I have to jostle my brain around every time I sit down to write one of these blogs. I left off in Medora. I felt a bit displaced, so far from the Missouri River, a bit like I was missing out on what there was to see. Throughout this whole bike trip I’d been takingContinue reading “Cow Wrangling and Bike Wrestling”
Category Archives: Month
Medora, like Fedora! Not Moderna.
The next morning I was a bit obsessed with the idea of getting coffee. I got on highway 200 and headed west, and sent my mom on ahead, evidently too far up the highway. I knew we were meant to turn toward Beulah, ND. My maps are pretty complicated to get used to. It’s notContinue reading “Medora, like Fedora! Not Moderna.”
Goodbye for now, Missouri (River)
When I first asked my mom to meet me and be my support vehicle, I asked her about Great Falls, Montana. I guessed I’d be there in the middle of the first week of August. My mom seems to have spent a lot of time plotting how she could come sooner than later. Her preparationContinue reading “Goodbye for now, Missouri (River)”
The Ride to Bismarck
In North Dakota I met with my first signs of smoke. I was told repeatedly that it was blowing down from fires in Canada, not the fires in Montana, but the particles in the air were enough to make the sunshine wildly. I couldn’t stop taking pictures on my first day in the state. WeContinue reading “The Ride to Bismarck”
A Wrong Turn
Saturday was my day off. Everyone seems to flock to campsites on the weekends, so we had trouble finding a campground and wound up at a hotel on Friday night. Pierre is small. I usually play tourist on my day off, but there was only a cultural heritage center there. First though, we loaded upContinue reading “A Wrong Turn”
Suddenly Supported
On Monday, after that awful 83 mile day I talked to my dad on the phone. He had asked me about a week before if there was any part of my trip that I felt like I could use a support vehicle on. When he first asked I’d mentioned the stretch before Pierre, SD. IContinue reading “Suddenly Supported”
What the Heck is a Hose Clamp?
After a day off due to pouring rain, I got back on the road and continued west along the Missouri. By lunchtime I was in Yankton where I crossed over the Gavin’s Point Dam to visit the Army Corps of Engineers Lewis and Clark Visitor Center on the other side, my last stop in Nebraska.Continue reading “What the Heck is a Hose Clamp?”
Entering My 11th State
Next to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center, connected by a paved bike path was the Charles Floyd Riverboat Museum. Riverboat Museums seem to be a thing on our country’s major rivers. There was a Riverboat Museum in Marietta OH, then in Brownsville, NE there was a boat called the Meriwether Lewis Dredge. A dredgeContinue reading “Entering My 11th State”
Interpretive Plural.
It’s not too far from Council Bluffs to Sioux City. My first day back on the road after so much rough travel, I got to Onawa. It was a long stretch of wonderful flatness, more what I’d been promised in the plains states than what I’d gotten. Seriously, glacial hills in Kansas? Loess Hills inContinue reading “Interpretive Plural.”
All Time Low
I crossed the river and set foot in Iowa for the first time, enjoying the slight change in scenery, very lush green bluffs, occasionally with a chunk missing that revealed a shock of red soil. There were technically towns on this ride, but the first few I passed through had been ravaged by a tornadoContinue reading “All Time Low”
The Stars On the Horizon 