Day 11.
August 31st, 2021.
Day 11 was more wind and the vast openness of the Eastern Montana prairie land.
My plan today was to make it to Rugby, ND - my northernmost turn around point to be, on this journey.
I was pumped up, excited and ready for it.
Today I was to “hit” my 48th out of 48 states desired for this quest, for this phase of my riding dreams I’d been having for so long now.
I could hardly believe it.
It seemed so surreal.
That for so long all I had to live and experience was a dream and now I was actually beginning to feel it happening - to actually experience it.
The realization was dawning upon me.
My dreams were actually becoming tangible!
So I began the usual daily routine of loading up my gear onto the bike in preparation for the day’s riding ahead of me.
Breakfast in the motel was fresh.
A good way to wake up and prepare for the day ahead.
I headed out back onto Interstate Highway 94 (the same way I came into town the day before) and continued my journey eastwards.
At Miles City, MT the GPS indicated that I had only traveled 74 km (46 miles) but it sure didn’t feel like it!
Interstate 94 continued to be a STRAIGHT stretch of road that just cut its way across the continuing open prairie.
Made me feel like I was not making any progress.
This is the kind of road that will mesmerize, hypnotize and give you sleepy eyes.
I know that because that’s exactly what it began to do to me.
I wanted to stop in order to ward off the effects.
With each minute and each mile passing by, I was getting closer and closer to the North Dakota state line.
But the eerie feeling was that although I was knocking down the miles, it was taking forever and I felt like I was not arriving where I wanted to, fast enough.
It felt like someone was moving the state line further away from me, as fast and further as I was approaching it.
I tried to put my mind on other things but that did not work.
The wind! Oh, the wind!
I was getting tired and irritated again.
I decided to stop and rest again.
I was not as fresh as I thought I needed to be, but the intensity of the wind now was seriously high!
Dangerously high!
I was being blown across lanes effortlessly!
And to think that as fully loaded as I was for this journey - close to 410 kg (902 lbs - bike, self & luggage) - I was like a mosquito in the face of the wind!
I began to stop almost every half hour.
This was now unbearable.
I had never experienced this level of wind in all my years of being on the road.
I took the next exit off the interstate that presented itself.
it filtered me into the town of Terry, ND.
Terry, ND incidentally, as I discovered, was home to Evelyn Cameron.
For those of us photography enthusiasts, Evelyn Cameron, as she is described and noted - “British by birth, American by choice” - was a pioneer photographer who captured the Spirit and Grit of Montana through her skill and passion for photography.
After learning a little bit about Terry and Montana in general, I can now appreciate why her favorite (and accurate, I must agree) quote to describe Montana was: “Too Enchanted To Be Sensible”.
Here again, the internet will provide a much more detailed and interesting history of her than I can.
A windmill, spinning freely in the wind attracted my attention to a gas station which I decided to use for my rest stop.
No doubt it had been located and installed here just for that purpose.
You couldn’t miss it.
…….. and I became the next flying insect caught in that spider’s web - but in a good manner of thinking as being a welcome opportunity in more ways than one to break a traveler’s journey.
Besides, it was a good opportunity to re-fuel the bike and grab a bite to eat and something to eat as well.
My next several minutes were spent conversing with an elderly gentleman at the opposite fuel pump.
He tried hard to get me to consider moving to Terry, ND with the professional skills that I had, declaring to me that there was a great need for them in this heavily agricultural production area of the country.
He confirmed that the consistency of the prevailing wind was nothing out of the ordinary.
I remarked to him that that alone was enough to dissuade me from wanting to live in a place with such conditions.
Continuing the journey I maintained my focus, knowing that sooner or later, as long as I continued my forward progress, I would get to my destination.
I was heading pretty much in a northeastern direction and just past the town of Glendive, MT interstate 94 took a firm turn eastwards.
I continued and just shy of an hour, off in the distance, I made out the silhouette of the sign welcoming me to North Dakota!
Suddenly the wind was no longer a factor to me.
I forgot all about it!
Distance was no longer a factor to me.
……….. and with a kind of blankness in my mind I was pulling up at the base of the sign!
Wind-Beaten, fatigued and with dry, almost cracked lips, I became oblivious to all else around me.
This was the culmination of all my years of chasing “that dream”!
That dream that touched the soul of that little 6 yr. old in Ghana in 1964 and refused to let go!
All of a sudden, thoughts of me at all the nation’s state lines I had crossed on my bike in the previous 11 years of touring, flashed through my mind in what seemed to be an instant.
I had realized the first part of my riding dream!
I felt blessed, grateful, accomplished and more educated!
I reached for my camera gear and phone.
The wind kept barreling across the prairie.
I continued my journey after taking all the photos and making the phone calls I cared to and headed off towards and through the National Grassland Reserve.
I made my way to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.
It was right along my way.
Truly an expansive park with its features.
Oh, the wind!
It was still relentless and my thoughts began to pressure me about having to continue enduring such conditions all the way up north and back down yet.
The sound of the wind rushing through the trees and leaves was ever present.
It was all all the other tourists and I could remark about.
Especially the ones traveling in RV’s (Recreational Vehicles).
It was more than I cared to deal with much more, at which time, before pulling away from the park after my visit, decided not to continue the journey further north to Rugby, ND but instead begin working my way back to Ohio via South Dakota.
So it was back on the road and into the still-relentless wind.
I could feel the fatigue setting in and I was becoming more adamant about “getting off” the road in search of a place to bed down for the night.
I was really ready to “crash-out” for the night.
After what seemed like forever but in actuality only about 64 km (40mi), I exited the highway into the town of Dickinson, ND.
It had taken me a little over hour to cover that distance under the conditions.
I found a place to bed down for the night in an area where I easily found some Chicken for dinner.