Playing Hooky

It is now mid-November here in the north. Fields are harvested, trees are barren, and the prairie grasses are brown. If history is any guide, we should have snow on the ground very soon. It should be cold. My bike should be parked, gathering dust and waiting for spring.

But today was an amazing seventy degrees. A record for this date, actually. It was entirely too nice be trapped in my dull cubicle. So I took advantage of some "comp time" and skipped out. Why? So I could ride.

I straddled the Suzuki and cruised north, from Bismarck toward Washburn. I chose highway 1804 because of its view of the river, the hills, the curves, and the lack of traffic.

No sensible engineer would have constructed highway 1804 and its sister highway 1806, across the river to the west. The highways were built to showcase the beautiful, historic vistas of the Missouri river. The highways were built as close to the river as was possible. The result is an enjoyable and scenic ride.

My ride was absolutely perfect. I couldn't help but smile, remembering what it was like to be under the immense blue sky. I passed the site of a former Native American village, Double Ditch. I cruised up to a boat landing and relaxed for a few moments on the dock. In Washburn, I stopped for a snack and watched the deer hunters fueling up their vehicles for the upcoming weekend's hunt.

On my way south, along 1806, I saw ranchers fixing fences. Cattle roamed the pastures. Hay bales, dramatically lit by the low sun, dotted the landscape off to the horizon.

Tomorrow's forecast: Rain and forty degrees. Even so, North Dakota is not bad at all.

What a great day.