We’re getting some wild weather in North Dakota on our ride to the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. This is the first time I’ve had sufficient internet to post some photos. Traveling the hinterlands has it’s disadvantages and that’s one of them. The advantages however do outweigh that little inconvenience.

It’s been a great ride, as they all are. Our first night out was at the KOA in Rawlins, WY. Nothing real note worthy there except that the colors of the landscape between Rifle and Craig were beautifully saturated. When in bright sunlight, there is a lot of reflection off of everything, thereby diluting the colors, oddly enough. We got caught in a brief but heavy rain but it was pretty refreshing. It looked like it could’ve been a lot worse when we rode into it but no hail thankfully.

The next night, Saturday, we camped at Devils Tower in Wyoming. Yes, one in the same. The real deal. In fact they show the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind every evening at 8 pm. Rather erie sleeping in the shadow of such an imposing growth out of the land. I had to do a little watercolor sketch of this growth on the land.

Sunday we were headed to Medora, North Dakota and the Theodore Roosevelt National Park that evening. The ride between Hulette, Wyoming and Belle Fourche, South Dakota was absolutely beautiful. It’s along part of the Black Hills with a lot of pastoral vistas of rolling pastures and pine studded hill sides.

It was hot when we arrived and the fact that this was the Fourth of July weekend totally escaped me. Reservations had been made in Rawlins and Devil’s Tower but after that we were going to wing it. As luck would have it we got the last camp spot available in the park. It was so warm we left the fly off of the tent and slept under the stars. I got a watercolor sketched out of the Little Missouri River below the breaks in the park.

I’d have to say that the Theodore Roosevelt National Park was a bit of a disappointment. It’s part of the Dakota Badlands and not what I had expected. I don’t know what that was except that it sure wasn’t what we got. A wild a desolate land for sure and I suppose that’s the draw of it. Rather historic and that in it’s-self was interesting. The evening and morning light was fantastic however and the beauty of the place was at it’s best. Saw buffalo and of course the requisite number of gawking tourists parking where-ever and when-ever they wanted…middle of the road…in the driveways of the turnouts…etc. the usual. To be expected I suppose.

One of the enjoyments/challenges of riding a motorcycle and camping across the vast lands is the intimate experiences with the weather. You can feel the changes in temperature and humidity as you ride over hill and dale. Which brings me to tonight.

I write this to you good folks from a motel room in Cooperstown, ND. You can look it up on the map if interested. It’s small and on the eastern side of the state. As we traveled from West to East across North Dakota today we had a great tail wind. Originally we were going to go farther north from the Theodore Roosevelt National Park before turning east but the wind out of the west was brutal. Consequently we detoured a bit.

And a fortunate thing it was too. As the day grew into afternoon, we could see a huge storm cell brewing to the north of us, right along our first chosen route. Late in the afternoon, it looked like we might collide with this storm front. The wind had changed and the riding was very hot and very rough.

Finally we gave it up in Cooperstown. I was getting dangerously low on gas and the storm was approaching. I found a gas station and nearby was a sign directing us to the Westside Motel…a great little mom and pop motel. After registering, we came out and saw the lady’s husband standing out front looking to the west watching the storm roll in. It was’t very encouraging when he turned to run back into the house hollering, if we need to, we’ll come get you and we can go to the basement. Here’s a link to the video I shot on my iPhone.

Within minutes, the storm rolled onto us with 80 mph winds, hail and torrential rain. Watching the bike in front of the room I thought it was going to blow over. I’ve never experienced anything like this before. After about 40 minutes, it had quit and the sun came out.

Ah yes, the adventure of it all.

We’re on to Lake of the Woods today and hopefully into some great scenics for a painting or two. I’ll be back when the internet allows.