July 9 - Monday - Williston ND to Grand Forks ND - 361 miles

I panicked a bit this morning when I check the weather radar but the rain was south of here and the 100+ temps were down in South Dakota, just what my weather forecasting app said a few days back. Another beautiful day today. Started at 68 degrees and ended at 84 degrees and maybe got into the upper 80's somewhere along the way.
I pretty much covered the whole state today (I think) and it is not as flat and lonely as many have implied. Granted there is a lot of oil & gas activity, mostly near Williston, but there is also a lot more crops being grown than I expected. Lots of untouched grasslands, but wheat and corn and no sign of irrigation equipment helping them out. Maybe it varies from year to year.
I followed Rt 2 all the way today, sort of 2 lane 4 lane, in that there are 4 lanes but it is not limited access and not many chain places because most of the towns are small historic towns, probably from when the trains came through. I did see a lot of trains and I spent an hour next to one this afternoon going the same speed until it finally wandered off to the north. Not coal, although I did see some coal cars today, but some kind of other stuff with a closed top car and hoppers underneath.

Outside of Williston I saw a couple small private planes landing in a small field, but then I saw a helicopter, but not a spray rig or anything, but what looked like a Huey from the Vietnam era. ThThere is an air base nearby so probably something pretty darn important. Weekly rations of coconut cream pie?, annual clean underwear supply?, ??
Good rubbernecking today with lots of lakes and ponds with what looked like ducks, flew like ducks, but smaller than ducks all over. Some crops mixed with open grass land and towns every 50 miles or so with a gas station.
I got to Minot mid-day and stopped for the usual coffee. The motel coffee was pretty bad this morning so I was looking for old reliable McDonald's coffee.

A couple guys motioned me over to join them and one of them had a helmet so I joined them hoping to get some background on the area. Turns out, these two are old friends in their 70's (looked younger than that, motorcycles have that effect on us old guys), and they owned and worked together for decades in a local motorcycle shop and were now retired. I was the young one, but I tried to keep up with all the old motorcycles that I remembered either having or my older brothers having, or hoping to have way back when. Don had a Triumph 1200 twin (new one), but it looked a lot like my old Triumph Bonneville. They invited me to stop by Don's shop at home so I followed him and Bob came along a little after. Don gave me the nickel tour of Minot with public spaces (Teddy Roosevelt Park, walking paths, water park for the kids (of all ages)). Nice tidy community tucked back here away from Rt 2.
He has an awesome motorcycle shop at his home with a lift, all the supplies you need, a boring bar (for boring out cylinders), sand blaster, and somewhere out back he mentioned a paint oven for powder coat painting. I'm ready to retire and build a shop!! Don't forget the mini-fridge (did not see a coffee pot, but I'll have one of those). He has a thing for Hodaka's and there seems to be a lot of Hodaka folks out there who keep in touch and still restore the old bikes. And these guys are both still married!! Sign me up.
Nothing sweeter than two old friends who obviously still enjoy each others company and can still get together and ride their bikes. I think Bob is looking at the X300 in his future. And Bob pointed out that their nicknames from their youth was "Teen Angel"(Don) and "Old Poop" (Bob).
Thanks you two for a very enjoyable afternoon and your wonderful hospitailty!

Back on the road and the plan was to cut down on Rt 52 and then back up through a small lake region, but i added up the time and decided to stick to Rt 2 to get to Grand Forks at a reasonable hour.
I did stop at the geographical center of North America (who knew), and then on into Grand Forks (200 miles from Minot). Grand Forks is also a tidy good sized town. You have to get down into these towns off the road to discover how nice they are.
So all in all a very pleasant day with good weather, some new friends, and a couple more weeks left to get home. Let's hope the sunny weather keeps up..

Odometer = 28,204