Day 20 of ALAA-Thurs, June 2nd, 2011. Malta, MT to Minot, ND

A New State . . . . for me at least!

Hummmmmm, Couldn't Stay at THIS KOA!

Today was a long day, 340 miles considering that three hours were spent getting a new rear tire on the bike BUT this was a new state day! I had never been to North Dakota before so that only leaves me six more states on my Bucket List. There is not a lot to slow you down in North Dakota-no hills, no curves, no traffic, etc. By the way, I ordered a new front tire and it's waiting for me at Warren Honda in a suburb of Detroit. The Honda dealer in Glasgow didn't have the type of helmet I like so I'm trying to keep mine stuck together with duct tape and chewing gum until I get to another town with a bike shop. The ol' gal will have a complete set of new shoes for the rest of ALAA. Most of Eastern Montana and Western ND are rich agricultural land-they grow a lot of wheat, barley, and other grains but I've found a huge surprise! There are 157 active oil drilling rigs working in the new oil field around here! Whoda thunk it?


I was headed to a KOA in Minot to watch the NBA Finals but the KOA is under 2-3 feet of water! I've seen a lot of water standing in low places but the population of Minot has increased by 10,000 because of flooding in adjacent areas.


Where am I sleeping tonight? Well, that's another interesting story. All the hotels and motels are full and the campgrounds are either flooded or full. So I pulled into a campground looking for a place to put my tent and there were two good ol boys from Indiana standing by their pickups. I started talking to them and they are contract workers in piping all that crude oil to the refineries. They let me set my tent up on their site so it's all good! This campground has clean showers and a laundry so I'm squeaky clean for the first time in 2-3 days! These guys live in travel trailers that they pull from job to job around the country. That's a unique way to live-leave their families in Indiana and work one to three months wherever the oil drilling is hot. Tomorrow toward Minnesota.