Sunday, June 26, Mandan to Hazelton

Began the day with a little bit of comedy: we went to get breakfast at the motel but the door was locked.  We had specifically checked the time the night before so thought we would give them a few minutes and return to our room--and we were trapped outside as we left our key in the room.  So we rang the doorbell and finally got someone to get our door unlocked and let us get our simple motel breakfast.  We had about a 5-mile ride to First Lutheran Church of Bismarck which originally was Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church. The Sermon was on the woman who washed Jesus feet with her tears and hair.   Point is not to become too self-righteous and realize  we're all sinners. After church there was a celebration of the 50th wedding anniversary of their pastor and his wife, and so got some cake and cookies and juice. We had a fun visit with a couple named John and Bonnie, they're approximately 75 and been married about 54 years.  They were farmers and  about a decade ago,  retired and moved into Bismarck. They also like to see the country, by traveling with a farm group on bus tours. Afterwards we pedaled a few blocks to  look at the North Dakota capitol. It's not a building with a dome like many other capitols, but a very tall building 12 to 18 stories high with two side wings that we suspect are for the different legislative chambers; an interesting design. 

The Sakajawea statue on the capitol grounds

 We continued on our way climbing up out of the Missouri River valley on a pleasant day to pedal a bicycle, the temperature moderate and the wind mainly at our back.

Leaving Bismarck and the Missouri River valley with the capitol visible as the tallest building

  For once we weren't paralleling a railroad, as has been so common for us. Saw a pond with a bunch of American pelicans in it.   We rode into Hazelton about 6:00 p.m. and even the convenience store where you turn into the town was closed.  We did find one bar "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" in the center of town that was open and got a couple smoked beef sandwiches and talked with a couple of men there: Terry, who on July 3 is turning the same age as Jim,  and his cousin Kevin, 64, who is a farmer about 15 miles away and has something like 1500 acres wheat, 450 corn and 600 soybean plus beef cows. They have a crop sprayer that has a wing span of 120 feet.  The campground is in the city park and currently we are the only campers.