As comfortable as the bed at our hotel stay was in Britton, we managed to get on the road before 830am. Forecast today was 80°, SE winds up to 25mph and plenty of sunshine.

The previous day on a gravel road incline, Matt’s rear hub broke. We were literally in the middle of nowhere in Southern ND. Cattle, hayfields, hills, valleys, gravel roads kind of middle of nowhere. I was on top of a hill, when Matt broke the news. He would continue to ride his bike, carefully until we could get it fixed. We reassessed our options once we hit our next small town. We made the decision to continue in a South Westerly direction to Aberdeen, SD. The only bike shop options were literally hundreds of miles away from one another, Bismark, ND or Aberdeen, SD.

We rolled out of Britton and headed South into a terrible wind. 9 miles of pedaling in our lowest gear, moving 4 to 5 mph, we pulled over for a break. The wind was gusting 20 mph. If you stopped pedaling, the bike immediately stopped moving. We decided to keep moving but stop and try hitchhiking if a truck came along. Well every truck except one passed us up.

Matt’s reaction when the truck stopped behind us was “Good one Rose, the sheriff pulled over”. Oops. Justin turned out to be great! Instead of giving us a ticket for attempting to hitchhike, he gave us a ride to the edge of his county limits. This got us 10 miles closer to Aberdeen! We thanked him and road West until the road ended and we had to ride South again. This time only 2 miles of fighting the wind. Matt was leading and I was doing my best to stay close. He pulled us through those very tough 2 miles. South winds at 25+mph. We turned West on a paved road. The wind was so strong my head was tilted sideways as we struggled to go above 9mph. A few miles in on this road I saw a electrical building on the side of the road. We stopped there and took shelter from the wind. Reassessing our situation, 25 miles to go, 230pm in the afternoon, bike shop closes at 530pm we decided to find another way into Aberdeen. After all other options were explored and declined, we found a shuttle service that would pick us up! A half hour later we were on our way to Aberdeen!

When we arrived at the bike shop, Matt and I took our bikes to the park next door. He then took his wheel into the shop and returned with a new wheel. Within a half hour his bike was back on the road. We rode into the wind to a nearby hotel and called it a day. Upon further inspection of the hub, he found multiple cracks on the hub. We were amazed that he made it without folding the rim in half. In bike lingo this is taco’d.

The next day, we explored options to jump ahead. The segment from across the Missouri River in Mobridge to Lemmon was 98 miles. Stealth camping was not a viable option on the Indian reservation. Matt’s parents alerted us to this small detail we forgot about. We explored our options that morning and Uhaul had a 15′ truck available in Aberdeen, 3.3 miles from the hotel! Matt booked it quickly. The previous day there were no trucks of any size available in Aberdeen. So Praise God! The closest town past the Indian reservation that had a Uhaul was Hettinger, ND. So we set out on our bikes to pick up the truck and get on our way!

The Uhaul representative was super friendly and even walked the vehicle with us. I am mentioning this because some of Matt and my past experiences have been is here’s the keys and its out there, basically go find it.

We headed West to Mobridge. We made a stop in Selby for some provisions at Dollar General. I met Matt inside and sent him looking for unicorns. Rosie Sparkle Farts needs a few friends. She mentioned back in Ohio that she gets lonely on the observation deck. She said the only unicorns she has ever seen are the zombie looking unicorns with big eyes. So the search continues. We have looked in every state since Ohio, even emailed the store we found her at and nothing. She is one of a kind.

Today was already full of blessings, so you can imagine our surprise when Matt found not one but two more unicorns! Rosie was waiting in the truck when we brought her two new friends. She was so surprised she let out a burst of sparkles as she did a cartwheel on the dashboard!

On our way to Mobridge, we saw a solo bicycle tourist. We were entering a long construction zone and crossed paths with him just as we were motioned on to follow the pace car. At the end of the 6 mile construction zone we waited for the cyclist to pass by. Nothing. So we went into town and ran errands to the post office. We backtracked a bit to the campground and recreation area and did not find him.

We really wanted to talk to him, but couldn’t find him. So we headed out of town with our eyes peeled just in case. Sure enough at the local convenience store we saw his bike! We parked and went in. We found cyclist Mark Crance inside and had a lengthy conversation with him. He is the first touring cyclist heading West since Ohio we have spoken to. He had just completed a paddle down the Missouri River and was heading up to Bismark to catch a flight back to Rochester NY to ride to see family in the Fall and head home to Rhode Island. He had been touring off and on for 50 years. Mark had just celebrated his 65th birthday the previous day. Happy Birthday Mark! Great to meet you. Tailwinds!

We rolled to the Post office and sent off a package to Arizona then turned back to the river.

Near the river bank, we found this awesome sculpture created by John Lopez of Lemmon, SD. It is made up of old farm equipment and rusty agricultural implements. Matt named off most all the pieces John constructed it with. It is was a breathtaking sculpture! You can find more about his work in the link below.

http://www.johnlopezstudio.com/

We left out of Mobridge and headed across the bridge. At the time we crossed the very narrow bridge we realized how blessed we were to be driving across. The bridge had zero shoulder or sidewalk. It was literally only wide enough to accommodate 2 vehicles. If we were to ride our bikes across it, we would have to take the entire lane for safety purposes. We are blessed by the Best to be in the Uhaul and moving forward to Hettinger, ND!

On our way to Hettinger we saw bison, antelope, cattle, horses and 3 grey wolves. Matt was hoping to see antelope and see them he did! We made it into Hettinger just after 6pm, got checked into the Mirror Lake Lodge, ate dinner and went to bed. It had been a long day. Tomorrow we have some headwinds, but are looking but forward to Thursdays forecast of 25-30 mph tailwinds!