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National Parks - 2010 Trip - Day 3

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Start Location: Great Falls, MT
Ending Location: Williston, ND
Miles Today: 422
Trip Miles: 1118
States Visited: 4
Provinces Visited: 0
Low Temp: 51.7° F
High Temp: 84.4° F
Min Elevation: 1869'
Max Elevation: 3611'

Route Map:




graph


Today started out in the low 50s and stayed cold most of the morning.  We actually started out wearing the bottoms of our rain gear (mostly for warmth) but, when it started raining, we stopped and put on the tops.  We also plugged in our electric vests part way through the morning as well.  Between the vests and the rain gear we were pretty comfortable.  It warmed up in the afternoon but never got above about 71.  The temperatures above actually reflect the temperature after the bike had been sitting for awhile and reflect heat from the engine.

It seems Route 2 is not really as interesting as we remembered - maybe due to the cold.  It was mostly ranch and farm country so it all looked pretty much the same.  I would have to say though that the traffic - or lack of it - was very nice.  We didn't see too much that we remembered from the last time we took Route 2 - that was on the Sturgis trip with Jason in 2000.  We did see a bunch of dinosaur statues up on the hill sides that we remembered but they were too far away to get get very good pictures and it was too cold to stop.  We were going to stop in Wolf Point, MT this afternoon but didn't really see anything inviting there and it was still only 4:00 so we went on to Williston, ND since it was only about 93 more miles and the roads were good and we felt fine.

So tomorrow we are off to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The bad news is that we ran into a guy in the motel tonight who had been by there this morning and apparently there is a lot of construction on Route 85 (the only way to get there from here) and there are sections of nothing but dirt and gravel.  Dirt and gravel are okay - we have done that before - the concern is if we have a lot of rain and the dirt turns into slippery mud.  If worse comes to worse, we will just have to turn back and either bypass the park or take a long detour around the North Unit of the park and come in through the South Unit.  We'll just have to play it by ear.

I think we're getting into the rhythm of the trip.  The miles go by pretty fast and, now that the computer glitch is solved, that end is going pretty quickly as well.


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