North Dakota - Bismarck

We left Grand Forks earlier than expected. The alarm was set for 7:00am but we were both awake around 6:30am, so decided to 'hit the road'.

It was an interesting stay at the motel last night. We had pre-booked on-line to stay at the Super 8, but when we arrived they had 'overbooked' so had arranged a room at the America's Best Value Inn next door with a 20% discount for the inconvenience (all good).

We had settled into our room after unpacking the bike, when some young guys moved into the room across the hall and their friends from another room also decided to congregate in their room and have a 'session' with the door open. What gave it away was the sound of ice sloshing in the Esky bin as they carried it down the hall and the raucous off-key singing of Christmas carols (don't ask me why) and some rap song. Fortunately they had settled down by the time we put the lights out.

We took Highway 2 West. I am not sure what was in the air this morning - but we (& the bike) got absolutely splattered with every bug imaginable. I was reminded of the biblical plague of locusts! I was pretty sure I showered the night before - so it must have been something from the surrounding farmland. The windshield was technicolour by the end of the day with black, yellow, brown, green & white. Wearing fingerless gloves was fun also - the little sods stung when they hit your fingers - thank goodness for visors on the helmets!

We stopped for fuel at Devils Lake. This was great riding as we rode past the Lake and through the Spirit Lake Nation territory of the Sioux people. Devils Lake is a big attraction for boating and fishing in the area and is a big lake (120,000 acres/48,600ha). We also stopped breifly to have a look at Fort Totten. This is a US Army base from the post-civil war period and was built in 1867.

We turned on to Highway 281/52 South and cruised over rolling farmland. We stopped for lunch at Jamestown and then turned right on to Interstate 94. Many of the fields were a mass of yellow from commercial sunflower crops. The interstate was a great road, very smooth, not a lot of traffic and I wound the bike out, flicked on cruise control and put the feet up on the highway pegs. It was great cruising along around 130-140kph - although the day was heating up and the wind was very gusty.

We arrived at Bismarck our destination for 2 nights early in the afternoon after 480km's of riding. Bismarck is the state capital of North Dakota and is located along the East bank of the Missouri River.