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Saturday 3rd August 2024 - Dickinson to Wibaux, Montana via The Painted Canyon. 73 miles but 78 cycled.

The North Park Campground is a model of what a tent campground should be. There's a laundry, microwave, clean toilets and showers, and the camping sites are nicely done, with shade and tables plus fences to give privacy. And the tent cyclist get a bottle of cool water on arrival. On such a hot day that's quite memorable. Breakfast included drinking lots of tea made in the microwave, along with cereals and yoghurt. The wind looked like it might be against us initially but by the time we left it was a NNE, and seemed to get more easterly during the day. So it was a day of tailwinds. This was a big help. We found our way out towards the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, where after about 30 miles we found shade, water fountains and a good place for lunch. There are bison in the park but we didn't see any. The Park is famous for its badlands landscape of rocky dusty hills created by the Little Missouri River. So it is like a mini Grand Canyon - and called the Painted Canyon because it's colourful though more so in Spring than in the parched weather of mid to late summer. The photo gives you an idea. Just before the park we had met Dan and Nic his son doing a transam from New York to Seattle - but taking bits from various routes. They needed to reach Seattle by the end of this month since school starts on the 5th September. They are on Instagram - dprojansky. Nic is the youngest transam cyclist we've met at 15. They are travelling at a similar speed to us but they were heading to the motel tonight and not carrying tents. IlplòAfter the park we sped on through a hillier landscape with very little by way of crops - just grass and that pretty patched. There were clouds of grasshoppers drifting occasionally across the road from the grass, hopping onto the road ahead. Unless they are locusts?! A train line was parallel to our road for much of our way. Some huge goods trains, multiple diesel units at each end. We saw Dan and Nic again later - a relative was helping them sort out a problem with Dan's back wheel, spokes had broken. I think they were about to drive to a cycle shop. We pushed on along the interstate to Beach where we picked up food and then we took the interstate again to Wibaux. We're at the Beaver Valley RV Park and it is a bit run down but it does have one toilet and shower for the tent campers. Next to us are two cyclists on a two year trip around the USA, heading south before the winter, and with a small very sweet dog that gets in a trailer, and he even gets a lift up the hills usually, because he doesn't run that much being a small dog. They were cooking when we arrived so I didn't get their names - and they left very early, before I got up (I got up at 6.45am). I am in awe of living in a tent for two years rather than just a summer - and you would need to cook and a few home comforts like the dog. But the garden would be difficult to leave for two years.... Perhaps we'll see them on the road...

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