Day 40 – July 22, 2015 Dickenson ND to New Salem ND 79 miles

Day 40 – July 22, 2015 – Dickenson ND to New Salem ND – 79.18 miles

With the sound of the freight train roaring by this little town in North Dakota I write. We went as far as we could go. Passing a handful of pretty boring towns. We realize now we are out of the west, out of tourism altogether, and in the weird cold North Dakota prairies, although it isn’t very cold right now. I mean, there is a coldness about this place. In Medora we met a young man working in the cafe from Siberia. He told us the name of town but I can’t remember it, it has a population of over million and has a steel and car industry? Maybe someone can help me out? I think he might fit in well in this desolate part of the country and doesn’t really miss Siberia much?

There is coldness in these towns that we haven’t experienced. The people are friendly enough but the houses, the numerous churches, they give me a feeling of a cold Protestant immigrant population where work is about all there is. Even in the one open bar we found, we had fried shrimp basket and a hamburger, the 83 year old man that talked to us was still not retired. He says he can’t? What does that mean?

The coldness is something you feel in North Dakota, even in the summer. Each house I ride by I look and see and say to myself, how would it feel in that house in the middle of a North Dakota winter? Every place we go people talk about the winds, the ever present winds, and whatever….punctuated with “when it was 35 below….”. The cold is just around the corner, always.

The towns are so vacant and closed up compared to Montana. I wrote about the bars in Montana, they contribute to a warmth. It is the West, a cowboy world. Bars are welcoming, the beckon to come in from the cold and tell your story. People there work too, but they have more of a, “ya may die tomorrow….so let’s live it up” mentality. There was a casino in every bar too. Forgot to mention that. It was a “live for the moment” kind of place.

While North Dakota is very different. What? You are not working? You don’t care about the farm? You are in the bar? No, no, go to church, and pray for good rains, and snow, so the crops can grow. Oh yes, and today they pray for high oil prices too!!!

For those who are following our progress. Today, we did fine. It was hard. The winds were down but the roads were long, rolling hills. We had a passage of about 13 miles on a terrible Instate situation. We had rumble strips that were about 5 ft wide, we had to ride on the far edge of the shoulder where we had about 1 1/2 ft to navigate. On top of that, they were working on the highway so most of the time there was a one lane highway. And!!, the cones were placed within the right lane so the trucks, especially the wide oil rig trucks, had to come onto the shoulder to navigate their sliver of road. It was horrible. But we made it. Yippie.

Now we are camping in a park that is both campground and city park. No facilities but a chemical toilet. The Arrowhead Motel was full with all the highway workers. That’s fine, we will sleep like babies after a hard ride.