A brief pause ...

Stay tuned ... I will be right back after a short break ... returning home to celebrate Candace's birthday ...

Tower City to Fargo ND

 Dinnertime

 Fargo

 Hannah, coast-to-coast eastbound

Nigel, westbound

I will miss North Dakota ... the flatness ... the fair skies ... the sunrises ... the cool mornings ... the prairie life ... the limitless agricultural expanse ... the trains ... the many towns with only a few hundred people ... the friendliness and kindness ... riding through on a bicycle allowed me to absorb this and connect with this for a brief time ... I appreciate that ...

Steele to Tower City ND

 Rise and shine

 or ride a bike ...

B & B

days will continue to get shorter now with the passing of the solstice ... rode my highest mileage day so far ... staying the night in Tower City (pop 253) ... wonderful and homey B&B ... beautifully restored and full of antiques ...

Mandan to Steele ND

 Bismarck Depot then/now

 Leaving Bismarck

Truck

not used to big cities ... a navigational challenge transiting Bismarck this morning ... then a relaxing ride through the countryside ...

Richardton to Mandan ND

 Hay bales

Red Road

entered Central Time zone today ... first encounter with a westbound cyclist going the whole route ME to WA ... staying tonight in Mandan ... a few miles from Bismarck ... first large urban environment I have been in since the trip started ...

Medora to Richardton ND

 Horses

 I94

 Oil field

Richardton

There is an oil boom in Williston ND ... I'm taking a route that avoids the traffic and chaos associated with it ... btw bicycles are allowed on Interstate 94 ... doesn't seem to be a problem ...

Glendive to Medora ND

 Welcome to ND

 Ron and Sharon, Salem OR to Salem MA

 Concert

 Bike shop

 Pitchfork BBQ

After the rain

crossed into ND ... the terrain is dramatically different ... a full day ... Medora is a fun town ... buildings are immaculately cared for old west motif ... arrived to find an afternoon outdoor concert and burger lunch ... people all are friendly and festive ... tonight went to a pitchfork BBQ with outdoor live music ... 

Circle to Glendive MT

 Good morning

 Wind power

Roadside wildlife

The warmth of this morning's early light cast an incredible glow on the landscape ...

Wolf Point to Circle MT

 Missouri River

 Fields

Church

I biked a stretch of road that was perfectly straight for fifteen miles ... not the slightest curve to it ...  you can see where you are going many miles ahead way off in the distance ... the never-ending road and the scale of these farms dwarf me ... I can feel that I am this tiny speck rolling across the surface of the earth ...

Glasgow to Wolf Point MT

Native art and artifacts

 Dolls in authentic dress

Native art

Wolf Point (pop 2,621) is located on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.  About 6,800 Assiniboine and Sioux live on the Reservation.  As I explored the town I saw few white people, and although warmly welcomed by the people I talked with, I felt very much a minority.  I am glad for the indigenous people that there are places like this where they are not a minority.  The images here are from the Wolf Point Museum.

Malta to Glasgow MT

 Early start

 John ("Mulligan")

History

I met John heading in the opposite direction (westward) ... he is biking from Wisconsin to Glacier Park ... turns out he has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice ... so we spent quite a while exchanging stories about people and places that we had in common ... his trail name is "Mulligan" because he did the trail over again (you golfers will understand) ... small world ...

Chinook to Malta MT

 Morning mist

 Butch Cassidy

Cattle

rode out of Chinook at daybreak ... best time of the day ... cool ... quiet except for the birds ... no traffic ... now passing through cattle country ...

Chester to Chinook MT

 Grains and trains

Havre Bicycle

stopped at Havre Bicycle shop today on my way to Chinook ...looking for tubes, a tire, patches, and a few minor items ... Roger fixed me right up with everything that I needed ... nice guy ... definitely recommend his place for repairs and resupply ... btw the bike on the right is not for sale ...

Chester MT

Main Street

Grain silo

I weathered out today's storm in Chester ... population 847 ... most people are involved with growing wheat and barley ... farmers fill the silo, and the trains haul it away ... several freight trains pass through town every hour transporting goods between Chicago and Seattle ... have been talking to locals, they love today's weather, good for crops ... winters here are long, cold and wet ... summers are short, hot and dry ... tomorrow is supposed to be sunny ...

Shelby to Chester MT

 Grain

 Flat and straight

 Burlington Northern

Flat tire

it seems to be all about Grain here ... 25 miles from a town in either direction, I had a flat tire ... isolated by the expansive nothingness of the prairie ... interrupted only by the sound of the wind ... perfect spot to work ... I didn't have a new tube left, so I had to patch the old one ... also had to patch the tire ... the road and the debris can be rough ... every 15 minutes or so I would stop what I was doing, grab my camera and take a picture of a passing freight train ... each time as I waved, the engineer in the cab would wave back and give me two loud toots ... I guess that is the standard greeting ...

Browning to Shelby MT

 Prairie sunrise

 Daryl Norman, Blackfeet artist

Mountains meet Prairies

a restful stay in the teepee ... woke up looking out over the vast prairie as the sun began to rise ... an appropriate time to express appreciation and give gratitude ... spent a lot of time talking with Daryl Norman ... a full range of topics ... learned a lot about the Blackfeet ... a very interesting and a very nice man ... the mountains are behind me ... the terrain is now flat ... you can literally see for miles ahead ... very aware of trains out here ... the route follows the tracks for much of the way ... a frequent reminder that the history of the West is the history of the railroads ...

West Glacier to Browning MT

 Continental Divide

 Rocky Mountains

 Blackfeet lodging

Blackfeet Reservation

It was a chilly 29 degrees when I left West Glacier this morning ... this was a day to remember ... so beautiful ... it is impossible to capture the blue of the sky, the white of the snow, the magnificence of the mountains, the roar of the rivers, the warmth of the sun, the freshness of the breeze, the vastness of the landscape, the smell of of the forests ... to pedal softly and quietly through the Rockies is a sensory extravaganza ...