Flat Lands are a Coming

It is early Sunday morning, June 26, and we are in Sidney, MT. It is the last town in Montana, and for us, the end of the West and the beginning of the Midwest. Either today or tomorrow (we haven't quite decided yet), we will ride across the Yellowstone River and be in North Dakota. We have travelled almost 1800 miles and are nearing the half-way mark of our ride across the U.S.

The big transition for us has been a changing terrain. Coming over the Sierra, through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, and then early Montana, we were constantly in mountains. Even since we left Red Lodge, and travelled across Eastern Montana, we have been going up and down almost all the time. Yesterday we noticed longer flat areas...like we were finally entering the Great Plains. So, now we deal with a new reality...and not always an easy one. When one is riding up and down hills, you ride real hard for a mile or two to get to the top, then you rest while you speed down the other side.

In flat lands, there are no such breaks.The big challenge is non-stop pedaling, sometimes against heavy winds. When Cindy and I came across Kansas on our first cross-country ride, a farmer came up to us and asked if we had gotten acquainted with hills of Kansas. At first we had no idea what he was talking about...and then we realized that he was talking about the wind. Wind frankly is much worse than hills. Hills you can get over. When I am riding into the wind, it absolutely kills my spirit. I am working very hard and making very little progress. We have been extremely blessed with favorable winds across Montana. We pray that those trends continue.

So, today we cross into our seventh state and we will soon be in the Central time zone. More importantly, we are on the long flat highways across North Dakota. We will celebrate the fourth of July in Cooperstown on the other end of North Dakota, and then be ready for still another transition into "Minnesota and Lake Country."

Hope you are all having a great weekend.