All day. Flat. Straight. Colorful. Beautiful.

Day 2 was a long day.  A long, flat, straight, wide open day. We left Grand Forks, which was a very pleasant surprise of a town, very early – around 6:30 am – and very crusty after our wine the evening before.

Wide open spaces.

We decided to put in some miles before breakfast, and by 9am had 100 miles in before stopping in Devils Lake, North Dakota.  The morning progressed smoothly until we got to Minot.  Brad swears that it’s pronounced “MY not” as in why not in Minot, but I’m going with “mee NO” – I’m just trying to class up the trip a little bit.

We were lucky enough to find a Starbucks in Minot after driving through insane flood damage from the June 24 flood – the worst in Minot’s history with water coming over the Souris River’s levies and forcing the evacuation of 10,000 people – a quarter of the population.  It actually looked a lot like New Orleans (on a much smaller scale) six months after Katrina when the Dude and I toured it.  Really a mess.

Pre-Rain

Now, say what you will about Starbucks, but after long rides into nameless towns, Starbucks is like some unexpected hallucinogenic oasis manned by little dancing caffein ferries catering to your every espresso fantasy.  Plus, it gave us a spot to hide as the rain started in.  We’d managed to get there without getting too wet, and after coffee we were contemplating our next move until a very nice couple informed us as to what we were about to ride through – intense rain with cars pulled over and hail and lightening and all that.  We heeded their advice long enough to put on our rain gear, at which time we ignored their advice and decided to drive through the rain.

Does that look like rain? Trust me, it looked so much more ominous (for good reason) approaching it on two wheels.

All in all, it was a good call, but a very, very wet call.  When the buckets of rain turned into bathtubs, we finally pulled over, but it was too late.  Somehow the rain had made its way into every dry crevasse on my body.  No clue how it got there through my rain gear – it clearly hates me – but we made it through no problem.  Although, once the rain stopped, the wind kicked in from the right – with prejudice.  At one point, I was riding at about a 30 degree angle from upright as my head was being whipped back and forth like some forgotten athlete’s bobble head caricature strapped to the hood of a car. Ouch.  Might feel that one later.

The landscape we rode through today is immensely powerful and intimidating in it’s vast nothingness.  Montana is coined the Big Sky state, and there is really no better way to describe it.

La Gigante in the golden planes

It’s almost overwhelming – especially after you’ve pounded along at 85 mph for four hours and find yourself wondering if you’re actually in some twisted dream riding a conveyor belt through Groundhog Day.  But the colors are so extraordinary that you forget you’re just looking at flat planes.  The deep greens provide a backdrop for intensely deep golds and yellows highlighted by bold burgundies all beneath the deep blue sky that goes forever and creates a playground for the clouds to use all their imagination.

Big Sky and Long Road.

Sky, sky, everywhere there's sky, blockin up the scenery breakin my mind...

It’s openly beautiful but soul drenching.  The 360-degree views are so open, so wide, so vast, that it’s hard to grasp your place in the seemingly infinite void.  After all those miles, I found it ultimately exhausting. It was incredible to see, but I’m really looking forward to the mountains tomorrow.

By the end of the day, we’d put in over 600 miles again of hard riding, and that was with the delay waiting for the rain and then riding slowly through it.  And these were tough miles.  Very straight.  Very flat.  Very fast.  We actually hit about 4 miles of dirt and construction at the end, and that picked us up a little bit.  Don’t get me wrong, it was amazing, but sometimes too much of amazing just isn’t.

At the end of the ride, we found ourselves in Havre.  (As you can imagine, we have been promoting the Favre pronunciation, but we really have no clue if that’s right.  I mean, Havre?  Hmm.)  Sweet town.  We found the El Toro Inn, and it’s everything you’d expect.  Brad’s room wasn’t ready, so I think he ended up on a cot under the front desk, and he might be responsible for making coffee in the morning.  I’m not sure.  We walked next door to RJ’s for dinner and ordered salads, only to be told fifteen minutes later that they were out of salad.  Out of salad?  It was the only green thing on the menu, so I guess it might not be that hard to run out of it. It’s great to be off the grid, but we really needed some greens as scurvy is a legit concern after 12 hours of jerky, but we’ll survive.

Brad wondering how he got here and where he's going.

Today’s rain once again reminded me just how exposed and just how “in it” you are when traveling by motorcycle.  When it rains, you get wet.  Everywhere.  I was also reminded of this today with smells.  We passed by what I can only guess was a pig farm of some massive scale as to be surely visible from space. The smell was other-worldly.  I don’t know how to describe it.  At one point, I was convinced that a baby shat in my nostralls while I wasn’t looking – like he crawled up into my face and squeezed two tubes of goo up my my nose.  I couldn’t get away from it.  It was everywhere and overwhelming.  At one point, I was shaking my head to remove the tears going, “Wow, that’s really strong.  I mean wow, I can’t see!”  You see, we don’t have the luxury of just rolling up the windows – all you can do is grin and bare it, but I was afraid to smile because I thought I’d get some in my teeth.  The air was thick this day my friends.  The air was very thick. All of these experiences bring you so much closer to all the life happening around you – you’re an active participant, not some bored spectator just waiting for the wave to come round in between commercial breaks.  Yes, even pig poop makes me smile on these journeys.  I’m sure I’ll share more of these nuggets in future posts.  Stay tuned…

I’m hoping to have more time to post in the coming days, but for now, I’m rifling through as fast as I can because our days have been so long, so be patient.  We’re feeling some serious pressure to put in miles – the Arctic is not getting any closer.

Just not enough time in the day to ride for 14 hours and then write.

Who is that guy?

And, of course, you didn’t think you were going to get through the third post from this trip without a self-portrait did you?  Ha.  I can’t believe I held off this long.

At least this one isn’t too gratuitous.  And come on, this was done at speed!

Oh, and I almost forgot.  Here’s a little trip update map.  Still so freaking far to go, but we’ve come a long way in two days.