7-12-10 Day 37: Stanley, ND to Williston, ND: 72 miles in 5:23 hours. Rt 2 west the whole day.
Before I go over today let me finish off with yesterday. I kind of left you after I’d come back from the grocery. Well, Arden came back to the barn to work on a thermometer to put up in his yard, and then asked if I’d like to join him on has Case Scout 4-wheeler for a tour of his old property he’d sold to the oil company and to go over and check on his horses at a friend’s property. I was totally cool for driving around in this enclosed, decked out to the nines 4-wheeler. I mean this thing is probably as expensive as a freaking Ford Fiesta, and it can traverse 4 feet of snow, ponds, mud pits, and ascend 45-degree hills! So I jumped in with my camera and off we went, zooming down the gravel roads of Stanley. Along the way he showed me all the petroleum development along the way. There were “Man Camps,” these massive complexes where the workers lived in these trailer parks. They just truck in living quarters, dining quarters, recreational quarters and plop them down on a bulldozed area and bring in the workers. He showed me a petroleum complex where they pump the oil into rail tank cars, where the building is 900 feet long and holds umpteen cars at a time. Then there are the “mud vats” that they use for the drilling muds. And there’s the miles of pipelines and pumping stations. I mean this is just on a scale that I’ve never seen before. And the whole time I’m wondering WHY it is that I had no idea that this existed in the lower 48? Again, Arden told me that this part of ND is the “Saudi Arabia” of America.
The roads are just smashed to hell from the tankers hammering up and down. I mean you can actually see the depressions that are like craters in the roads from the heavy truck traffic. New housing is going up in Stanley as fast as they can build it. Some workers are just living in RV’s and little trailers. Others are renting in these new, prefab apartments for $1500/month! So as we’re going down this dirt road there are oil trucks left and right moving down the roads. It’s a boom for sure, and nowhere displays these changes more than the town of Stanley. Arden tells me that he used to visit the café and know everyone there. Today, he says there are probably only 2-3 faces out of the 25 each morning that he recognizes.
Farmland that typically sells for $300/acre can be purchased from the farmers by the petroleum companies for as much as $20,000-$45,000/acre. Properties and old businesses were snatched up by the petroleum companies such that now much of the commercial business in Stanley is petroleum based – anything associated with wells and drilling. We stopped at Arden’s friend’s property and Arden fed his three horses. Then he showed me his old property that the oil company purchased. This is where they put in the distribution center for filling the tanker cars with oil. Arden said they just made him an offer “he couldn’t refuse.” He sold off a chunk of his acreage and made a monumental profit. Said that many a farmer has profited from the oil boom. But there’s good and bad he admitted. The roads are just shot. Not enough housing. Shoddy housing. Trailer parks. Sprawl. Pollution to the environment. From a quite little agricultural community to busy and bustling frontier town. Rumbling trucks 24-7. There’s bad with the good out here as the development outstrips their ability to keep up with it in a well thought out manner. Welcome to the oil boom of Northwestern ND! This is the new frontier, the wild west, the place where you can come to work and make some good money. There are license plates from all corners of the US here in Stanley. Many strangers in town. We have to feed our hunger for oil, and here in Stanley, ND you can see where it all begins!
So I sat in the camper last night having a few beers and listening to the local radio kind of going over all that I’ve discovered about this oil boom. Yep, we have to get ourselves weaned off of foreign oil, but at what cost? Look at the Gulf Coast disaster. And then I think about what is happening out here. The oil derricks are littering the landscape. Traffic and the influx of masses of humanity are having a giant impact on these little sleepy little agricultural towns. The landscape is changing. And for me, just a passer by through this new world, the boom is so dramatic that I had to change my itinerary because I was afraid that I’d be killed on my bicycle by the oil traffic that rumbles up and down damned near every road out here. Thus, no opp to visit some to ND’s most remarkable landscapes! But I cannot be selfish about my losses, which are so fleeting, because some of these farmers who have toiled all their lives just to survive are now profiting like kings. The state of ND is in a budget surplus. There’s good and bad. What’s the answer? I’ve no clue – there’s just so many issues here!
So I got up at around 6 AM this morning, and the only reason I wasn’t at my 5 AM get-up time was likely because the barn kind of deadends the light, despite the fact that Arden had put a long skylight at the top of the bay. So it kind of felt as though it was still dark outside since I’ve just been getting up with the morning light. I raced to pack my gear, and put on some coffee in his office and ate some yogurts and Danish I had bought yesterday at the grocery.
What an awesome dude Arden was to let me have that rig last night. To end last night I just kicked back after chatting with Judy on Skype and listened to NPR Minot last evening to a program that was Native American music, kind of chanting and very relaxing music. That and a couple of brews and that was a day.
Got rolling this morning at 7 AM sharp, going down the gravel road roller coaster and back up to Rt 2 west. And off I went for Williston. Now Tammy and Tim from Bismarck had hooked me up with Tim’s relatives in Williston for a stay today, and I’d called and confirmed with Sue last night about my arrival to Williston. So I didn’t have to worry about the oil boom folks displacing me for another night. I was set with a place to stay, and that felt pretty good. The wind was out of the southwest, but let me tell you that it felt more like a tailwind than a cross headwind – for sure. That enabled me to keep it going at a nice steady 13-14 mph.
Again, miles and miles of flat prairie land as far as you can see. That and the slew of oil wells, oil derricks, oil holding tanks, oil equipment, and of course all the oil trucks rolling east and west along Rt 2. This is just amazing, and the roadway berm is like stained red in places with red rocks and red dust due to all the red dust blowing off of the tankers that had just gotten off of the gravel roads and onto the asphalt. Hell, there’s a couple of times that I saw tankers pulling off of a gravel road and onto the highway and they looked like Pigpen with a cloud of red dust flying behind them as they accelerated down the highway. I was told to look for the nuclear warhead bunkers, as they are out here along the road. Yup, the nukes that are supposed to be the BIG deterrent to WW3, many of those are planted in the ground in ND. Arden told me I could take pictures of them from the road, “but don’t go near the fences,” he warned me. Well, I never saw a one of them. Maybe it was because I was too consumed with not hitting those damned red rocks that the oil company trucks have littered the berm with. They’re sharp, and could easily cause a flat if I hit one just right.
Arden had warmed me up for this big climb on the way to Williston – told me it was 4 miles long and a real biggie. Well, again, I came to the bugger but it was really just a very long gradual roller – yes Laura, a gradual roller! Nothing more. It was actually kind of fun to pedal up as I was able to maintain a good 12 mph with the cross wind behind me. Then I just put it into cruise control and pedaled on to the town of Ray for a breakfast stop. Got to Ray about 9:45 AM and went into a little dinner for food. Needed a coke for sure and then decided to sit down for a breakfast. That should get me to Williston. Ordered up a couple of eggs, hashbrowns and toast, along with a great big tall glass of fountain coke – which I refilled 3 times. The folks there, and everywhere for that matter, kind of look at me like I’m a freak with my cycling kit on. So anymore I wear my helmet in and take it off when I sit down just so they ABSOLUTELY know that I’m a bike rider and not a cross dresser clad in lycra.
Had a good meal, albeit very slow service, but had a chance to talk with some of the folks in the dinner about my trip. Usually the same thing: “Where you headed,” they’ll ask. And then I tell them Seattle. “Where’d you start,” is usually next. And then I’d reply with Northern Maine. That’s about when they shake their heads in amazement. Now, almost 3000 miles in, I feel like I’ve actually ridden somewhere. Way back in NY state, well, when asked those questions I was a bit reticent about expounding on the whole story. Now, hell I’m damned near in Montana! Anyway, had a good talk with them and off I went to Williston, riding the crest of the cross wind. BUT, that cross wind was only good for 20 miles west of Ray. Then Rt 2 does this 90-degree turn to the south for the last 14 miles to Williston. So I was riding the crest on borrowed time.
There was a stretch where my berm virtually disappeared. I mean it just vanished and I had but a tiny 1 foot berm and then gravel. NOPE. I rode to the eastbound lane and got on that 10-foot wide berm and rode for a good 10 miles until my west bound berm reappeared. No way was I riding next to those freaking oil rigs! They’re like giant vacuums as they blast by, just sucking everything into their wake. So that worked out great – riding against traffic on a giant berm.
Then the inevitable – the 90-degree into the southerly wind. It was if I’d hit a wall – an insurmountable wall at that because the road gently trended up into a gradual climb for like 2 miles. I was reduced from my 14 mph to a miserable 6-7 on that long gradual into the wind. I mean I was in the middle cookie in the giant pie plate in the back, out of the saddle just poking along on this. Got me thinking that those 14 miles into that vicious headwind could take nearly 2 hours to complete. Turns out that there were like three of those kinds of climbs. So just when I’d get to the top I’d be able to get going at 11 mph and then descend at 15 mph, and then right back into another freaking long ascent into the headwind. I think it took like 1.5 hrs to get that stretch in, and finally it flattened out and I arrived at the Williston Corp limit sign. Made it.
Sue and Mark lived about in the center of town, and just past the street I was supposed to turn left on, well, there was a Subway. I passed the turn and went straight for the Subway for my 2 footlongs. Man they hit the spot after fighting with that wind for an hour and a half. It’s just so bloody tough riding into the headwind. Takes so much more concentration and effort. So after my stuffing I rolled over to Sue and Marks. Felt some rain drops along the way, but nothing really developed. I was welcomed by their children, and there are four of them and right now I can only remember two of their names. Abby showed me the garage for my bike and yak storage, and then showed me my downstairs room that her sister Riley had graciously given up for the night. Very nice children and a very cool house. I’m in a basement bedroom that adjoins a wonderful rec room/bar/living room area that’s fully carpeted. Beyond Palatial compared to some of the efficiencies I’ve stayed in!
Then I met and talked a bit with Sue. Her and her husband Mark are avid runners – he an ultrarunner. Sounds like they were quite good not too long ago to. They are also triathletes, but this freaking truck traffic has Sue so scared that she will not go out on any of the bermless roads outside of town to ride. Just too dangerous she says. As an aside, it turns out they’re headed my way on Rt 2 west this Sunday, as they’re driving out to hike and recreate in Glacier National Park.
Showered and doing the computer thing right now. Feel great to have a place to clean up and relax what with the crazyness of all this oil boom stuff going on outside. Williston is even more intense than Stanley! It’s like the gold rush out here. Well, I’ll sign off and put up any additional stuff on the blog tomorrow.
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