I had planned two days to get from Bismarck to Minot, ND with the first stop 54 miles at Underwood. I was there by 11:15 and the lodge was closed (probably after the last guest left and before the afternoon guests arrived). It indicates small town folks don’t wait around for someone to show up. They have more productive things to do during slack parts of their day. With a ~7 mph tailwind from the southeast and forecast of southeast winds up to 25 mph, I decided to push through the next leg to Minot. I should have checked Minot winds rather than Bismarck. As I moved north winds shifted to the southwest, then west, then northwest with rain clouds building as I moved north. It is more than you need to know, but suffice it to say I fought 25-30 mph winds the last 20 or so miles, but arrived after consuming about two gallons (~8 liters) of water.

I did learn my new Garmon Edge 20/25 only has battery life for about 7 hours of biking. Luckily, my $12 Walmart bike odometer kept me updated on speed and distance. When I compared the two after about six hours, they were within a couple tenths of a mile.

Todays trip was into one of the most prolific energy producing areas in the world. Trucks were passing me loaded with oil pipes and tanks for the Bakken oil fields ahead of me. Then I passed active surface coal mines and coal fired power plants—one co-generating ethanol from the area’s farmers. I did pass a solar panel supplier, but as I mentioned above some may cuss constant wind, but I passed hundreds of 200 foot electric-generating wind turbines strategically scattered in fields and pastures. (See attached.) Northwest North Dakota is likely unsurpassed in potential renewable and non-renewable energy.