Williston, ND to Culbertson, Montana to Poplar, Montana - day 27 of biking

Miles biked today was 83 miles - mid 70's with wind not being a factor today.

Having had a week off from biking, we were both anxious to get going this morning. We were all packed, loaded up, and had breakfast eaten by 6:00am. We headed out of Williston towards Montana on hwy 2. I didn't think we were going to use the big ring at all today as the first 25 miles was 90% uphill then to make matters worse, when we did finally get to a high point we had our third flat tire of the trip. Fortunately, at the high point, while I fixed the flat, Kathi was able to watch an oil well drilling crew work just 100 yards away. Being on a high point also helped keep the mosquitos in check. After fixing the flat we did have some relief as we rolled on for about 10 miles of flatland to the Montana border where we stopped for orange juice and a coke at a convenience store. Continuing on we headed for Culbertson and arrived there at 10:30AM. We had reservations at a hotel but we had the option to cancel as long as we did so before 11:00AM. With the good weather conditions we decided to continue on to Poplar, Montana which was another 50 miles. This was probably a mistake because we had already done 35 miles and we ended up doing another 48 miles which was 38 miles of hills and 10 miles of flat before we got to Poplar.

We stopped at Brockton which is on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation and a very poverty strickened area. We stopped at a convenience store/laundrymat to get something cold to drink. We came across 1/2 dozen drunk indians sitting outside on a picnic table. The one gal, Grace, came up to us and asked us where we came from and where we were going and they were all very friendly to us but it was obvious that they had been drinking a good share of the day.

We still had another 15 miles to bike to get to Poplar so we continued on and arrived here around 3:00PM. We stopped at the Jolly Swagman Inn to check into our room but there was no one at the office and I didn't have phone reception so I couldn't call the number they had posted. So we biked downtown and there was a hamburger stand set up so we stopped and had a sandwich and a gal there called the hotel for us and the owners had been working in one of the hotel rooms so we went back and checked in.

Tomorrow we will have another 73 miles to bike to get to Glasgow, Montana. We still have over 620 miles to bike to get through Montana.

Total miles biked as of today is 1,648 miles