Friday August 5th, 2011 Devil Lake, North Dakota to Shelby, Montana 672 miles

Left Devil Lake about 0600, under fairly clear skies, which I had just before Minot. The town was surrounded by thick black clouds, with the occasional lightning to the south. The scenery for that part of the day was same old, apart from heavy flooding still around the Mouse River area. The river was really high, well over its banks. Still, with hardly any traffic on US2 dual lane highway I made good time to Minot, after which the traffic pattern changed dramatically. The oil boom has come to North Dakota, and how, changing the landscape dramatically. Minot seemed like a frontier town, pickups, big rigs, and dirt. The road from Minot to Williston was packed with big rigs hauling tankers, drilling equipment, and large construction debris trailers. As they generally entered the road from a dirt area, the road was very dirty. Which meant when I hit heavy rain showers, instead of washing my bike, it got dirtier. It was interesting to see the various oil sites along the road. Areas cleared to house oil pumping donkeys and storage containers, with the flames burning off the gas, drilling platforms, mobile and RV cities, and pipe line construction sites. These were sited amongst the normal prairie sights such as grain and cow pastures. I bet some landholders are making a killing. Many of the big rigs are those used for long distance hauling, and it would seem that it is more profitable to haul dirt than produce for the owner driver. Some signs were out advertising for drivers. All in all it was a very interesting ride, and the time zipped by as did the miles. Williston is much like Minot, busy, noisy and dirty.

After Williston I entered Montana, and my dual highway disappeared, but traffic also lightened. At times I was on my own for miles, and the scenery became the normal prairie for miles until Shelby. Despite showers and light rain for most of the day, progress was great, with very little traffic through Glasgow, Malta and Havre. The only delay was extensive roads works just before Havre.

So into Shelby for the night. The sun was actually shining here, which was nice after a cool and damp ride under black skies for most of the day. No thunderstorms though, which was great. The town is full of bikes, most likely from Canada on the way to Sturgis. It starts tomorrow. Many bikes were heading the opposite direction to me after Williston, all most likely heading for the big event.

Tomorrow I ride the 15 miles to the Canadian border, then on to Camrose for a couple of nights. Most likely I will not blog until I leave there for home.