The Hammer

Today was an ambitious day that could have had a variety of different outcomes. I stayed last night in Selby, SD, approximately 120 miles from Bismarck, ND. As some of you are aware, Bismarck has been a focal point of this journey for me. My daughter, Claire, is flying out here on Thursday and is going to ride with me through North Dakota, Montana, and hopefully Idaho, down to Jackson, Wyoming. There are exactly three towns with stops over that 120 miles and none for the last 63. There is a motel in Linton, ND at roughly the halfway point that was an option. The issue, as usual around here, was the wind. Today, it was from the SE and I was going NW. Tomorrow, it’s supposed to flip around. If I stopped halfway, I’d have to do the second half into the wind.

I didn’t get as early a start as I wanted because the cafe didn’t open until 7, and even then, the guy was a couple minutes late opening up. The good news was it was a hot breakfast, but that meant no grab and go. By the time I hit the road it was after 7:30. At my average pace to date, the ride would take me 10 hours plus stops to do the whole thing. My longest day so far was 114 miles to Tuscaloser, AL. It took me 9 1/2 hours and I was ready to quit the whole adventure the next day. Today was different. With a nice little tailwind and a little downhill to start, I got into my top gear (12th) early and kept it there or in 11th pretty much all the way to Linton. I passed through Mound City (population 71) and couldn’t have stopped if I wanted to. There was absolutely nothing there. Next I came to Herreid, SD where I found a little grocery store and slugged down a huge bottle of tea and had a nice little chat with the proprietor. I asked her what my choices were once I got to Linton. If I went West, it would be very hilly, but the scenery would be beautiful. If I stayed on the highway and went North, it would be similar to what I’d already covered. I pressed on to Linton and stopped for lunch. Regardless of which option I took, this was the last place to stop until Bismarck. I was there by 11am. I had covered 57.4 miles at an average of 18.1 mph. I have never ridden that far that fast. It felt great and because of the breeze at my back, it didn’t feel like I had really pushed hard.

I had a nice lunch at The Grill, where the owner was raging on to me about the Plandemic and how hard it is to find people and how his people just show up when they want to and how the government payout was keeping people home. (He went on without taking a breath so I figured I would too). I didn’t have enough interest in furthering the one-sided conversation to point out that the initial responses to all this were under the previous administration’s watch. I also chose not to add that he lives in North F’ing Dakota, where everyone in office is a Republican and he should blame them. Anyway, at least he didn’t spit in my food. He also told me that the West route was beautiful but very hilly. He would take the pussy route and go North if he was me. The guy sitting at the counter he asked for an opinion said “A pedal bike?!? You wouldn’t catch me dead on one of those.”

After lunch, it was decision time. It was actually a pretty easy decision. An old friend of mine, Steve Jernigan, once commented about which tees we were going to play on a golf trip back in 1993. He said “I didn’t drive all the way to f’ing South Carolina to play the white tees.” I felt the same way about my route options. While Steve and the rest of us regretted his bravado that day, I didn’t think that would be the case for me today. I had a chance to actually see something besides farm fields and I had to do it. I went West. My two data points (the grocery shop owner and the restaurateur) were accurate. It was both beautiful and hilly. The reward was riding along the Missouri River for about 10 miles. Truth be told, the hills were prettier than the river and a big departure from the past 5 days. Generally, the portion of North Dakota I’ve been in so far had a lot less corn and soybeans and more cattle. There were crops too, but not being much of a farmer, I couldn’t tell you what they were. My guess would be wheat and sugar beets. The last 15 miles were rough. Lots of rolling hills and I was spent. I did pass another rider who was substantially crazier than me. He started in San Diego, rode to St. Louis, now is heading for Missoula and Seattle before he ends his ride in … Key West. He was also young and grumpy so I just went past him and didn’t prolong our chat. About two miles after that, there was a rider coming the other direction. I’ve gone weeks without seeing one and then two in two miles outside of Bismarck, North Dakota. Go figure.

Only two bad things all day, both when I got here to Bismarck. First, I tried to go get a Frosty at Wendy’s, but their dining room was closed. Second, there are no vehicles to rent. By getting here today, I now have two full days to rest. One of them was supposed to be spent grabbing a rental and driving down to Nebraska for a quick ride. No luck. I’ll have to come up with a different plan.

One thing South Dakota had a lot of was lakes, ponds and wetlands. I failed here to capture the birds that were skimming along the surface

State #36

Born and raised in Strasburg, ND about 15 miles up the road. His birthplace and homestead are a tourist attraction.

The landscape definitely changed

That’s the best I could do with the Missouri. It wasn’t scenic with power lines everywhere and just low and flat. I was also going down a big hill when I took this and the view wasn’t good enough to ruin that downhill.

Crazy, grumpy biker ahead

New solo record for me. And more than 2 hours less than the ride to Tuscaloser. Ended up averaging 16.3 mph. That was about 16.8 at the 100-mile mark. I faded in the last 20. Still had the hammer down pretty much all day.