6/27/18 Hebron to Dickinson: Sonder and Sugar

June 27, 2018

After last night's mad dash to the church basement during the tornado warning, we were ready for an uneventful day on the road. Fortunately, the route from Hebron to Dickinson on Old Highway 10 delivered. The traffic was low, the shoulders were comfortably wide, and the hills and headwinds were both gentle.

The only annoyance we encountered was navigating our way through Dickinson. According to the Adventure Cycling map the population is 17,000. But Wikipedia says that with the North Dakota oil boom it could be 35,000. What that meant for us was a lot of unexpected traffic congestion, construction, and suburban sprawl.

We arrived at Rocky Butte park a little agitated and more than ready for a lunch break. A mother-daughter pair from Minneapolis shared our picnic shelter and told us that they were on their way to a family reunion in Montana. After we told them our travel story, the daughter brought over fresh fruit and veggies to share. Cantaloupe, bing cherries, sugar snap peas, and carrots ... Yum!! We buy fresh produce when we can, but in small rural towns the selection is limited, so this festival of color and flavors was a trip to Tastebud Disneyland. I can't believe we didn't get the names of these awesome trail angels!

Rocky Butte: We were surrounded by pines, cedars and juniper trees for the first time in a month.

As they were leaving the twenty-something daughter said that our exchange reminded her of a new word that she had learned: sonder.

sonder - n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. Narrated, written, directed, edited and coined by John Koenig.Oct 26, 2014

If I were to list 10 words or phrases that capture the bicycle tour experience, sonder would be in the top 5. Another would be random acts of kindness. Yesterday it was Pastor Olson in Hebron. Today it was 2 women who happened to be picnicking at the same time as us. I only hope that the kindness we give will someday equal what we've received on this journey!

When we finished our lunchtime feast we made our way over to the North Park RV Park, where we had a camping reservation for the night. It was an odd little area that appeared to be one of the consequences of the oil boom. The lady that checked us in said that she was from Tennessee and that she and her husband had been there for 5 years due to his employment with Marathon Oil.

After we got situated in our secluded tent area, we did a load of laundry and walked a few blocks to the Super Walmart. On our way to the toothpaste aisle I noticed a strange product with the words "grass fed butter" in the description. I've heard of grass fed cows, but grass fed butter?? The idea of sticks of butter wandering around a pasture had me in stitches!

Back at the campground we received a visit from Sugar, the mascot of the RV park. She is a tiny, fluffy, grey kitty with a big personality, and spent much of the evening with us. Her favorite part was when I took the clothesline down and played with her for a bit. We still miss our cat Camille that passed away a year and a half ago, and it was a lot of fun to hang out with a silly feline.

A random bee box photo for Scott and Rachael

Ron did an experiment. He bought some butter and put it on the grass to see if it would eat. But nothing. He then began force-feeding the grass into the butter and that seemed to work, but the butter tasted pretty bad. But he was as high as a kite!

I cut Ron's hair and collected the clippings to make a toupee

Today's ride: 42 miles (68 km)
Total: 963 miles (1,550 km)

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Dee Forteloving reading about this journey!
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6 years ago

Ron SuchanekTo Dee ForteThanks for reading ! If you talk to your brother or sister or mother, tell them.m about it.
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6 years ago

Judy & Sharon Thieme-RahnGreat haircut - mom and I think Ron is quite handsome. A few more haircuts and that toupee will be really something :-)

Love the word sonder - excellent description of that aspect of your journey and Sugar is such a beautiful cat.
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6 years ago