Glasgow to Culbertson

This was a near perfect day. Good temps; tail wind; moderately flat.
We covered 109 miles.

A daily high for both of us. We are riding stronger. We put in 83
miles yesterday.

Cheers!

~ Pete (iPhone)

Alicia

Looking good!

Makoti Countryside

Another pic several miles from Makoti. There are a lot of small ponds
and lakes and with the lush spring grasses it is very nice.

Day 27. New Town, then Makoti

You've probably noticed the double location listings on the last several posts. The major town for the day has been our mid-day stop and we have been camping in the smaller bergs.

New Town did not have much too it. We stopped for lunch. A really big indian (native american) fellow started asking questions about our trip outside the restaurant. He was friendly. He was at a table near us in the restaurant as well and we talked some. When it came time for us to pay up and leave we found that he had bought our lunch. That was so very much appreciated. Thanks!!! The folks in New Town were very friendly.

We went on to Makoti. It was a nice town a mile off our route. The city park was small and pleasant. The weather was cool again - perfect for riding. And we still had some tail winds. There were a few annoying hills though. There also will be. I've started saying: "It's just another hill.". We had a couple nice cruises where we were going 20 mph with the tail wind for awhile. So sweet!

~Pete

Day 26. Williston, then Lunds Landing

We headed off for Williston. This was expected to be a bright spot of opportunity: Bike Shop, Food, Lunch. No bike shop. We tried what was indicated on the map. It was supposed to be in the Coast to Coast store - but that has shutdown. A local lady told us of another. We found the sign, but it too was now a pet store. We spent an hour looking and riding around.

We found a nice local deli to cool our heels in for a while. Then on to Lunds Landing in the middle of nowhere North Dakota.

Lunds Landing is actually rather nice. It is on the immense Lake Sakakawea. They have several cabins with wood decks and walways wandering all over. Even a couple of Tepees you can rent. We opted for camping which was free. Though we did sample the Juneberry pie. Juneberries grow locally and this place features them. These round purple berries are not particularly sweet or tart. It was a good pie.

Coming into Lunds Landing was very interesting. Though we had tail winds, the hills were steep, and frequent. Then we found ourselves in a pocket of thunderstorms, surrounded on three sides. One fellow actually stopped his truck to warn us of the NOAA weather warning for the storm just south of us. I was moving fast and dropping hail. Now that's incentive to ramp up our speed. We were still about 4 miles from Lund's Landing. As we were approaching Lunds Landing there was a wall of white-gray precipitation just past where I though the turn was. We made it without getting wet.

I noticed a couple days earlier that there was distinct break in the weather pattern between the north and south side of the Missouri river. I have long heard things in Texas like the weather doesn't move past the red river. Rivers can have a real effect though it would seem not to reach up into the atmosphere. Well check out this picture. The divide you see is where the Missouri runs. For a few days I have seen where there is more storm activity and different types of cluds on one side of the river compared to the other, with the weather on the north side being better - good for us.


~Pete

Day 28. Minot then Surrey

We are blinking back online. It has been awhile. Our routing took us off the "Hi-Line" (Highway 2's name locally) to avoid traffic. That was a big joke!! Turns out North Dakota is going through a lot of oil exploration right now and so we had to contend with all manor of heavy truck traffic on what once was probably a sleepy country road. Oh and the hills. Up and down most of the day. It was good but tough. We have had some nice tail winds for which we are most thankful!.

This also meant almost no cell coverage or internet. Another post for our biggest day somehow did not make it. So, you will see a rewrite of that later.

This is Sabbath and we have had a nice morning ride into Minot. We are thinking of making church yet, if we can. There has been some real pretty country here in North Dakota. So far, we have come 44 miles from our stop yesterday in Makoti (More in another post.). We plan to go on to Surrey which is another 9 miles and camp there for the night. Tomorrow... Rugby, ND.

~Pete

Day 26. North Dakota

We are partway through our ride today. Winds are again favorable from
the west. We have had contend with a lot of hills though. And road
construction.

Still we have made it to Williston. We plan to go anther 23 miles or
so.

45 miles so far.

Of rainbows, cloud spots, and towns down the road...

There has been a very interesting phenomenon that I have observed, you know how rainbows move as you get closer to them, well the same goes for cloud spots on the road as a form of shade. We can go very many miles without any trees and the sun is burning hot on our bodies, and you just wish for a spot of shade. Then you look up the road and see a large shady spot on the road caused by the clouds, and you ride faster to get to it to cool off for a moment, but as you ride faster the shady spot seems to move! Just like chasing the rainbow to get to that pot of gold at the end of it, you ride even faster and soon you do actually catch up to it and instead of the pot of gold, there is that wonderful cooling relief that sweeps over you which at that moment is worth more than gold!

The road is wide open and you can see down it for miles and miles. It can be relatively flat with a few rolling hills, trees, and silos here and there, and as we get closer to a town, such as it is, it will look like it is about 2 miles ahead, (this is after testing distances with my Cat Eye on my bike, guessing and checking to see if I was right)they look so close, and yet they have been between 5 and 7 miles ahead. It is an interesting phenomenon!

Fort Belnap Indian Reservation Mission



This morning at the pharmacy we took our blood pressures and pulses and they have gone down, especially our resting pulse. For years my pulse had been 72, and now it is 57. My blood pressure was always 112/72 and now it is 111/66. By now you saw the selection of magazines at the local pharmacy, I usually look at the interior decorating magazines, and when I saw "Flea Market Style" I just wanted to laugh. It was such a perfect moment! They had no other decorating magazines!!
While we were at the theater last night they had their advertising for local stores and one was for a store in town called "Flicks". This is such an amazing and diversified store: they had videos for rent, they rented tuxedos for special occasions, had dry cleaning service, had a deli, served fresh caramel rolls just out of the oven! We have seen so much ingenuity in small town America! Just makes me smile.

About 2 1/2 miles before we came into Glasgow, and 1/2 mile before the disastrous flat and injury, there were these small rolling hills along the road full of all kinds of animal and dinosaur sculptures with a sign saying "sculptures for sale". Definitely a roadside curiosity.





We are looking forward to resuming the ride tomorrow, but will miss the camaraderie of our fellow travelers who had gone on ahead. I am sure we will meet more. I think it is time for lunch and stoking up for tomorrow. After that another nap, then dinner and more stoking up! Then to bed for a good nights rest.
Love to ya'll - Alicia

Day 24. Glasgow Rest Day

Today we rest in Glasgow. Yesterday when we got to town, we ate at Subway. While there we called few hotels and found one for $55 per night: the Campbell Lodge. Normally, the low price might indicate a bad neighborhood, but not here. Another place was $85 per night. The Campbell Lodge is in the downtown area and is a block from the library, theater, and drug store; 2 blocks from the laundromat. So we ran over to the library for a quick check in. Cell coverage is again spotty, but with the iPhone tied to the library WiFi network, I made a couple of Skype calls over the network. I checked in with Oregon Unemployment, applied for a job in Hillsboro, checked the bank account, and called Alicia's father to check on mail received. Oregon has suspended unemployment checks while I am traveling which is too bad. I was kind of counting on that. It is not much money, but our costs are low right now. We are still trying to decide the impact on this trip. We have been considering cutting it short. The problem is, that only means we are closer to home as everything comes unglued - not a cheery prospect. The job market is very tight. Few opportunities come up on the job boards.



We met Mike at the library. Unexpected, but nice...

After the library, we checked into the Campbell, gathered up laundry and off to the "mat". Once I got Alicia settled there, I went to the local sports store to see if they had bug spray (they did) and anything that might help with our sore behinds (they didn't). I also scoped out places to eat.

After laundry Alicia took me to Birthday dinner at the Hong Kong restaurant. We tried a couple of other places, but they were all closed on Monday. Wow! Really! Here in Glasgow!? I guess everyone needs a rest from a busy weekend and Glasgow is the gateway to the huge Fort Peck reservoir on the Missouri about 10 miles away. Hong Kong must have known I was coming, they reserved the whole place for me.



After we went to Dairy Queen for sundaes. Yum! And, then we took in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. That was great. Uplifting after a tough day.

And the best part of the day... sleep. Blissful, dark, quiet sleep. Such a change from the parks we've been at lately where for security they are lit up like the noon day sun. Plus, no matter how you try, you always have half an eye open for .... whatever...

Today, we are catching up on the blog. Had a nice breakfast. Stocked up at the Pharmacy. Alicia's wound looks fine. We will re-dress it later today and have a good look. If it is bad we'll run to the local doc. so far though there is no redness, very little swelling, and no pain. Yea!

So we are picking up on a few local cultural differences. I am starting to hear accents that are a bit different, I want to say singsong or Norwegian (Alicia) something similar to how we heard it in the movie "Fargo". I rather like it. At the restaurant for breakfast and the post office, I heard a lot of colloquialisms. Little story analogies to describe things. I wish I remembered them, they were great. Also there is a certain exchange of pleasantries before getting down to business. We saw some local ads at the theater last night that really cracked us up. Alicia will tell you more. Here is a picture of the magazine rack at the drug store. Check the titles. Flea Market Style. Quilting. Beadwork. What fun!!



Last night I also picked up a flat rate box from the post office and we are filling it with whatever we think we can live without that will lighten our load. I am sending back both laptop batteries. I found I can run it plugged in and the batteries bleed out too fast to be useful anyway. Funny thing... even at RV parks I can usually find power, so if I have cell coverage, we can still get on the internet with the laptop and iPhone since I jail broke the iPhone.

By the way, have you checked out the new iPhone GS?!!! It is too awesome. A must have. Many nice improvements and a new sensor - a magnetometer. With that, it knows compass direction and can tell you on the map which way you are facing. Cool. New voice controls. 2 time faster. Cut and paste. Nice goodies.... Please somebody send me one!! Ha! :)

Well, that's it for blogging for me today. Alicia will be posting later...

Cheers;

~Pete

Day 23. The Winds never ceasing!!!

I don't know if we are just tired after our big push; whether the winds are really that bad; or whether I am just not as strong as I'd like to be (Alicia is indefatigable - never stronger). We covered a whooping 29 miles today. Starting out, we were scorching the road but seemed to Peter out (pun intended) 15 miles from Glasgow. We had intended a good break there then continuing to Nashua and, if all was favorable, Wolf Point. But a couple miles out of Glasgow the winds really started coming up. We could hardly push 7 mph on the flats. Ridiculous!!

Then 2 miles from town we had a major mishap. A flat tire. Pshoosh - My rear tire went flat all at once. I pulled off the panniers and started looking at the tire. Alicia was going to make some soapy water to make removing the tire from the rim easier. She started lifting her bike and the rear tire slipped sending the sprockets straight into her calf. There was a long 4 inch slice and it was bleeding. I grabbed a sock and gave it to Alicia who stemmed the flow of blood. She washed it out while I dug out the first aid kit. I had steri strips, gauze, breathable membrane covers and surgical tape and Neosporine. With all that we dressed the wound once it had stopped bleeding. It was deep and Alicia is sure there was a strip of skin gouged out. It really is about 4 inches long. and deep - at least a quarter inch. But it looks like it was only through the skin layers - no muscle. It did not bleed too much after all. I fed Alicia one pain pill (2 is the normal dose - but I still wanted her sharp for continuing our ride) and finished fixing my tire.

Pete starting the flat repair



Oddly, the core of the tube was completely missing. We did not find any penetration of the tire or tube and could not get air to stay in the tube without the core. The core must have fallen out when we were inspecting the tire because there had been a cap over it that would have contained it. I took the cap off to finish deflating the tire and then later, no core. We did not see it anywhere. I concluded some sort of core or valve failure led to the flat. A new tube fixed us up.

So, starting with two new spare tubes we now have one repaired tube and the core-less tube had to be tossed. We did end up fixing Alicia's slow leak in Havre. And sure enough, it looked like that wire in her tire going into Columbia Falls caused it. After overinflating the tube a rotating it through soapy water, I found the smallest little pinprick of a hole. I repaired the tube and saved it as the new spare tube and put a fresh new tube in her tire.

Pete's bike with the new tire to be installed



Repair Party (not!) in Havre



The next bike shop is not until Williston, ND - about 160 miles away. I hope they have some tubes there!

It is hard to convey just how heavy these bikes are. When they are under control, they are manageable, but if they shift or move on their own it is hard to stop them. The weight of the panniers caused the rear tire to slip on the gravel and that is why Alicia was injured. It normally would not have slipped. We have to keep this in mind constantly. The front wheel always wants to move about when we stop and once they start moving they are hard to stop. For Alicia this usually results in a new bruise. A week into the trip her legs were almost a completely solid patchwork of black and blue bruises. They are looking much better now as she has figured out how to not let the bike get the better of her.

After our trifecta of heavy winds, flat tire, and wound, it seemed really sensible to stop for the day. We stopped. Glasgow is one of the larger towns with a population of 3,253. This is sizable. Many of the towns we overnight at are 200 to 300. This is remote, small town America at its best. It has worked out that every 100 or so miles is a major town of the size of Glasgow with smaller towns in between. Camping in the city parks of the smaller towns can be nice and is usually free - though no showers. We are learning that there can be alternatives: swimming in the local river, sponge baths (last choice), or showers at the local swimming pool. One becomes quite resourceful. Margaret, our German friend, is a seasoned cyclist having traveled over much of Europe. We estimate she is about 64 and she has lots of tips for figuring out what is available. People have been generally helpful.

Margaret



By the way, this was my birthday. This is our "50 year" trip for Alicia and I. I started when 50, now I'm 51, and Alicia will turn 50 in a few more weeks. Kind of interesting. We did not plan this little mathematical play, but it is cool!!

Resting in Glasgow...

~Pete

Day 22. The Winds!

Remember how we wanted to cover 81 miles today? Well, we got 42 to
Hinsley.

We had nasty headwinds. Gusts up to 25-30 mph. This is worse than
climbing passes. After our big ride yesterday we just could not fight
the wind.

We called it quits early. I enjoyed laying on the swimming dock on
the Milk river. While Alicia hid from the gnats in the tent. Not as
bad as it sounds.

Tomorrow we push to Nashua. If the wind is at our back we might go to
Wolf Point.

Cheers!!

~ Pete (iPhone)

Day 21. The Big Run.

96 miles. Slow, agonizing miles. We landed in Malta at 8pm ate a
quick dinner and lights out (or rather Sun down).

We've been looking at our progress and thought we should be covering
more miles each day especially now that we are in flatter territory.
So the plan to Wolf Point was 96 to Malta; 81 to Nashua; then an easy
41 to Wolf Point with a half day off to explore the Kirkpatrick
heritage. In general, strive for bigger mileage days with weekly
totals of 600 miles plus.

Generally all is well.

~ Pete (iPhone)