39 miles

We crossed into North Dakota today. We met a nice couple on our way out of Wibaux at a rest stop, just before getting back on I-94. They let Danielle use their bike pump. The woman said she had ridden the Southern Tier a few years ago. We left I-94 and took Old Highway 10, which gave us some nice pavement, nice views of the badlands, and no traffic. We stopped at an old fashioned gas station in Sentinel Butte, mostly just to read a historical sign about the local battles between Custer and the Sioux, and a man came out of the gas station and demanded we eat some rhubarb crumble. We obliged. 

He asked us all the questions. He seemed to know a lot about our trip already—I assume he only ever sees touring cyclists, considering we saw basically three cars for about 20 miles. I asked him what the fields were planted with around here—we have been passing some more bright yellow fields like the ones in Montana, and some new ones that were blue. The yellow are canola fields and the blue is flax, according to the guy that rolled up to the gas pump on his tractor, with his shepherd dog just trailing loose behind him. A perfect caricature of where we are.

A lot happened today, but I’m tired now. I watched a guy in a huge, scary looking truck casually pluck a dead bird off his grille and toss it in the trashcan at the Flying J station next to the highway. I was feeling snarky, so I asked “You’re not going to eat that?” and he laughed, and we chatted for a moment. He offered to buy us food, but we declined.

We made it to Medora and got a campsite. I bought a new rear tire at Dakota Cyclery. They only had 700c x 32 in Marathons, which was the exact one I wanted. I changed the tire at the campground, and put in a fresh tube. I’ll save my patched tube for an emergency. Danielle and I spent some time at the city pool. It cost $4. There are a lot of children here. We ate some mashed potatoes with rice and tuna. I sort of want to take a rest day tomorrow and see the park.