Day 40

The big Four Zero. Forty days and forty nights. Now this trip is entering biblical proportions.

It started simple. Cool this morning. Too cold for the shorts and t shirt that are my go-to in camp. Threw on my fleece and packed in the orange, early morning rays. Was pulling out of camp at 7:45. Rode down a ways to a bike path (yes, even Bismark has them). I wouldn't go through downtown, but I hear I wasn't missing much. Sometimes it's more trouble than it's worth.

Took a left onto a bridge and saw the mighty Missouri flow under me (pronounced miz-ZUR-ruhh around here). I stopped for a photo.

Just then a guy rode by and said "man, I have a lot of respect for you self - supported guys." I said it ain't so bad.  He was on a commuter bike but had on a bike jersey that read "Bike the US for MS". "Oh!" I said, "you're with the MS group!" I'd been hearing about this vehicle-supported charity ride of abput 20 riders for a couple days from other folks on the road. His name was Caleb, and was a law school student from Eastern Kentucky. His mother had MS and her decided this was something he could do about it.  I thought that was pretty cool.

So we talked and rode for a sec, but he passed me without any gear on him. He stopped to look at the map, and I took the right turn, so I guess he figured I knew the way, so we rode together all the way out of Bismark. Pretty soon we'd already gone 20 miles. Turns out the group was headed the same direction as me, so I rode with them all day. They also had a sweet support van with tasty treats and cold water stopping every 20 miles...

The road was great. Totally beautiful. First stop was New Salem. Home of the world's biggest dairy cow, Salem Sue (pictured below, on the right of the hill).

I met the other riders and spoke to a couple in turn as we rode along. All great folks.  one of em was named Fred and was a retired geologist who had worked for Exxon Mobil. He had lots of interesting stuff to say about the formation of this country. He also was convined I looked like a 25 year yonger version of himself. Pretty fun riding in a pack too, not just trudging out there all on your lonesome.

Then more steady riding through the plains. Nice cloud cover so it wasn't so hot. And winds from the South today, so that was fine.

Next was Glen Ullin, a town with no claim to fame.

To get there from New Salem there was no other paved road,  so we had to take the interstate for about 12 miles.  Not great riding but Deep Purple's "Machine Head" got me through that. I have a lot of emotions about the highway and I had to let some out while taking the overpass to get off of it.

Passed Twin Buttes somewhere along the way. I'm sure that was an important landmark to some explorers or pioneers at one point.

Clouds looked like they might dump, but they didn't.

Came into Hebron in early afternoon. You can tell when there's a town coming for miles because of those massive cathedrals of grain towering at the center of them.

(You can see some of the MS riders on the road ahead). They were putting the crew up in the community center/ city hall so they said I could crash on the floor.  Sounds like a deal to me.

Had made such good time with the group that I had time to go check out "downtown" and get a thing or two at the store.

Made dinner and wrote a postcard. A fun day. Maybe I'll tag along with these cats for a while, or maybe until they just get sick of me.

Hey look a picture of me!