Today (Day 51) we officially finished riding through North Dakota and made it to Montana.
This has been my first visit to North Dakota since 1995/1996, and it did not disappoint. We started our journey out in Wahpeton on the 4th of July -- we stayed at the Chahinkapa zoo campground and visited the world's largest catfish statue.
After a couple days we made it to Cleveland (where my grandma grew up) and stayed with my mom's cousin's wife's brother, Roger Shaffer (we're not calling it my dad's mooch-across-America tour for nothing!) We also met Roger's son and his family and had a wonderful time eating great food and playing hide and seek with the girls.
Fast forward a few days and we made it to Bismarck. We visited my mom's cousin Anna, rode through a terrific wind and thunderstorm which blew Liz's bike across a gas station parking lot while we we sheltering a bit, and broke her mirror off her bike. on the way across Bismarck to the Missouri river we stopped at the 701 bike shop for a replacement mirror (thanks DJ for the help). The rest of the day we had a great ride over the hills west of Bismarck. We made it to New Salem and saw Salem Sue (the world's largest Holstein cow!) and later that day we made it out to the Sebastian Farm outside of Hebron, ND, now run by Kathy and Dave Sardelli (cousin Anna's daughter and her husband). What a wonderful visit -- if you have never visited North Dakota, you are missing out. It is really beautiful. We had a lovely time visiting, ate great food and also met Karen and ChristiAnna Schmidt (more cousins!)
Highlights from the last couple days include driving up the Enchanted Highway, a 32-mile stretch from Regent to Gladstone with some gigantic scrap metal sculptures, visiting Medora, seeing the Medora Musical and riding through Theodore Roosevelt National Park and running into a herd of buffalo! We also stopped at the Dakota Cyclery and met Jennifer and her new kitten (Spokey!)
We are grateful for our time in North Dakota and the family and friends who we saw and stayed with.
Now, it's on to the high deserts and mountains of Montana.
