July 20, 2008
Day 69: Williston, ND to Culbertson, MT
44.30 miles, 3:31:28 Ride Time, 13.19 Average Speed, 26.16 Maximum Speed
I decided I would do a short day today, and only try to get twenty or so miles into Montana. By the time I rode out at 11:00, it was hot and sunny, and the mosquitoes swarmed around me in the motel parking lot. I thought other cyclists were exaggerating when they complained about how terrible the mosquitoes are out here. They were not.
I immediately turned onto US 2 - the "High Line", on which I would be riding the next several hundred miles. In Williston, US 2 was a divided four lane highway, but it soon changed to a two lane with a decent shoulder.
I like this description of US 2, from the book "Blue Highways", by William Least Heat Moon:
"...The most desolate of the great east-west routes, it was two lanes of patched, broken, rutted, mind-numbing pavement running from horizon to horizon over the land of god-awful distance."
Sounds about right.
In twenty miles I crossed into Montana (and the Mountain Time Zone), greeted by a small casino on the state line. Most of the time when I've ridden into a new state, nothing really seems different; this time, it seemed hotter and dryer, and the landscape seemed emptier.
I stopped in tiny Baineville (pop. 153) for some snacks, got back on the High Line, and almost immediately had a first-on-the trip experience:
A pickup truck of teenage boys passed by (giving me plenty of room), and then I glanced up to see - WHAT?! - one of them in the back of the truck was mooning me! I had recently read in someone's journal about a woman flashing her breasts at the rider, but I get to see some chubby Montana boy's bare ass. It just doesn't seem fair. (But as long as they don't throw stuff at me or try to run me off the road, I suppose I can live it).
Welcome to Montana!
After that more-amusing-than-irritating incident, it was an uneventful ride to Culbertson (pop. 716), where I got a cheap, suprisingly nice motel room. There wasn't much open in Culbertson on Sunday afternoon - a gas station and an imitation Dairy Queen - but that was enough. As I walked to the gas station, I saw a group of Eastbound riders leaving; they were talking among themselves, so I just nodded at them as I went in the store to find that they had purchased the last of the chocolate milk in Culbertson.
Much later, while I was having dinner at the dairy bar, a solo Eastbounder arrived and introduced himself. He was much more lightly loaded than I am (he was sleeping under a tarp, I think), but half his stuff appeared to be camera equipment. He had the same camera I have, but was carrying multiple heavy, $1,000 lenses. It was interesting talking to him about photography; when I get home I need to actually learn about it, instead of just goofing around.
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Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 5,059 miles (8,142 km)
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