Days 31 & 32: Currently in Gackle, ND

Yesterday morning we drove north to where Alea had left the Northern Tier route in order to reach Hazelton Recreation Area, which is where I resumed our travels (we've hit a stretch where campgrounds aren't conveniently located, so we had driven a dozen miles off the main route to get to the Hazelton campground).

It was another windy day, but fortunately it was strong crosswinds and a brief stint with a great tailwind, so the pace was fairly quick.  As a result, we reached Napoleon, ND early in the afternoon. 

Somewhere west of Napoleon on a windy day.

Once again, with no campsite conveniently located nearby, we piled both bikes in the van and headed for Beaver Lake State Park ($30, power, water available).  It had a fairly bizarre "circle the wagons" layout with an inner gravel loop for RV parking and a paved outer loop, with the two loops separated by a grass and shrub median.  The odd thing was that it was designed so that RVs would park back to back and share a common power pedestal.  And each pair of sites shared a single water hydrant that was too far from the camping pad for most hoses to reach.  It boggles my mind that anyone would create such a bizarre configuration, but not quite as much as the fact that some elected or appointed official approved the design.  But it was very well maintained and had probably the nicest toilets and showers that we've ever encountered at a campground.

But it was a nice park.  Lana was very intrigued by the large number of spotted frogs near the lake (about half were brown, the other half green), until one accidently jumped into her, at which point she was sure she was being attacked.  We also saw a few turtles and Alea saw a beaver.

Today was a shorter distance (39 miles vs. 53 miles yesterday), but Alea had a quartering headwind for all but about 9 miles and had the misfortune of having a flat tire about 4 miles west of Gackle, which is where we're staying tonight, at the city-owned Gackle RV Park ($20, power and water).  It's pretty basic and a bit run down (especially the toilet and shower), but the folks in town seem friendly enough.  The big news (which we've heard from a number of folks) is that several weeks ago a 75 year old cyclist was hit by a semi a few miles east of here and killed.

Alea takes a selfie while fixing a flat west of Gackle, ND.

We did see one unusual sight this morning, located a few miles east of Napoleon - a personal collection of antique threshing machines.

Lana says, "Very nice..., but is it my turn to drive yet?"