The school was not air conditioned but everyone slept better probably than we would have outside because it never really cooled down. Someone got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night and discovered in the boy locker room there had been a hatch of thousands and thousands of flies. They covered a whole wall . . . black!!

Rod and David started hosing the fly’s down into the floor drain about 5:00am. Wade went out the nearby door, where there was an exterior light, and hundreds of flies dropped down onto his head!!!!  Denise had been alerted to the flies about 2:00am when, as she was sleeping on the stage in the gym, they started crawling all over her!!!! So . . . it was a short night for lots of folks . . .

Today would be a great ride! 55 miles but with a quartering tail wind and only a high of 90 degrees!!!! Onto Bismarck we go!!!

Like MT everything in ND is bigger than life . . . including their playing cars. Found this Queen of Hearts on the road outside of Glen Ullin . . . Queen Mary, reminds of my Smoochie . . . I miss you, wish you were along on this journey!!!

Lots of ranching still going on and not much agriculture yet . . .

Today we would ride our last chunk of Interstate. Rumor has it that this stretch had rumble strips across the whole shoulder and made it impossible to ride a bike. So, some rode an alternate route but most of it was gravel!!! Once we got on the Interstate at Glen Ullin. this is what we found. The strips were right in the middle of the lane. Not bad and plenty of room on the outside.. . .

. . . but within two miles the strips widened, taking just about the whole lane. Luckily there was space on the right to still ride, although the higher brush kept banging into our panniers.

. . . the truckers were courteous and usually moved over to the other lane. there wasn’t much traffic and the temps were in the low 70’s. So it made for a very nice riding experience. Seems like the first one in weeks. In fact, Corvin and I did not exit when we were supposed to and rode on the Interstate for another 6 miles to New Salem.

On the Interstate though, you need to keep and eye out for the ‘dreaded eighteen wheeler, delaminated, steel belted, radial tire’. Like gators’ they love to lay in the weeds, just waiting for a rider to come by and then spring out to give them a flat tire . . .

. . . they seem to reproduce too and soon these smaller ones . . .

. . . become punks like this one, splaying out it’s harden steel wire !!!!

. . . some lay coiled, just waiting to strike!!!!

When we exited at New Salem we got a close up of the ‘Big Cow’ we had been seeing for miles as we biked along the Interstate. ‘Salem Sue’ the ‘Worlds Largest Holstein Cow’. Constructed of fiberglass, in 1946, for a cost of $40,000, it has been drawing tourists off the road for years. There is even a look out one can drive up and survey the landscape. I passed.

We took a break in New Salem at Tellman’s Market, the place to be in New Salem, before continuing on Hwy 139 to Mandan and Bismarck. Just outside of New Salem, I saw this ‘Rain for Rent’ operation . . . guess the drought is bringing all kinds of ‘entrepreneurs’ out of the woodwork.

I guess they deliver these empty, fill them with water . . .

. . .  and pump it out onto the crops!!!!

. . . no problem following the road today, it goes on forever!!!! . . .

. . . this birdie looked very peaceful . . . like it was sleeping.

As we entered Mandan, I saw my first corn . . .  certainly won’t be the last as we travel through MN and WI !!!!

We rode a nice bike path all the way through Mandan and Bismarck to our home for the night, General Siblley Park. Lots of space and trees, and we have the whole place to ourselves!!!

We are back in the Central Time Zone and Allison is back with us after having left for five days to be part of her best friends wedding.

Life is good!!!!