June 13th After leaving Cutbank they made it as far as Chester MT.

June 14th It's Heather reporting - Talked to Terry on the night of the 14th. He, Charles and Mike were in Havre, MT. Flat land but wicked wind. Sounds like their access to computers has been spotty. - After reading that Bob thinks, "It must be a windy place when they name a city on the great plains "Havre" - which is French for "harbor". They probably used to dock those "prairie schooners", another name for covered wagons, there.

June 15, 2006 They spent the night of June 15th in Harlem MT in a city park. The city clerk left the office door open so that they could get to a bathroom and then made coffee for the coffee drinkers in the morning. Would your home town do the same thing for a group of passing cyclists?

June 16, 2006 Hi all, in Malta, MT on the way to a mosquito infested campground in Sleeping Buffalo - (but it turned out that the accounts were a bit off and the mosquito threat was not near as bad as reported.) One of many we will encounter in the next few weeks. Have a limited time on the computer so I will update some of the key events. We rode 67 miles against a 25 mph wind from Cut Bank to Chester. What a terrible experience. Bring on the rain and mountains. From Chester we pedaled to Havre with about 10 miles of bad head winds. Yesterday and today we have had great tail winds and have had easy riding with good tail winds. We have taken short days the last two days but today will do about 70 miles to our campground. Riding is much easier with a tail wind or at least a partial one. Any wind direction that is west of North or South is ok. Until later.

June 17, 2006 On this day the crew made it to Wolf Point MT - 106 miles plus a few off route miles to and from campsites.

June 18, 2006 Happy Father's Day! Becky reporting on a phone call from Mike - Mike, Charles, Terry and Pat stayed in Wolf Point last night, they are in Culbertson, MT tonight.

They are camping in the city park and using the swimming pool facilities for showering. (As we talked, Pat was taking off to take a more northern route than the rest...he may join up later).

Head winds held them at 6 mph for 70 miles (over the span of 2 days, I think) Then yesterday they had awesome tail winds and rode 110 miles.

He saw a dead rattlesnake in the road and a dead jackrabbit. They think they saw elk in the distance, and have seen numerous pronghorn antelope. A pheasant flushed right under him one day, startling him. Pheasants are plentiful. I tried to help him positively identify a sandpiper by referring to his favorite bird book here - long straight bill, large like a wimbrel but we failed. He has to look at a bird book himself. We did figure that the black headed gulls that he is seeing are Franklin's gulls.

And he did see a snipe. (ever been snipe hunting?)

this is not the snipe that Mike saw... but you get the idea... a handsome bird with quite a long bill

The BOB trailer blew a tire..he had a spare tube and tire and stopped at Walmart somewhere to get a replacement tube.

He is tired today, his shoulders hurt... He was preparing to make supper at the campsite and retire to his comfy tent. He sleeps great, he says. It was a beautiful day, clear and 70 ...but windy so he was still wearing his arm warmers.

Oh, and the mosquitos are a factor now. When riding less than 15 mph, they are a pest. So, the cyclists hurry along to avoid the bugs!! He says people are so nice and the cyclists they meet and/or join are fun. Harlem, MT had a sign out that said, "Welcome bicyclists!" Becky

Bob Thomas here, Just got off the phone with Mike Porter phoning in from Culbertson MT - tomorrow they will cross into North Dakota and another time zone - Central Time!! They had a wind from the northwest and it helped push them along. As Mike spoke it was not raining but dark clouds were on the horizon. They have done close to 1,300 miles so far. Soon after they cross into North Dakota they are going to go off route to spend a few days at Terry's family reunion south of the route in Hazen, ND.

They met a traveler coming from Michigan on a department store bike pedaling in sneakers. The man, Peter, got way out in Montana and learned that the "Going to the Sun Road" was still closed so he wanted to turn back. Pat was inspired by the simplicity of his resolve and his simplistic approach and has ridden three back to back centuries with the man and now Pat is going to try to match his pace to Michigan.

June 19, 2006 This is a Monday and it may seem like a Monday to the cyclists. Weather.com shows them fighting a headwind that will only get stronger as the day wears on - but at least they will be dry! - Bob

June 20, 2006 Becky got a call from Mike and they were in Killdeer, ND on the night of the 20th. More favorable winds had made cycling more bearable but there were plenty of ups and downs on the highway.

June 21, 2006 Summer Solstice In Hazen, ND for a 3 or 4 day layover. Terry's family is having a reunion this weekend and we will partake of the festivities. We are staying with his aunt and uncle on their farm about 12 miles from Hazen. The break is much needed as I am tired from 10 or 11 straight days of riding. We are in much drier country now as the grass suddenly got dry looking and brittle. I will do a more up to date entry from the library tomorrow but will just give brief details now. We have stayed in very nice city hosted parks the last few nights. Each one has hook-ups for RV's and tent sites with bathrooms and often showers. It seems that each small village or "city" as they call themselves has its own camping facility in adition to the private ones. We have been in the city ones and they are convenient to town's other facilities. Our mileages have been in the 55 to 70 range over the last few days as the winds have been favorable from the west. Temperatures have been better to even too warm. Tailwinds do not help cool you off much but they do make riding in less tiring and heat producing. So it is almost a wash.

Western North Dakota is very nice in terms of varied terrain and vistas. We have ridden up and down so much that we could have climbed a pass or two in Washington again. Today's terrain was somewhat flatter but still up and down with more downs. We rode through the North Sector of Theodore Roosevelt National Park yesterday. It was very viewy and interesting. The dirt roads through the park were a big deterrant to a side trip. Still very nice traveling in and out of the Little Missouri Valley. Saw White Pelicans as we crossed the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers over the last couple days. Will enter more tomorrow.

June 22, 2006 In the library in Beulah, ND. to catch up on news of the trip, here goes.

On June 17 we rode 110 miles with a great tailwind. Our destination moved farther east with the ease of riding.

The following day was one, my first, of those days you read about in cycling journals, a bear of a day. Though the wind was decent, I rode like I had logs for legs. The second half of the day to Culbertson was very hilly as we took Route 2 instead of the published Adventure Cycling route along the Missouri River. Route 2 was like a roller coaster with each uphill getting steeper and each downhill getting more long. It seemed to drag on forever, though only 56 miles.

I vowed to not veer off the route again and then almost immediately from Culbertson we have left the route entirely to go to Hazen for the family reunion. As we have traveled on this off-route highway, I have been more accepting of the hilly terrain because we don't necessarily know what is to come. The first day from Culbertson I remarked that I didn't think that there was any downhill in North Dakota. It continued to seem that way for another day as we seemed to climb constantly with very little relief in downhills. With the lack of rest days, each climb became more laborious as my legs got more tired.

We have stayed in several nice city parks or campgrounds set up by cities for passing tourists. It is really nice to see all these convenient places so well appointed with bathrooms and even showers. They are also cheap or free. Riding from Watford City to Hazen gave us the first real relief from climbing more than going downhill. The ride was very nice and welcomed on tired legs.

We are in real nice terrain in this part of North Dakota as there are lots of rolling hills with quite a bit of green, including trees in all the hollows. We have seen pronghorn, fox pups in their den along the road, lots of birds. It is difficult to identify birds you are unfamiliar with without the aid of binoculars. I have had to confer with Becky or birders along the way to help identify some of the species. I am waiting for an email from some birders from Mass. who will look for a certain shorebird that I could not identify even looking at the book or on the phone with Becky.

We visited the Coteau Coal Mine near Beulah and Hazen. We had a 2 hour tour with close up looks at all of the operation. I was impressed with the environmental concern exhibited by the company. I remarked after the tour that 30 years ago, things would have looked much different. The company opened up only small portions of the landscape to get at the coal, 17 ft. thick. As they removed the seam of coal, they covered up the empty ground with the overburden of the next swath and then reclaimed the surface to as close the same topography and use potential as it had been before. The coal is used by a coal gasification plant, converts coal to natural gas, and 2 coal burning power plants. All three are within 10 miles of the mine. The gasification and one power plant are immediately adjacent and require no movement of the coal other than driving it out of the pit to the dump site. The recovered land is used by farmers who were the former owners of the land at a rental fee equivilant to the tax on the land, about $2/acre. Crops and wetlands are monitored for effeciency and cleanliness. It is definitely nice to see that the environmental movement has allowed mining to continue with good results after the mining has been concluded.

As the visit to Hazen comes to a close, we have to look forward to visits of our wives, at least Charlie and I, as Heather, Terry's wife is back in Phoenix getting ready to go back to work. There is now a new deadline to meet. Becky flys in to Minneapolis on July 2, as does Kathy, so we have to be in the vicinity of Minneapolis by then. It will mean some fairly aggressive riding for a week. Becky and I will spend a night in Minneapolis.

Becky will fly out on July 6 and I will remain for one more day. From there, the next real deadline will be meeting Bob Thomas in Cleveland where he will join me for the ride back to home.

Terry might still be with me then but I am not sure. Charlie will be heading south from Minnesota to take the Great River route south and ultimately end up in Florida.

As we have come 1500 miles over the last month, I can reflect on the time as one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. I liken it in some ways to our 2 month vacation to Alaska in 1991 with the kids. Though done in smaller mileages, we are living with similar daily tasks and routines. We wake up around 6 or so to the songs of birds and increasing wind. Repacking gear and putting things that will be needed for the anticipated day's ride close at hand takes some planning and reorganizing.

Once all is packed up and loaded on the bikes; loading BOB is much easier than panniers, we are ready to go to breakfast. We have found that eating a hearty breakfast is best done in a restaurant (I have eaten more pancakes and biscuits and gravy than ever before). We head out usually between 8:30 and 9 and ride for an hour or so to get to a break time.

Many days lunch is snacky along the road. Normally we ride about 50-60 miles average and arrive at our next campsite around 3 - 4:00. Setting up camp before changing clothes and showering then doing journal work or visiting before dinner. With the many days of rain and real windy conditions we have eaten out more than I have planned. We find a nice restaurant, have dinner and return to camp where it is usually bedtime.

It seems that sunset or earlier is sleep time. Each day is about the same unless we do a longer ride or take a day off. Days off involve cleaning bikes, relaxing, visiting places where we are and planning for the next section's ride.

Read more at the next section

Hazen, ND to Minneapolis, MN