Day 23 - Flasher to Sterling, ND

DAY 23 - FLASHER TO STERLING

83.6 mi
st-5.52.38
14.2 avg
TTD-1380.77

What we thought was going to be a good long night of sleep last night, wasn’t. We went to bed early, but had a hard time getting to sleep, partially due to bird noise, dogs barking and, I think, overtiredness. After finally dropping off for a couple hours, I was awakened by a strange noise. I looked out but couldn’t see anything. Gerry looked out his side and couldn’t see anything, so he got the headlamp and shined it toward the picnic tables and saw some shiny little eyes. He watched for a couple minutes and concluded that it was a raccoon. It was most likely foraging in the trash can where we had put supper trash. Gerry said he heard the little critter sniffing around the tent later.

It was also fairly cold in the night, probably the coldest tenting night we’ve had.

At 5:30 we decided we’d just get up and get going to beat any wind that might kick up. We had breakfast and left town at 7:10. It’s a beautiful sunny day and no wind until a slight breeze appeared about 3 miles from Mandan.

Again, the road was up and down all the way, but it was a beautiful ride – lots of farms and farmland. The drivers are still courteous.

I am a bred, born and raised Montanan. I love my state but I have to truthfully say that Montana doesn’t have anything over North Dakota in the “Big Sky” claim. The sky here is as big as any I’ve ever seen.

When we got into Mandan at 10:30, we stopped to ask a lady on the street for directions to Wal-mart. She gave good directions, we just weren't good direction followers. To make it short, let's just say that we ended up riding about six miles more than we should have.

But, that's okay because, as you'll shortly see, God had good things in mind that we may have missed otherwise.

We did our shopping, then ordered a sandwich at the Subway in there (the summer special is a footlong for $5!). The girl that waited on Gerry wouldn’t take payment for the sandwich, saying she wanted to donate it to the ride. That was a blessing! Then when we went out to load our stuff on the bike, one of the Courtesy Assistants came to talk with us. His name is Brad. When we told him what we’re doing, he pulled out an envelope of money and gave us some money. He insisted and when I gave him one of our cards and a tract, he asked for more. We finished packing, I found him and took his picture, and when Gerry got his name and address for a recipt, he gave us more money. Double blessing!

We contemplated whether or not to take Main (hwy 10)out of town, but opted for the freeway, certain that it would be flatter (we were right).So we left town and headed out the interstate, thoroughly enjoying the flatter road after three days of hills.

We were tooling along when Gerry said, “There’s some people up here waving at us.” I thought somebody needed some help, then as we got closer I saw the lady with a camera phone pointed at us. “How interesting,” I thought, “that someone would think this worthy of a picture.” As we got closer I recognized that it was our friend, Teresa Oldenburger from Montana, taking the picture! She and Lee, Tanner and Lexi, recognized us as they passed by, then pulled off at the off ramp of the next exit. Believe it or not, about three miles back, I had thought of them and wondered what day they would be heading out for their son Landon’s wedding this weekend. I had thought, “Wouldn’t it be cool if they passed us on the road in a day or two?” And here they were! Triple blessing!

We rode the final 12 miles to exit 182, found the Tops Motel (showers tonight!!), checked in and started unloading. After dinner, journaling, phone calls - full service today - we turned out the lights at 9:30 and went to sleep pretty quickly.