July 9, 1998 - Glendive - Medora

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 66.30 Miles

TIME: 5 Hours

AVERAGE SPEED: 13.1 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Very hot and sunny the entire day with a medium headwind.

ROAD CONDITIONS: Overall the roads were in good condition and would have been great except for the parts with fresh oil and tar.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: About 35 miles of uphill that was very gradual with a few long hills afterwards. A fairly easy ride but the wind made it very tiring.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
We woke up around 7:30 since we had to be gone by 9:15. I packed up surprisingly quickly and ate a breakfast of real cereal! Along with this I was able to have a nectarine which was really good. I then found out that I was on host clean-up so I couldn't leave until much later than I wanted. I helped to pack up the SAG and then swept the entire gym floor. After all of this was done, I was finally able to leave after signing a thank you note. I then went to a local pay phone to make a call to Guy Smith at AmeriCares. Unfortunately he wasn't in at the time so I started biking for the day. I started out with Katie, Heather, and Brad but soon decided to go faster and took off towards the next town. About 2:30 later, I finally arrived and found the nearest phone to call Guy again. I finally reached him and found out that he was going to be going to a foreign country on 7/10 which had just had an outbreak of war. He was going to be helping with delivering medical aid and food to the people in need. After getting off of the phone, I bought a Powerade which although I doubt does anything more than water tasted much better. I gulped it down and started off again thinking that I would ride the final 35 miles without stopping. However at the next town I stopped again and got a map of North Dakota(Picture60) since I had just arrived in my next state. As soon as I had gotten into this new state, the roads changed and the shoulders were made of tar with gravel over them. Because of the hot temperatures, the tar was coming through the top as the stone sank down. Every time I stopped, I would get tar on my feet unless I went off of the side of the road. My tires once again got caked with pebbles just after they had finally been cleared of everything that I had picked up the day before. I rode on for the next 24 miles on this type of road. Fortunately there wasn't much traffic although it was a 4 lane highway. At most times you couldn't see a car for about a mile in either direction. At these times, I would go onto the actual road which was concrete instead of tar.(Picture61) At one time I even had to go into the far left lane because they had done the same procedure to the right lane. Whenever a car would appear in my site even if it was still a half a mile away I would quickly move over to the shoulder to pick up more tar and make my trip slower again. Finally I got into Medora around 4:20 and opened my package. It was full of food which I had been needing for a long while. It was full of jelly beans, dried peaches, dried pineapple, and dried bananas. Along with this there was a huge stack of cookies. My only problem was making sure that there was some left for --- I had to hide them a little! After this, I claimed my sleeping spot and went out for ice cream with Katie and Matt where I got raspberry and strawberry ice cream. We went back to the church and I worked on my bike again trying to get off all of the tar that was on it. I didn't worry about the tires since it will just wear off as I ride but I did worry about everything that was on the brakes and the frame. Luckily, since I was so careful of where I rode, I didn't have much. Some people got it up their entire backs! After finishing with my bike, I listened to some music while waiting for dinner to be prepared which was to be macaroni and cheese. After dinner, I began to sort out all of my gear that I no longer wanted which included all of my warm clothes except for a jacket, a few extra t-shirts, two extra pairs of shorts, and my paniers. This freed up a lot of space which was then once again occupied by the large box of food that my parents had sent to me. The box fit perfectly into the new empty spot in my bag. Unfortunately no one had any extra boxes so I had to go to a grocery store and pull a box out of the trash. It was a little too big so I spent the next 15 minutes cutting it down to the correct size before packing up my things that were to be sent home. After this was finished, I got ready for bed and listened to some more music while eating some of my new food. I finally got to bed around 11:30.

TRIP ROUTE:
Take I94 to Historical Medora(Medora) and get off. Follow offramp and take a right. Go into Medora and stay for the night.