ND/Texas Tour Ride – Day Three

Cold start today. Not by North Dakota standards but chilly for Texas. Temps were in the mid 40’s. I changed into the my thickest shirt, brought just for expected cold days. Donned my KOA sweatshirt (maybe I’ll get a discount for wearing it?), jacket and vest. Loaded up Libby and hit the road a little before 9:00. The sky was overcast but no rain.

We headed back south, backtracking our route from yesterday. I really dislike backtracking, you don’t see anything new that way. But, if I’m going to beat this front at all, it’s a must. It was certainly chilly but we made good time getting back out of North Dakota. Wasn’t long before we crossed the border.

I’d stopped to fill up not long before. Still had a good 150 miles to go on the tank but had a scare yesterday running through South Dakota. I’d pushed a tank too far. Every town off of I-29 is at least a few miles down the road, and very few services on the highway. I’d skipped one thinking I’d catch the next one, still plenty of miles in the tank. Apparently there were more miles to the next station. I had to back track 7 miles then run another 7 into the closest town. Only gas station in town and only two pumps. Kind of place where a man and his son pull up in a big, yellow Volvo bucket loader to get a couple of snacks and a soda. I say that because it actually happened. Libby was on fumes, less than half a gallon left in the tank, but we got in and refueled just fine.

Back to today. We crossed the border after about 65 miles which put us well past the 100 mile mark. Nothing much has changed in South Dakota in the last 15 hours, the only difference is everything that was on my left is now on my right and vice versa. Still the same fields and crops. Started getting some sprinkles. Didn’t feel much but the windshield was catching a lot. About 100 miles into our day I decided to stop at a gas station (the one I’d passed yesterday) to suit up, I wasn’t feeling good about my chances up ahead.

I thought about just putting on my rain jacket again but decided that even though it wasn’t much, the rain pants would add a layer and maybe keep me a little warmer at the very least. It was a good decision. A few miles down the road the rain started. Nothing bad. Never got terribly heavy and the wind was nonexistent (was thankful for that), but I got cold. Simple rain is fine. Chilly is fine. Rain and chilly suck. But I was able keep a steady 80mph with no problems, that’s the speed limit there just so you know.

We continued to make good time. I could see a brighter sky ahead of me and as the miles ticked away, that sky grew larger. After 120 miles the rain finally began to let up and the road became dry. We stopped to gas up and get the rain gear off at a Pilot station just north of Sioux Falls. Place was packed. But we eventually got fueled up and headed off to get some lunch.

After lunch we continued south into Iowa. Surprisingly nothing has changed here either. Made our way towards Omaha and the end of our backtracking. I wanted to cut back west towards Lincoln and stop for the day somewhere in Nebraska but there’s a definite chance it will be cold and raining before I wake up. So we kept heading south for Topeka, stopping for gas whenever I got to 50 miles remaining on the tank. We were only running about 80-85mph all day so making good gas mileage.

The skies had been clear for about 200 miles but by the time we finally made our cut west and back into Nebraska, the cloud cover had returned. Nothing bad, just overcast. One huge, dimpled cloud that covered the sky. Reminded me of a mattress as the dimples were almost perfectly aligned.

It was only a couple of miles into Nebraska before we cut south towards Kansas. We started on a nice highway but that eventually turned into a two lane road with a speed limit of 65. We’re at about 100 miles left at this point which would take that long on the interstate. This could take a bit longer. Sitting behind slow cars and tractor trailers is no fun. Passing them takes time.

We finally made it into Topeka and found our site for the night. The maintenance guy here is nice. A bit chatty but also a biker. Tried to sell me on a pull behind popup camper for the bike. Very interesting and would be nice but I think I’ll stick to this for now. Dinner was at the Happy Bassett Brewing Co. I thought that they served food but that was just a BBQ trailer out front. Still, it wasn’t bad and the beer inside was cold. Apparently they sell dog brews too.

So here we are in Topeka, Kansas. It’ll be another chilly start but the rain chances are only 60% in the morning which is better than 100%. North Dakota has been conquered and the contiguous 48 has been completed. A lot of mixed emotions about that.

We ran a total of 606 miles today bringing us to a total of 1,892. That’s a lot of miles for three days but I hope to be back in the Texas panhandle tomorrow. Amarillo by morning…or evening, whatever.

Wherever you are, enjoy your Tuesday. And don’t forget, America’s Got Talent starts at 7pm central time, just sayin’. Love ya, Austin!