June 23, 2003 Our job today was to move ourselves from Beulah to Watford City, ND. On the surface it doesn't sound like much, but when you throw in a few other variables, it ends up being a challenging assignment. The bike did very well today. We are having some rubbing problems with the disc brake rotor, and BOB is making himself entirely too well known with some squeaks and rattles. Both of these things will get addressed tomorrow, so we will be fine. The Team is very tired from a rough day, but otherwise fine. We will recover nicely, and we have a light day tomorrow. The weather today was unusual. It was overcast, but no rain fell. The wind was out of the west at about 11 mph, and it was chilly. It was 55 when we left, so we were in vests, knee warmers and arm warmers. The temp at about noon was 68, and the high we saw was 71. The sun finally came out about 10 miles from Watford City. We had headwinds for 73 miles, and hurting side winds the rest of the way in. The wind was in our faces the whole bloody day, but we are not complaining. The combination of the winds and climbing kept our average speed very low (12.5). It took us a long time to go the 107 miles. The day was absolutely fascinating in terms of what was happening to the flora. When we left Beulah, we were still in the lush farm land where the grass was a very bright green and was tall, there were lots of healthy trees and the farms looked prosperous. About 30 miles into the ride, we noticed that things were starting to get rougher than we had noticed the prior day. The trees were not as healthy, the grass was shorter and the color of the grass was much more yellow. The soil was taking on a washed out look unlike the rich look we were seeing earlier. Ron described this to LaValle as leaving the eastern look, and starting to adopt the western look. LaValle thought this was probaly wishful thinking. However, At about mile 80, the ND Badlands suddenly appeared, and there was no question that we are now in the west. Tonight, after dinner, we went shopping for some things, and ran into anothe cyclist doing the L&C Trail. His name is Tom, he is doing the ride on a recumbent by himself and he is probably in his late 60's). He seemed like a nice guy. We traded lies, and went on our way. Today was mega-roller day. They came one right after the other, and there was not time to recover. There was nothing terribly steep, but the climbs were long and the descents shorter. We climbeed about 4300 feet today. We did have one difficult climb. As you go through the Badlands, you descend to near the floor of the canyons, and then have to climb out. The descent was wonderful - fast and smooth. The ascent was 1.9 miles, and we gained 500 feet. This was our first steep climb in the west, and we handled it well. Tomorrow is another new state - Montana! Ron ...Note from LaValle Heading West from Beulah, we were treated to a large "billboard" of a cowboy and horse. Dodge was not too far at that point. Usually we can tell towns are close by the sight of water towers or of the Adopt-a-Highway signs. Dodge had a restaurant and bar, neither of which was open. As we were contemplating the portable toilet in the park, a woman came out of the storefront City Hall and said we could use their bathrooms. She and the others who were having their morning coffee at the table inside were easy to talk with and wished us a safe ride. Dunn Center was another small town about 6 miles east of Kildeer. We probably could have gotten anything we wanted at Alice's Restaurant, but both it and the local bar were closed. As a matter of fact, the bar may have been permanently closed. Since there was no City Hall, we went on to Kildeer. Stopping there we got extra water in case there were no services at Grassy Butte, the only spot on the map before Watford City, 54 miles. The convenience store at the local Standard station (when was the last time you've seen one of those) was open and "guarded" by a nice looking Cocker Spaniel. Grassy Butte has a population of probably 24, eight of whom are Cockers - seven of which rushed us as we came into town. The proprieter did say that all of the Cockers were related; his neighbor had been having difficulty selling his most recent litter. As we were leaving, he took our picture and wished us well on our journey. Cowboy Billboard before Dodge, North Dakota Grassy Butte, North Dakota