Day 15: Change of Scenery

Terry MT to Beach, ND, 78 miles, 1500 feet of climbing, another day where temperatures topped 100 degrees.  

 

The temperature today was not that much different than was the case over the last few days but it felt a lot hotter (if one day at 100 degrees can feel hotter than another).  Maybe it is the cumulative effect of spending so much time in the heat.  It also may be due to the wide open and very exposed feeling in eastern Montana and now in North Dakota, where we arrived mid afternoon.

 

Today made for some spirited (meaning fast paced) riding when we were on our bikes, but the heat had us taking breaks whenever we found some shade on the side of the road - which in this part of the world is quite sparse.  Fortunately for us, there seems to be a tree or two every 5 or so miles (it’s hard to imagine unless you experience it just how happy you can be to simply see a tree), just when our bodies cried out for a reprieve from the sun.  It worked out pretty well but made for a slower than usual overall ride duration for the miles we clocked.

 

We ended up in Beach, ND at a small roadside hotel where we seem to be the only guests.  (But “Beach” in ND? No, there is no water or sand anywhere nearby. The town’s name is an eponym after Warren Beach, a soldier from the late 1800’s - that was our history lesson for the day.) It is steaming hot around here and not much to do in the immediate area other than tend to the expansive fields of wheat and sunflowers (not close to having a face yet).  We can’t recall the time that we were more thankful to be able to crank up the air conditioner than this afternoon.

  

Our stay in Beach, at the Buckboard Inn, is also quite a bit different from our stay at the Kempton in Terry.  We really enjoyed our stay there and think we found a friend in Russ, the proprietor who we have a feeling that we will be in touch with from tim to time. The attendant here at the Buckboard is less engaging than Russ, which is being kind. When we asked if they served breakfast in the morning, she answered with a single word: “toast”. Looks like we’ll be dining at Centex again in the morning. 

 

Temperatures are forecast to remain high for the next few days, and the winds are forecast to be all over the map - from the west (which we would really like) for a day, but then a complete reversal (from the east, which we really don’t like) for a few days.  We’ll be keeping the proverbial “weather eye” out for this and will have to plan accordingly (to the extent that we plan at all).  Tonight we are witnessing, from the safety of our rooms, near-gale force winds, which are supposed to subside by morning. People around here keep telling us that they haven’t seen anything like these sustained easterly winds before.  Then again, they probably haven’t seen anyone like us before either.