Interstate

“Well you should have known better

Dead thoughts and lost horizons

And to take it further, it don’t get any better

Well out here on the border

Ain’t nobody asking questions”

- The Refreshments

Wow! That’s really about all I can say about today. We spent the entire day on I-94. It was about 2 1/2 miles from last night’s hotel to the interstate and about 1/4 mile from the interstate to tonight’s deluxe accommodations at the Hotel GlenDIVE (all caps added for appropriate emphasis, but the people are nice). In between, the only time we got off the highway was to cross over it and go to the Subway at the Flying J Truck Stop in Beach, ND. It was the only town for 62 miles that had a dining option - if Subway qualifies as such. As a result, we ate lunch at 10:30 this morning.

The only other town on the route was only about 10 miles after Beach so we weren’t really ready to stop again. We didn’t want to stop but thought a quick rest wouldn’t be a bad plan, so we ended up sitting on the concrete in the shade of the freeway overpass for about 10 minutes. It provided just enough cover for me to find the makeshift rest facility, but otherwise was pretty unsatisfactory. From there it was just wide open country, with nothing to stop the wind. Despite the nice wide shoulder, there’s something disconcerting about riding a bike at 10-12mph when the traffic is passing you at 80 (the state speed limit). A couple of days ago, while riding on the same interstate back in North Dakota, a truck going the other way blew a tire just after it had passed us. It sounded like a bomb exploding (I looked back and saw the truck had safely pulled to the shoulder). All day today, I imagined that happening to a truck going our way as it was passing us. Not a very settling image. There are some executive decisions about to be made to improve the quality of our experience.

Which came first, the place or the song?

#37

The most popular sign in the “Great” Plains

So that’s what they call it in Montana