Our ride today was a shorter one relative to the past several days. This also happened to be the day that we would finally leave Montana and enter North Dakota! That might be the first time in my life when I've concluded a sentence with, "North Dakota" and an exclamation point. Truly, it feels a little demoralizing to ride for a week through one state and still be in the same state. Even though we had made great progress, it didn't feel like we had. This is simply a testament to Montana's vastness. Shortly before leaving Montana behind, we stopped in Wibaux, where we ran into three other cyclists. One of the three was a woman who was cycling solo to the east, while the other two (husband and wife) were cycling west to Seattle. I also checked out a hardware store that is supplied by a warehouse in Dixon, where I spent many summers working. It's an odd interest of mine, I know. Once back on the road, it was only a matter of about fifteen minutes when we saw it on the horizon: welcome to North Dakota! We had finally escaped the geographic grasps of Montana! Once in North Dakota, we had a quick stop in Beach for a quick break before riding on to Medora, which is located by Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The remainder of our ride eastward was on Old Highway 10, which, per usual, had next to no traffic. As we rode on, buttes were more frequent and the landscape reminded me of the South Dakota Badlands. About eight miles before Medora, I heard a loud pop from what I thought was the rear tire. When I noticed the rear tire was alright, I opted to ride and look more closely at the bike when at the campground. After all, the bike appeared to be operating without any issues. Upon closer examination at the campground, I discovered that I had a broken spoke! Fortunately enough, Garrett was aware of a shop in town, and the shop owner could fix it the following morning. The downtown had an old western theme about it. Medora dates back to 1883 when it was founded along the course of the transcontinental railroad. After getting ice cream, we headed back to the campground for an early night's sleep.
