Day 28 – July 1 – Rest Day – Medora, ND

Day 28 – July 1 – Rest Day – Medora, ND

It was too hot to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It was 93 but unlike home it was a dry heat.  Nevertheless riding the 36 mile loop through the park in the heat of the day would be too much like every other day so we chose to sit in the shade.  We will visit the bison another time. Joe worked on his summer homework assignments, I worked on another video and hope to post it this evening.  Going through the video and images of the last two weeks made me think about how far we had come from our last rest day in Missoula.  It also made me somewhat anxious about how far we still had to go and our time frame for doing it.  Top on that list is the next few days as we push east across North Dakota.

There is a strong wind out of the east today so I am glad we are not struggling through it.  The forecast for the next week predicts highs in the mid-90s every day, which has me concerned.  Ideally we should start our ride very early and finish or take a break around noon.  If we need to go farther, resuming sometime after 5:00 PM would be wise.  It is daylight rather late giving us a few extra hours if we need it. The headwinds have been a struggle.  Not only physically but mentally.

On the flip side of the coin, if we ride shorter days and stop more often we have more chances to tell people about why we are riding.  We had the opportunity today to talk with several people at the campground about our ride.  The Andersons from Fargo, ND even gave us their address and phone number letting us know we could stop by to do laundry or whatever might need to be done when passing through.  The kindness of strangers !