What a hassle setting up the tent and then tearing down to put it all back in the panniers. I will have to spend some time organizing for sure. As it was last night everything got pulled out and scattered around. It would be a lot easier just to hand the credit card to the counter clerk and say I will have a single room please. But no, I opted to rough it. Like riding a bike 1000 miles is not roughing it. Anyway.
Left the Fort (as the residents call it) about 8:00 am. Ft. Benton is on the banks of the Missouri River. So that means over the ions the city and the river are about 500 feet below the rest of terra firma. As most peeps would say, “In a hole”‘. You can carry this blog to the ends of earth but just let me say that coming out of any hole is never fun. So be it with coming out of the Fort. About a half mile of the ugliest grade. Yes I
walked a fair share of it. Skeeters were bad so had to stop and put on some lotion. And the next 29 miles were not much better. Up and down. Truck traffic was busy. Grain trucks to be specific. I would guess that today the price of grain was good so all the farmers were unloading the wheat in prep for the new batch that is growing. They were all very thoughtful and gave me lots of room. Honestly, rural drivers are much better than city drivers.
So here are some pics from today:
Nothing but Blue Sky and Wheat
When in Geraldine make sure and visit Rusty’s. Very good food. Love the fried chicken myself
I will be staying at a good friends house in Geraldine tonight and am looking forward to visiting Ben. Good a peep as you would ever meet anywhere.
And now the numbers:
Miles: 29
Total Time: 4.5 hrs
Avg. Speed: 10 mph
Fastest : 31.5 mph
Road Kill: 5
Old Glory Flying: 1
Auto Fatality Cross: 3