My Route


For more detailed maps, scroll down through the blog. Click on any one to enlarge it; use the backspace button to return to the blog. That goes for the photos, too.

Saturday

Day 49: Sunday, 19th August. Destination: Super 8, Williston, North Dakota

My last day in North Dakota. So how's it been? Those fields of green and gold I wrote about have, since leaving Rugby, turned to sun-bleached yellow, dry green, orange-brown, and the sky a blanket of low grey cloud, giving way to a thin strip of white on the horizon. It's been chilly in the morning, and the wind hasn't really stopped blowing, though I shouldn't really complain as it's been SE for 3 days now. There are no trees, and the ground rises and falls. Towns can be picked out at some distance by the municipal water tower and grain elevator, and there's not a lot more to them when you get close up.

Today, I cycled through 71 miles of Bad Lands, which meant more ups and downs as the road took me across riverbeds and around lakes (some of them dried out), past rocky outcrops and over rounded hills. The only restaurant on the route - one which promised 'famous, home-made Juneberry Pie' - was closed, so I dined on energy bars and a couple of bananas a Swedish couple gave me out of sympathy as we stood outside the closed cafe. I don't remember much about Williston. Another water tower, another grain elevator, another Super 8 Motel. Entering and leaving town I cycled passed large scrap yards of old trucks and engine parts just sitting out in the sun, lying amongst parched grass and scrub. Goodbye North Dakota. Montana, here we come...