The cycling day had three parts. First of all a ride around suburban Bismarck and Mandan - the thing that separates these two cities is the River Missouri, which we crossed singing 'across the wide Missouri' which we've sung, as a mass singalong, in so many folk clubs - see the Wikipedia entry. The song is about travelling down the Missouri River. This took up the first ten miles. Then we cycled against a moderate NW headwind to New Salem.
On the way there we met four cyclists - two pairs - Norwegians pulling trailers behind carbon bikes (which don't generally take panniers - no fittings to the frame) called Hedger and Knut. They were travelling fairly fast, heading for Bay Harbour in Maine. They talked about some impressive charity rides they'd done - including Oslo to Paris for sick children. The other pair were Swiss and called Jack and Ernst - today is the Swiss National Day - wearing the official Adventure Cycling cycle shirt for the Northern Tier. The had all been travelling together for a few days and were all meeting at a motel in Bismarck. I had to mention that it is also Yorkshire Day. It was great chatting and they discussed the excellent tailwind while we said it was hard work with this headwind, etc. As it was the headwind gave up in the middle of the afternoon. We eventually reached New Salem which had a superb supermarket - and a hopeless 'Pioneers Park' - not even a park bench to sit on. It did have a swimming pool though we did not use it - we were running late due to the headwind. We carried on to the interstate and did a few miles more and, oh joy, the headwind relented and we pushed along well. Interstates are fine for cycling, you do need to stick on the shoulder, avoid the rumble strips and keep well away from the traffic - the trucks have a weather system around them of swirling winds and dust. After leaving the interstate we soon reached Glen Ullin, shopped (quite decent Super Valu) and found the campground to the west of the town. The skies today have seemed bigger and deeper blue - we are gaining altitude (we're at about 2000' above sea level, compared with the 1000' near the Mississippi). The photo is mainly for those little fluffy clouds and that deeper blue. We are here.