July 5, 2021
Day 35: Stanley to Burlington Settler's Park
A welcome cool down with a thunderstorm
“If North Dakota ever succeeded from the US, it would be the third largest nuclear country,” Steve says. We’ve stopped for a break at the gas station in Berthold and the man at the next table starts talking with us. He’s from Seattle now, but grew up here and has a strong family history in the area. He continues, “you can see sometimes where nuclear missile silos are hidden. Growing up we knew were a bulleyes on a Russian map for strike.” This was a welcome break as we are still 15 miles from Burlington.
We are up at 6am and we have our granola and milk and visit with Jim. He mentions we are now moving into Sugar Beet country. We talk about last night’s fireworks. Rachel says, “I think they were trying to recreate the battle to see if the flag was still there.” There were loud bangs and flashes at least until midnight. As we ride out of town back to Highway 2, we see the evidence of the fireworks with debris on the streets and stacks of boxes the fireworks came in.
The landscape is changing, flattening a bit, canola fields still and fewer to no oil rigs. At the sides of the road are “sloughs” according to Jim, and we’ve been told “prairie potholes,” with a variety of birds: ducks with ducklings, cranes, some we don’t know the names.
The wind didn’t wake up until about 8 and we’d done 17 miles with very little traffic. Then it gradually grows stronger, sometimes helping a little, sometimes hurting us, all depending upon the direction of the road. We are still mostly headed east, while the wind is northeast. To the north, we see dark sky with rolling white clouds indicating a thunderstorm that is chasing us. The shoulder continues to be most very wide, only narrowing for a while near Berthold. The narrowing though is a rumble strip, about a foot to cycle on and then a two foot slant down to the edge. And the white line and rumble strip sometimes looked like a drunken sailor did one or both of those things.
We reach Burlington and the Settler’s Park around noon. Pleasantly surprised, there is a shower in the restrooms that are clean. We pitch the tent in a shelter strategically placed to avoid the holes we see in the roof. Around 3pm, a strong thunderstorm hits for about a half hour. We can still hear an occasional rumble of thunder. The rain cooled the temperature. The plan for tomorrow is go to Towner, then the Leeds, and on our 26th wedding anniversary a WS host in Devil’s Lake.
All depends upon whichever way the wind blows.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 1 | Link |
3 years ago
Today's ride: 49 miles (79 km)
Total: 1,413 miles (2,274 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 3 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 4 |
That is correct, July 8th. We have our "just married" shirts with us with the yellow one added date 20years that we had in Georgia (country) and the gray one added 26 years....we were going to replicate the 1995 Honeymoon ride pic on Logan Pass, but didn't work out since Going to Sun Road was not completely open to through traffic.
Rachel
3 years ago
3 years ago
Congratulations to you two!!
Racpat
3 years ago