We left Wibeaux after limping through breakfast. The waffle maker failed miserably. It never fully cooked the dang thing. Settled for a toasted bagel. Coffee was good. We pulled onto I 94 east. Destination was Exit 1 in 8 miles then Old Route 10.
Of course it was all uphill. Man I was having a hard time getting going again. The interstate was pretty cool. Fresh black smooth asphalt. Tired roll sweetly on this stuff. But hmmm. My tires weren't rolling so smoothly. I had a very small hop. (That means one of my tires/wheels are slightly out of round.) This was virtually undetectable in rough roads. Smooth asphalt tells no tales. There's a rest area at our exit. I'll see if the tire needs to be better seated from my flat last week. Yeah that's gotta be it.
A couple of miles in we come to the Welcome to North Dakota sigh and stop for pictures. 3 states down! Once rolling again we continued to climb. This just doesn't feel fair. We figured it was another unnamed pass. Finally when we were near the exit we begin to coast. At least we coasted into the rest area. I took the packs off to better see the wheels. They looked fine. I had Bill hold the bike up so I could spin the wheels one at a time. Back. Ok. Front. Spin. Stop. Spin. Stop. That's not supposed to happen. Wheels don't just stop. I made sure Bill wasn't messing with me. He wasn't. My friggin brakes were rubbing!! No wonder I couldn't get it going. Yesterday too. I just reseated the front wheel and slightly adjusted the disc brake and voilà! Rolls like silk. Made my day.
At this exit was the town of Beach. Population about 1k. Once leaving town we rolled onto Old Highway 10. It was a nice quiet road with mostly gentle rolling hills. Good pavement unlike yesterday afternoon. The next itty bitty little town was Sentinel Butte. Population 58. We noticed it had a set of bee hives. Didn't stop to ask about them. Another 20 miles we arrived at Medora. Population 112 but it was a busy touristy town that was the gateway to Theodore Roosevelt National Park. It even has a bike shop. I stopped there to have someone look at my wheel hop and adjust my rear derailleur. Tires were fine. Wheel needs help but that would take a lot of time. Not a serious problem so just let it go and deal with it. The derailleur was not staying in a couple of gears. This would have to wait as well. Old tired derailleur won't do everything it supposed to. Hmmm. Sounds like me.... I'll replace it when I get home. The derailleur that is.
Next we have lunch then go to the cowboy museum. Cool place. It even give some recognition to the broken promises and treaties to the Indians. Then we mosey over to the TRNPark visitor center. It was ok. Enjoyed the movie. Next we loaded up and finally headed out. This took us to I 94 again. We stayed on this for a few miles then exited to get back on Rt 10 to Belfield.
That's where we are now. In an RV Park. It's late cause I got a late start to this blog. For some unknown reason I couldn't get on. Screen was just blank. Then right before I was going to crash, I tried to get on again. Well. It's done. Time for some rest.
Thanks very much for reading about this little journey.
Almost 5 hours in the saddle
57 miles
11.6 mph avg
30.1 max
No wonder I'm tired.
Cheers.
Kim
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