Day 22 - Mott to Flasher, ND (Yes, it IS a town)

MOTT TO FLASHER, ND

57.7 mi
st-3.55.39
14.6 avg
TTD-1296.72

“If the wind is not against you, it is not blowing.” –James E. Starrs, The Noiseless Tenor

This was a shorter day, but not much easier because of the wind – again. Except that today it’s a NW wind, which means partial tail and partial cross as we head straight east but total cross anytime the road turned north.

Again, it’s sunny. I decided you can’t have your cake and eat it too, or you can’t have a sunny day and no wind too. Everyone we’ve talked with today has said that the wind blows all the time but that it’s been even windier than normal this year.

Many times when we’re riding along, birds will get in a tizzy flying alongside us trying to lead us away from their nests. After 20-30 yards they’ll fly back, satisfied that they’ve done a good job of protecting their young. Today we had a bird scolding us and flying beside us, then she turned and headed right toward us! Gerry had to brake because he wasn’t sure how close she was going to come. She had about a 2” beak on her and she acted like she was going to use it!

This area is what I might tend to call remote. I mean, how does a town that's a mile off this road - a DIRT mile - get on the map? We saw several of those.

We pressed on to Flasher, fighting against the wind and the hills. Gerry was pretty beat by the time we got here. Crosswinds are so much harder on him because he has to steady the bike all the time. Gusts are especially hard due to our long profile.

Flasher. Hmm, what can we say about Flasher. When we arrived, it reminded me of Joshua 6:1: "Now Jericho was tightly shut up...no one went out and no one came in." Seriously, there was not a soul around. We turned down main street looking for the place to camp. We saw one little park to the right, then saw the city park further on the left. It looked nice with trees and mowed grass and a playground.

We then saw a couple women coming toward us with a stroller so we talked with them. They were able to give us the skinny: Everything is closed on Sunday. PJ’s auto does sell some groceries and he probably opens about 8:00 on Monday. The café up on the highway opens about 7:30 and serves breakfast. The gas station opens about 7:00. They didn’t think there’s any water in the park (there isn’t) but we can probably get our bottles filled either at the golf clubhouse or maybe there’s a faucet on the side of the grain elevator, or there might be some water at the other little park. If none of those work, we can just go to her house and get our bottles filled there.
We found a water faucet at the other little park, filled our bottles then went back to the city park and set up the tent. Gerry made dinner then heated some water to sponge off with. (Susan, that's TWO days without a shower. I could be backpacking material yet.) Afterwards, we walked up to the highway to see if we could get some cell service; there was none. So sorry Mom that I couldn't wish you Happy Birthday today!

It’s now 8:00 and we’ve been in the tent for about an hour. Gerry’s fast asleep with the map spread out over him, while I type this listening to a cacauphony(sp?) of birds all around. We lost an hour about 3 miles before town due to the time zone change, so now it’s 8:10 and the sun still has a way before it goes down.

It hasn’t been as warm as they had predicted, and even now the breeze is pretty cool. But at least it’s a breeze instead of gusting winds. Oh, and there’s the town hotrod zooming around. I guess every small town has one.

A couple things I’ve noticed the past few days: the drivers in eastern MT and western ND are much more courteous than we’ve encountered up til then. 2) We saw lots and lots of trucks from Baker to about Reeder, then lots of minivans, now today it’s been mostly sedans.

Because of the study that Gerry and I are doing in Ephesians, I'm thinking a lot about the blood of Christ and redemption (or liberation.)

Liberated,

Gerry and Pat