch of little feathers. 

And then there is the everyday mosquito that is a constant annoyance for me. I am a mosquito magnet. When you ride a bicycle your behind sorta sticks up in the air making it a prime target, but I have on padded bicycle shorts and a pair of regular shorts on over them. Seems impossible that a mosquito could bite you through that, but they do, many times. Montana Mosquitos must have really flexible beaks.

The fellow in Lewistown, Montana who told us it was all downhill from there to the Atlantic was not telling the truth. Notice the picture that I took of what was on my cell phone that is today’s route. The blue line at the bottom is the elevation profile. All those squiggles represent a hill and most were several hundred feet in elevation change. We would grind our way to the top at 4 mph and then shoot down the other side at 20+ mph. We did that well over 20 times. We rode 76 miles doing that, but took a cold shower in Jordan, Montana where we are staying, and now I feel pretty good. Tomorrow looks like pretty much the same kind of day. We had planned on riding 109 miles tomorrow, but after today decided to shorten it up to 66 miles.

Took this picture at exactly the 1000 mile mark. I did a little jig and we decided to buy our airline ticket home from Portland, Maine. We are committed to go the entire way now.

We bicycled exactly 100 miles today. Our longest day so far. We have 2 other days scheduled to ride over 100 miles, but they won’t have the hills today had. We had hills all morning then stopped in Lewistown, Montana for a bite at about noon. There was a family eating next to us and asked us about our adventure. He told us it would be steep climbing for 9 more miles and then we would be at a pass at 4800 feet then it would be downhill to the Atlantic. It was downhill to where we are tonight at Winnett, Montana, not so sure if it will be clear to the Atlantic but that would be nice 🙂

76 miles scheduled tomorrow

We have had thunder storms about half the nights on our trip. Nice big one with lots of wind right after we checked into the motel. The forcast for tomorrow is more thunderstorms, hopefully we will miss them though when the wind started blowing hard is was coming right from the west and would have pushed us right up the hill.

Notice the hills behind me. Up and down, up and down. But they are less extreme and I only had to walk once for a couple hundred yards. Went 57 miles today, and it was a pretty good day. I was feeling pretty strong after that nice rest day yesterday. A lady pulled off in front of us and announced as we got to the car that she was a “Warm Showers” member and loved keeping bicyclists like us in her home. I thought, “super, she must live just up the road and we will have a free place to stay and a great meal to boot!”. Then she told us she lived in Wyoming and assumed our trip was taking us there. We informed her we were going through North Dakota and would have to miss her. We chatted for a bit about her husbands bicycle trip he was on in Canada, and then off we went. I thought, nice visit, bicycle riders sure are nice people! We are staying in a little Motel in Stanford, Montana. The town is listed as 150 population and not much here. Motel is inexpensive but clean and we will sleep well. Our plan tomorrow is to pedal 102 miles. That will be our longest day so far. We ride a gradual uphill for 60 miles and then gradual downhill for 40.  We will see how that goes.

Notice the rumble strips on the left side of the white line. Then notice the distance between the rumble strips  and the gravel. It is about 6 to 8 inches. When I try to ride in that little, tiny, Winnie, narrow strip I am constantantly riding on the rumble strips for fear of going into the gravel and landing on my face. So I choose to ride on the road side of the white line. I ride really close to the white line so it isn’t like I am out in the road, but a number of the cars and trucks honk at me. My thought is, “you ever ride on those rumble strips with a bicycle? Try it then honk at me, you jerk!” Then I confess my poor response and wave politely! One truck laid on the horn for a couple hundred yards as he came up behind me! That will give you a panic attack! I have developed a precise prayer life while riding my bike. “Dear Lord, give me strength, Dear Lord, help me from wrecking in the gravel, Dear Lord, help that driver see well, Dear Lord, a tail wind would be nice, Dear Lord, thank You”.

When we got through the construction we got into this rolling hill country. We had over 20 hills like this picture, one after the other. We would go as fast as we could down and start the incline in our highest gear and keep shifting down and be in our lowest gear about half way up the other side and grind to the top at 4 mph. The worst part was when we got to the top there was another one up ahead that looked bigger. After the 6th or 7th in a row I began to pray for mercy in the form of a really strong tailwind! At mile 60 they were over and we had flat ground for the last 34 miles.