Day 20 - Moose Jaw to Fargo

This morning was another cool one. The Wing’s temperature gage read 45F. After we packed up the bike, we got some breakfast. A nice couple from PA struck up a conversation with us. He had a motorcycle but said he could never ride so far day after day. They both loved visiting national parks and were on their way to Glacier and Banff. We were envious of the great sights they had in store for them and wished them safe travels.

After gassing up the bikes at the edge of town, we ran over and took a few pictures with. Mac the Moose.

We got back on TC 1 going east but quickly turned onto Highway 93 heading south east. As was the case yesterday, the winds were favorable for us coming out of the northwest.

TC 1 was a very nice scenic road taking us through farmlands and gently rolling hills. We saw a farmer using a border collie to round up sheep. We also passed by a mining operation. The land this operation left was of multiple hills of tailings that had grown over with grass. The hills created several small ponds as well.

After about 3 hours, we arrived at the U.S. border. There were about 3 vehicles in front of us. The wait was only about 10 minutes. The border agent asked us several standard questions including the distance of our daily commute to work. He was a bit thrown by Michele’s answer of “about 20 steps. I work remotely from home.” He asked us to open the trunk and the trailer which we did and he poked around a few of our bags. The whole affair took 10 minutes. We met up with Jerry at the gas station just beyond the gate where we took a little break before moving on.

We continued along US 52 to Minot where we had lunch at a great BBQ restaurant, Bones BBQ Smokehouse & Grill. The temps had steadily risen into the low 70s with clear blue skies.

We continued along US 52 until we connected with I 94 which we took east into Fargo for the night. The route along 93 in Canada and 52 in the US was really nice. Low traffic and the roads were in reasonably good condition (save for a few miles of broken pavement in Canada).

It was 7pm when we arrived at the hotel in Fargo. We had traveled 540 miles today making it one of the longer days. The fact that we lost an hour moving from Mountain to the Central time zone did not help.

Tomorrow is a shorter day of 250 miles. We ride to St. Paul to meet Michele’s mom for lunch and stay the night.