Day 31: Woohoo Westerlies, Small-Town Love, Sheyenne River

Day 31: Sunday July 6th, 2014.
Napoleon, ND to Little Yellowstone Campground on Sheyenne River near Litchville, ND.  100.3 miles.

I decided to attend the local church service in town before heading out. It was a neat opportunity to gain a different perspective on the people of Napoleon. After the service, one of the locals saw my bike and said, "You're going to ride on a Sunday?"  I laughed and replied, "Sundays are the perfect day to relax and go for a stroll on a bicycle."  He couldn't argue with my rebuttal. 

On the road, I found it easy to find my way on this day. It was as if there were signs at every juncture, custom-made for me, telling me where to go. 

I see farmers all the time working their land.  Sometimes, I will see them driving their tractors and other farm equipment as late as 8 PM, still trying to get that extra bit of work in during the long days. 

I was passing a husband and wife that were each loading bales of hay into the back of their truck along the perimeter of their field next to the road. The woman bent over, grabbed the straps binding the bale together, and hoisted it up with a jerk, throwing it on the truck. She made it look easy, as these rectangular bales of hay were considerably heavy. Passing them at a snails pace, the husband looked up and saw me. So I yelled out to them, "Hay!".  It took them a second, and then they both busted up laughing. 

The majority of the 100-mile ride was on Highway 46, heading due East in a straight line. About 10 miles before reaching the lone campground, I decided to take a slight detour to a nearby town in the hopes of finding something to eat.  Marion was the town, and you can see the 2-mile detour to the South on the map.

I rode down the main street of Marion and both the restsurant and service station with a snack shop were closed. At the very least, I wanted to fill up my water bottles before heading to the campground in the event that there was no water there.  I sat out in front of the restaurant for a few minutes, eating some chips that I had in my bag, looking around for a spigot, hose, or drinking fountain. A man pulled up in the car and asked if I needed anything. I told him that I was fine and thanked him. He then said, "Are you sure?  I can open up the snack shop at the service station for you."  I told him that sounded great, and I walked across the street to meet him as he unlocked the door. 

He was very nice and accommodating. The shelves at the store were mostly bare. I grabbed a bag of chips that turned out to be expired, a candy bar, Gatorade and water. He apologized for the lack of selection, stating that it was difficult to keep a store like this going in the small town of Marion.  I reassured him that I got exactly what I needed, and I thanked him. 

I rode the 2 miles North back to Highway 46. As I gradually approached the stop sign where I would make my right turn, I noticed a car sitting at the intersection, passing by several opportunities to make a turn.  As I approached the intersection, a man got out of the car and walked towards me. It was the shop owner from Marion. "My wife and I had some canned peaches at home, and we thought you would enjoy them along with your other snacks this evening.", he said to me as he reached out to hand me the peaches. I thanked him over and over. It was so nice of him to think of me and drive all the way out to the intersection, waiting for my arrival. 

The last 8 miles went quickly, and near the end I descended down into the Sheyenne River Valley. The slopes along the sides of the valley were covered in Oak and other hardwood trees. It was beautiful.