Day 40 Bismarck, ND to Glen Ullin, ND

56.9 miles
5:01 ST
11.3 avg

We wish we would have started a little earlier than 8:00. Maybe we could have gotten a few more miles in before the flags started looking like this.

On our way out of town we crossed the Missouri River.

Actually, it's probably good that we didn't get farther than six miles because of this first of several "firsts":

We stopped in the middle of the long climb out of Bismarck to take our preventive ibuprofen (that we had forgotten to take when we left). Oh, man! We had left all four water bottles in the fridge at the hotel. Our first "first". 

Gerry said we needed to go back for them because there was no place to buy replacements, and we knew we'd really need them. All I could think of was six miles backwards, which would be sweet in this wind, and then six miles back into the wind up this hill. "Why don't you hitchhike back and I'll stay with the bike?" So we prayed and he stuck out his thumb. Our second "first".

After about 10 minutes, he said he thought he should strip down the bike and ride it back by himself because we could stand here for an hour doing this. I dug in my heels at that. "No, someone will stop."

Thirty seconds later a van pulled over. Gerry explained our situation and into the van he hopped and away they went.

As I waited, the song that kept going through my mind was, "Bless the Lord, o my soul, o my soul. Worship His holy name. Sing like never before, o my soul, worship His holy name."

I don't think it was more than 20-25 minutes before the van pulled up again. Bill and Julie from Wisconsin not only took Gerry back into town, but they brought him back out! 

So, I don't need to say much about the wind as you can see by the first picture above. It made for a tough day.

But, I DO need to say something about what I put in the blog the other day about the hills between Dickinson and Billings. That needs to be corrected to say "Bismarck and Billings", because the hills started today.

We saw another touring bicyclist today! Our third "first". He was going the other way and I yelled and screamed at him but he couldn't hear me. So we didn't even get to wave. We were like ships passing in the night.

We are staying at the Rock Roof Inn, a B&B in Glen Ullin tonight. It's quite nice and feels homey.

 

The roof really is covered with rocks.

I forgot to ask why.

Staying at a B&B is our fourth "first".

 And can you believe there are three others bicyclists here! Our fifth "first". And two of them are on a tandem! Our sixth "first".

Tim (R) is from Australia and is riding the northern tier and will drop down to Great Falls and Missoula. Jim and Shaun are from Michigan and are riding from Maine to Anacortes, WA on the northern tier.

Tomorrow we are going to leave extra early (with our water bottles) to try to get 25-30 miles in before the winds increase. We will be staying at my niece's home in Dickinson (Thanks, Jarid and Staci!).

We've looked ahead and think we've been able to break up the remaining miles into doable segments that won't kill us. Except for the Forsyth to Billings piece - 105 miles. And we know we can't do that into a wind again. We'll figure it out as we get closer. We both have opposable thumbs and there are lots of pickups on the freeway. :o)

Gerry has three factoids he wants listed here:
1) There's a good reason to cross North Dakota from west to east.
2) It's not good when the wind turbines are pointing toward you.
3) God is the One who is in control of the wind and our energy.

I have several other pictures I wanted to put in here, but my gizmos decided to stop cooperating with me tonight. I'll try to come back and add them tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayer for today. And thank you for the encouragement in the comments section. You all are so special to our hearts.

Blessing the Lord,
Pat