Medora, ND to Richardton, ND; 61 miles, sunny, light winds, 70-80’s
Medora is located in the bottom of the North Dakota bad lands which means today’s ride started with a several miles long climb out. There was a 10 mile or so stretch on I-94 again, but then back roads the rest of the day. The terrain was nicely rolling to keep things interesting. Although this area is not the oil fracking hot spot of northwest ND, there are scattered conventional oil wells operating in the fields. We reached Dickinson, ND after about 40 miles. Dickinson is a major milestone as it ends this Adventure Cycling map section we are using. It started in Cutbank, MT and totaled over 500 miles. The new map section ends in Fargo, ND, a mere 343 miles away. More on the maps we are using in a future post.
We took a planned break in Dickinson to deal with a mechanical. Not the bike fortunately, but we noticed yesterday that the truck steering started to be stiff and erratic. It seemed like a good idea to get it checked out so we went to the local Toyota dealer. They were very accommodating to fit us in and we learned the problem requires the replacement of the steering wheel shaft mechanism. They could get the required parts by next Monday, but we requested them to have them delivered to the Fargo dealership instead so we can keep moving. The roads in ND are straight so what could possibly go wrong. Actually, the symptoms have gone away for the moment of course. After dealing with the truck I rode another 20 miles in late afternoon to take advantage of the good weather.
