Day 41 Glen Ullin, ND to Dickinson, ND

52 miles
3:57 ST
13.1 avg

We really enjoyed the B&B last night; it felt homey rather than motel-ey. For someone like me, who's more or less a homebody, that was nice.

And, now today, we get another homey experience as we stay at my niece's home in Dickinson. Thank you, Jarid and Staci for letting us stay here even though you're gone. It is a blessing!

We wanted to get on the road by 6:00 this morning but didn't get away until 6:27. We knew there would be very little wind at that time, but would increase as the morning went on.

Leaving Glen Ullin was sweet. Not because we wanted to get out of there, but because the road was FLAT. For six  miles. 

Glen Ulllin is off the freeway; we had come in on the east end of town and now were going out the west end. The six miles was a secondary, newly paved road with no traffic. And did I mention that it was FLAT?

A beautiful sunrise.

The freeway was a different story. For about 15 miles it was up and down like yesterday, BUT there was no wind. At mile 17, the grasses started to flutter a bit. As each mile rolled away, the grasses began to wave, then they got downright jubilant as the wind played with them.

BUT, the hills were flattening out some (Hallelujah!) so we were grateful. Hey, we can't have it all, all the time. 

Then we saw these skies moving toward us.

I'm pretty sure you can guess what we were doing. Yup, praying. We didn't see any lightning so that wasn't a concern. We selfishly just didn't want to ride wet again.

We saw this sign along the road and it reminded us of our first bike trip. We rode through southern North Dakota and camped in the town park at Mott. I remember a bird singing all by itself very early in the morning, and also waking up in the tent and seeing the shadow of a man standing right outside looking over our bike and Bob. We had a nice conversation with him.

Six miles out it started spitting at us, five miles out it sputtered, then it stopped. But it was still looming.

We rolled the bike through the doors of Wal-Mart literally one minute before the clouds opened up. PTL!

It rained while we happily went shopping and Silver Streak and Bob patiently waited.

Yes, that is a half gallon of milk and 1.5 liters of Mtn Dew. There's also a rotisserie chicken in one of those bags. And lettuce and four red potatoes and an onion. Because we had only a mile to go and we knew we'd have a kitchen, we splurged. We did get it all on the bike or strapped to Bob, except for the chicken which I carried in a bag.

Later after a shower, Gerry fixed lunch for us: chicken, sauteed spuds and corn on the cob.

You have no idea how good a "home cooked" meal tasted, especially because it was something different than pasta roni.

We were very happy to be inside later this afternoon when another little storm sailed in.

Gerry took a short nap and worked on his Scripture memory, I did laundry and worked on the blog. It's very different from our last trip where we had to find a library for me to post. Now, as long as I have WiFi, I do everything on our Kindle.

Ok, see this?

THAT is 20 pounds of stuff we are "offloading" here. Sleeping bags, pillows, mats, tent, solar panel. We are finally chucking the camping thing, admitting that it's not going to happen for the rest of the ride, for various reasons. (Ah, if only we had done this back in Kansas when we mailed back some other things.) Our stuff will eventually find its way home via my brother or brother-in-law who work over in this area.

By God's will, tomorrow will be our last full day in North Dakota. So, tonight it's an early bedtime in preparation for those "Big Bad Badlands".

"I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth."      Psalm 121:1-2 

With His help,
Pat

Thank you for praying; we are doing some better physically and mentally.