Across the Wide Prairie

Wednesday was planned as the longest riding day of the trip in terms of both miles covered (730) and hours in the saddle.  The plan was to go from NY Mills in western Minnesota to Buffalo Wyoming, in west central, Wyoming.  The route included I-94 across North Dakota, and picking up Route 85, a north south road in  the western Dakotas, riding it all the way to I-90 in Spearfish, South Dakota, then blasting out I-90 to Buffalo.  I had a reservation at the old Occidental Hotel in Buffalo, an authentic vestige of frontier days. I credit my friend Brad Miller for introducing me to the charms of old western hotels.  On our Arizona ride last October he had booked old hotels in Kingman and Prescott, and they were fun and reasonably priced.

Anyway, I figured this would be a boring part of the ride with not much to see, quintessential "fly-over" country which I planned to fly over.  Was I wrong!  North Dakota was beautiful!  Soft rolling country, multiple shades of soft green, wildflowers.  Even the designers of I-94 managed to introduce some big sweeping curves into a highway that could easily have been a straight shot across the state.

I took a break in Bismarck, the state capital, figuring I could find an interesting lunch spot downtown.  I waded through the fast food places coming into town, rode arond downtown, found nothing, and finally settled for a burrito chain place on the strip on the other side of town.  Good burrito, but I left town unimpressed.

It was another 100 or so miles to the intersection with Rte 85 in Belfield.  Route 85 was a nearly straight shot southward to Spearfish.  Some interesting undulations in the land, some butte advertised as the highest point in N. Dakota and little else of note.  but the ride was pleasant and I made good time.  At Spearfish I climbed on I-90 for the last 2 1/2 hour sprint into Buffalo, 170 miles to the west.  I put the bike on cruise control, set at 85mph (speed limit 75).  The Black Hills are beautiful, but then the land morphs into a scrub desert for most of the ride.  At one point I pulled off on an exit to take a break and looked up to see two antelope watching me about 100 feet away.  By the time I got my camera out they had moved off a bit but I got a shot of their exit.  When I finally saw the exit sign for Buffalo, I was definitely ready for a break.  I had been underway for over 12 hours.