Jackie: 11.6 mph
Scott: 13.9 mph
Weather: Sunny, 50-60 degrees
Terrain: a few short steep hills in beginning and end of mostly flat 
Wind: westerly
57 miles

Happy birthday to our oldest son Yuri! We dedicate this blog to him for bringing us good luck on a day with favorable weather, pleasant surprises, and scenic views. I often think about his consistent positive mental attitude, a good model to emulate. (I can hear Julian saying, “What about me? I have a PMA.” Yes, but this was Yuri’s birthday.) This day we felt especially connected to loved ones present and those who have passed on.

After Scott made an adjustment to my handlebars, it was 09:50 and warm enough for just a windbreaker over a long sleeved merino knit top, plus fingerless gloves. Still riding east on Highway 2, we were heading into the territory where Scott’s maternal grandfather had homesteaded along the Missouri River. All her life, his mother Margie (soft g) loved the open prairie where you could see for miles and miles in the dry air. I thought about her as we rode through, wishing I could tell her what it felt like to be in that area where she was born and lived for a time as a child.

With the wind at our backs, we paused in Nashua in search of coffee before braving what a road sign said would be an 11-mile stretch of construction. No coffee, but a really nice surprise was in store. The construction was basically done, the crew was putting in the guardrails. So we cruised along on smooth, seamless asphalt in a 35 mph speed zone. Yay!

We were in Poplar at 11:30, a little early for lunch, but not too early for ice cream and coffee. The middle of town was torn up to put in a new roundabout to slow traffic through town. We paused briefly at Frostee’s and exited onto a short bicycle path (yes, a bike path in tiny Poplar) that led us out of the construction and onto another paved road, BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) Route 1 that runs parallel to Highway 2 and the railroad. The surface was cut with frost heave seams, so we kind of lumped-lumped along, like some less traveled farm roads in northeast Germany made from concrete blocks. Riding in the middle of the road diminished the bumps a bit.

Heart

3

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

This back road led back to Highway 2 just a couple miles outside Brockton. Dark blue clouds were piling up in the west behind us. While Scott was pausing on the road for me to catch up, a man in a pickup stopped and asked if everything was okay. Scott explained our situation and the driver wished us well. He warned us to get to Culbertson before the storms hit. We took his good advice to take another BIA 1 just over the hill east of town.

With a smooth surface and few cars, we could take in the scene without thinking about shoulder width or traffic. This is a beautiful ride for any vehicle. You can see the ochre and red shale striations in the hills on the banks of the Missouri off to the south. And close up gumbo hills that come into view when you go around a corner. We made it to Culbertson, Margie’s birthplace, by 16:45.

Heart

5

Comment

1

Link

Scott AndersonSo beautiful!
Reply to this comment
5 years ago

Log in to comment or reply

Culbertson lies just outside the boundary of the Fort Peck Reservation, the home of the Assiniboine and Dakota (Sioux) nations, the Sioux being famous for defeating Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. (My grandfather homesteaded a ranch that turned out to include the territory where the Battle of the Rosebud took place, 50 miles south and one week earlier than the more famous Custer’s Last Stand of June 25-26, 1876. His former ranch is now a state park). The two-million acre Fort Peck Reservation was created in 1888 and named for Colonel Campbell Kennedy Peck, who established a fur trading post with his partner Abel Farwell. The original Fort Peck Indian Agency on the site was flooded out by an ice jam in 1877 and then moved to its current location at the mouth of the Poplar River.

Heart

3

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Culbertson is currently experiencing the trickle down benefits of resource extraction from the Bakkan Formation, an area rich in oil and natural gas in northeastern Montana, northwestern North Dakota, southern Saskatchewan, and southwestern Manitoba. According to Geology.com, since 2007 horizontal drilling and hydro-fracturing have made it possible to extract the previously inaccessible oil and natural gas trapped in rock. The formation has boosted the economy of northeastern Montana and turned North Dakota into the #2 oil producer after Texas. 

Sixth Street (aka Highway 2) is lined with new curbs and fresh pavement. We stayed at the Hi-Line Inn and Suites, a fairly new motel offering spacious rooms, kingsize bed, kitchenettes (no cookware), and a free laundry facility. Alas, the cable TV selection did not include ESPN, so we missed the Rockets last stand against Golden State. The thunderstorm hit about 18:30 when we were preparing Mountain House Lasagna (after a very heated discussion about how much hot water to add). Scott was out by 21:00, I read the news for a while longer.