Eighty-Five Miles... or Bust

To Medora, North Dakota -- 85.3 miles, 13.8 mph, 2800 ft

I'm pretty sure we are suffering from a bit of range anxiety. That's the fear electric car drivers get that they will be stranded somewhere. Our anxiety is similar, that we just won't be able to make the distance we need each day. We also have headwind anxiety after battling the headwinds all day yesterday. Today, however, we were determined to capitalize on what seems to be an incredibly rare event these days, an easterly wind! Forget messing around with smaller highway 139 or old highway 10. As much as we hated it yesterday, today we were going to milk the tail wind for everything it was worth and go with "big mama" the whole way, I-94, baby! Eighty-five miles to Medora... or bust!

Margaret at the Rock Roof Inn provided a great breakfast, and then we were off. Ahh, today the roar of the wind was gone. We could hear the tires humming; we could hear ourselves think; I could talk to Kylie!

Meg and Margaret

The Weather Channel -- 24-7.

By 11:00, we were already 25 miles down the road and ready for another meal in Richardton. Next stop, the Steffan Saw and Bike shop in Dickinson, my parents old stomping grounds.  The brake return spring for my front brakes had broken yesterday, so they now rub lightly and make noise. Jason, the guy at the shop was great. He took the bike back to the work area as soon as we arrived. Like others we'd talked to before, he claimed we were the first fully supported family he’d see in his 14 years at the shop.

Unfortunately, what we thought would be a 30 minute stop, dragged on to over two hours! We were all getting a bit frustrated, especially Dex, since our final destination was still more than 35 miles away. Normally we would have been content to count ourselves lucky, and call it a day with 50 miles in the bag. Today, however we were going to try to give ourselves some buffer against the onslaught of headwinds we knew we're coming. For the second day in a row, we once again pulled back onto the interstate late in the day, today after 4:00 p.m. This time though we were able to race up the inclines at 10 or 11 mph (not 5 or 6) and cruise down at the 20 or 24 (not 10 or 11). It was a whole new ball game… if only my butt wasn’t so sore from sitting on that hard, little seat -- normally not a problem. We feared we might not get to the campground until 7:30 or 8:00 but cruised in at 6:30 with the last five miles breezing by past the badlands-like scenery of the Roosevelt National Park.

Riding on I-94

Passing view of the Roosevelt National Park

Despite the tail wind, we were all much too worn out to find a restaurant, so we happily pulled out the cook stove and two-liter collapsable pot.

Home for the night

Yet another meal of pasta, chili, and cheese, while Dex and Kylie played at the camp playground. We explained to Keith and Sheila, our camp neighbors, that after a full day on the bikes getting from A to B, we’re hard pressed to push the kids on school assignments. That may have to wait... until tomorrow.