Day 21

32 Miles

“I’m only happy when it rains.”  Maybe it’s because I’m an asshole, but rain makes most people miserable and I find solace in that… Actually using the raingear from REI added to the overall good mood for the day, too. Britt however, was not on the same positive wave length. She didn’t understand why I was all smiles today, either. Once again, it’s because Shirley Manson and I have the same train of thought.

Once we got into Stanley, North Dakota, I called all the motels in town. Because this area of North Dakota has been rich in oil for the past three years, oil workers from all over the country are living out of motels. We could see oil rigs from the road, and for some reason I got the hankering for a milkshake… Anyways, this affects our trip in two ways – 1. No vacancies in any motels or campgrounds and 2.  The back roads our bike maps direct us to go on are now heavy with truck traffic from the oil fields.

I won’t go into detail because the woman who helped us for the night could get in trouble with the city. The influx of out of towners has changed the laid back attitude of this small town, and its main objective (like oil companies) is to make a profit. The woman let us stay in her family’s vacationing RV – which is much nicer than the motels we’ve stayed in as of late. She even did a load of laundry for us!

The traffic situation has pushed us back onto the main highway. We rode safely on the wide shoulder today, so it should not be a problem tomorrow… hopefully!