Day 24 - Sterling to Jamestown, ND

DAY 24 - STERLING TO JAMESTOWN, ND

78.3 mi
st-5.10.21
15.1 avg
TTD-1459.47

We thought we were going to ride only about 55 miles today, but there wasn’t anyplace to camp before Jamestown, so here we are.

We left Sterling at 8:00 and we’re finally having some flat riding and it’s kind of fun.

I had a wonderful time of praise this morning while riding, reflecting on the redemptive blood of Jesus and the freedom that it brings to His own.

Redeemed, how I love to proclaim it!

Redeemed by the blood of the Lamb!

What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh! precious is the flow that makes me white as snow,
No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

About 10 miles down the road, Gerry hacked a bug out of his mouth, but then he hit the brakes quickly. “What’s wrong?” “I just got bit..in the mouth.” I looked in his mouth, and sure enough, there was a stinger in the roof of his mouth at the back, in the real soft tender tissue! I quickly got out the little pocket knife with tweezers and managed to get ahold of the stinger and pull it out. We prayed immediately that there would be no swelling or reaction. Gerry said it hurt like crazy and he felt faint. He hacked and spit some more, took some Advil then lay down in the ditch for a few minutes, saying that the whole side of his face was hurting. I called Arlen to ask him to pray. When he answered the phone, he said “Hey, I was just praying for you guys!” The spot got a little red, then a little purplish later, but by late afternoon it looked okay even though Gerry says that everytime he swallows, it feels like he has a sore throat.
Another 10 miles down the road we stopped again to coax a golden retriever off the freeway. He was just running back and forth across the lanes, looking quite confused. After dodging a couple of semis, he finally came over to me. He had a collar on but no tag. I took him over to the gravel frontage road and got a gravel truck to stop. I asked the driver to take the dog into town, which he did, a little reluctantly. The dog reminded me of Josh and Monica's retriever, Lexi (our granddog), and I knew how frightened she would be to be in that situation.

We rode on and on, the sun beating down, the breeze cooling us. AT 40 miles we stopped at a rest area and had lunch. The road began to rise a little, not huge hills, but we could tell that we were climbing for quite a while. Then it flattened out again.“It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.” ~Ernest Hemingway

Just before Jamestown, we stopped at the rest area to find campground information. While we were looking, a man asked us if we were on the tandem that he had passed. Then he had a lot of questions about what we’re doing, why, how, etc. He was very kind and fun to talk with. He asked if there was anything he might have in his car that we were in dire need of. He was willing to give us anything we needed. He and his high school daughter are traveling back from Yellowstone to their home in Valparaiso, IN. He wanted a card so he can follow us on the blog. They left, then the daughter came back with two bananas for us. Thank you, Greg and Sarah Colton! You blessed our day!

We camped at the Frontier Fort campground in Jamestown and had such an enjoyable time talking with some Wally Byam (Airstream) caravaners who are on their way to Bozeman. Thanks, Kellys, for your interest and warm hospitality towards us. Enjoy Bozeman!

We ate out tonight at the grill at the campground. The special for Tuesday is a buffalo burger and fries for $2.50 - how could we pass that up? Gerry ate two. Me, umm, I'm not so fond of buffalo.

After dinner, we walked about a mile to the Dairy Queen for dessert. Hey, it's the first one we've seen in many, many miles!
It was here in Jamestown that we picked up a hitchhiker. His name is Paddles and he is our navigator by day and Gerry's knee pillow by night.
Thanks for your continued prayer; we sense and see it every day!
Gerry and Pat

Hey Chuck - thanks for the tip!