Day 20: Tuesday July 8, 2014

We left Fargo early this morning as we knew we had about a 400 mile ride ahead of us and we didn't know what to expect of the weather. We stopped to get some Smartwater then headed west on interstate 94. We cruised by farmlands and open plains, the interstate speed limit is 75 MPH for all vehicles. Fortunately there are only a few hundred people living in North Dakota (tongue in cheek) so there aren't many vehicles on the roadways. We stopped for lunch in Bismarck then headed up the road and stopped for a visit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The Park is part of the Badlands or known as the "Painted Canyon". The canyon is quiet marvelous to look at and the history of the land and wild animals that once roamed there is remarkable.

Beautiful farmlands of North Dakota

Painted Canyon Badlands

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We left the park and soon were leaving North Dakota and entering Montana. As we were riding I was listening to my XM radio and they were repeating a 4th of July special and several patriotic songs played including the America Trilogy by Elvis Presley and the part of the song where it crescendos with him singing "Glory Glory Alleluia His Truth Is Marching On" at the same time we emerged on a Montana landscape that brought tears to my eyes as I was overwhelmed with pride in being an American and being able to experience our great country. Then I started thinking, why go to Europe or Asia or anywhere else when we have so much to see and experience here in the United States of America!! God thank you for this great country and the beauty that you created!

Because we made good time travelling the wonderfully maintained interstate (not all pitted and chewed up as other highways we rode) and the fact we left the central time zone and entered the mountain time zone (we gained an hour), we decided to ride an extra hour and stopped for the night in Miles City MT. We had great riding weather today, the majority of the day was in the mid 60's and concluded in the low 80's. Miles rode today 484, total 5,111

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy