First day of summer. We woke up early in Stanley, drove back to Williston to pick up the bikes. As we drive it’s raining and we preview the road we will ride. It’s a 4 lane divided highway with good shoulders most of the time. About 20 miles of road has very narrow shoulders of about 8 inches. Sand extends a few feet further from the shoulder, the sand is too soft to ride on but can be used as an escape route. We have breakfast in Williston and discuss abandoning riding the next section. Riding is both physically and mentally challenging. One advantage of riding with someone else is that if one person is having anxiety over some stretch of road ahead the other person is usually able to reassure that everything will be OK. Unfortunately this morning we were both having doubts about the safety of the days ride. It didn’t matter though, we had no options, we were going. We left our gear at the Fire Station, then dropped off the car at the airport. It was a couple of miles to the Fire Station so we were thinking of getting a taxi. As we waited we were talking to the airport Security Officer, Greg, about our trip. When he found out we needed a ride downtown he said he had to go downtown anyway and offered to take us. So we were shuttled one way by the Fire Department and the other way by Airport Security! Our ride to Stanley was fine. We had hardly a drop of rain. We used the sand escape route 3 or 4 times just to be safe, and we saw our Williston Fire Department Ambulance friends traveling home from a long distance transfer. They honked and waved. As we arrived at our motel we met a group of bike riders traveling from Bar Harbor, Maine to Anacortes, Washington. We made arrangements to meet them for dinner but somehow our wires were crossed, we never could find them. Oh yes, we heard this morning that Minot is flooding and being evacuated. That’s our destination tomorrow, Minot.
Greg