5:06 ST
12.4 avg
Last evening was a banner evening as we Skyped with all four of our grandkids! Oh my, I miss them so much!
5:00 a.m. Time to get up and get going. Besides the fact that we wanted to "beat" some wind (Didn't happen; it was already on the move.), our bodies were still on Central Time.
6:01 a.m. Leave the house and head west into the wind.
At the Belfield exit we stopped to wave hello to my brother and brother-in-law who work just up the road.
On Sunday the holiday traffic was very heavy - hundreds and hundreds of RVs and boats and trailers passed by us. Today, it was oil field traffic - big pickups, trucks and semis. It was unreal. Past the Belfield exit, the traffic dropped to one third of what it had been, which we welcomed.
We decided to be tourists for a minute and pulled off at the scenic overlook at the Badlands.
Leaving there, the road rose up, made a sweep to the left and started down. Two and a half miles of down. Which was nice, except that, in our world right now, "what goes down must come up".
Riding through the bottom was nice and we stopped to eat at the Medora exit. Soon after, we got to start going up - for six miles. Thankfully, it wasn't steep like I had envisioned it might be.
At the top, the undulating hills returned. Long rises and not as long drops, which makes sense when you consider that we have to get up to 4800 feet by the time we get home.
Except that six miles out from Beach, we dropped down all the way to town. And tomorrow we drop more as the elevation goes from 2600 to 2100 feet at Glendive. So we have to make that back up sometime after.
We have been in North Dakota for two weeks. Tonight.... we are two miles from the border and I can almost taste Montana!
I told you yesterday that we offloaded some stuff at my niece's. Here's the new slimmed down Bob.
One orange stuff sack is in Bob, the other is only half full on top. And Bob is not nearly as high as before. Gerry wanted a ditty for this...
(Tune: Anchors Aweigh!)
Twenty pounds away off Bob!
Twenty pounds away!
Sleeping bags and mats and tent,
They didn't earn their stay. No way! Oh!
We're now flying up the hills.
(If only that were true!)
The diff'rence is noticed, though.
We should've done it sooner, we rue. Ooh.
[Sorry]
Here's a funny thing. Last week my niece and family were staying at our house. Last night we were at their house. Tonight, they stopped to see us on their way home to Dickinson. Thanks, you guys, for taking the time.
Jared, Staci
Ben, Kaiya, Isaac
Tonight we are retiring our ND map and have a fresh MT map. Why would we need a map, you ask. We're trying to break down the remaining miles into manageable chunks and the map is helpful in doing that.
Our prayer needs right now:
1- I am now experiencing the same shin issues that Gerry has been dealing with. Very painful and the constant pedaling exacerbates it.
This is perplexing to us because, in all our miles of riding, we have never had this before. While showering today, Ephesians 6:12 popped into my mind. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I'm thinking the enemy is attacking big time to discourage us and take glory away from God.
2 - Wisdom and discernment as we plan our last week+ of riding.
Feeling that Montana air,
Pat
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