Today, Sunday, 5-26, was a rest day–no time on the bike other than to ride about a quarter mile to the bike shop in Medora.

Today was Day 2 of the 38th Annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora, and there was no way I was going to miss it, especially with the encouragement I received from Ruth, the person I met at the scenic overlook/visitor center yesterday.

The Cowboy Poetry Gathering events were all being held at the Medora Community Center, a short walk from my hotel.

On the agenda for this morning, starting at 9 a.m., was a country gospel music performance featuring two selections each from about a dozen performers. I’ll highlight just a few of them. First, there was Paul Larson, who opened the program with a rendition of I’m Using My Bible for a Road Map, which brought to mind some of the challenges my Chief Navigator Trudi and I have experienced planning my route on this trip, especially when we needed to come up with alternatives to my Adventure Cycling Northern Tier route.

Patty Clayton, from Edgewater, Colorado, sang a song she wrote about her pioneer ancestors, who navigated many perils on their way to Oregon. The program aptly characterized her voice “as pure as the prairie wind.”

This is Ruth, who I met at the visitor center the day before. She led the group in a couple of songs, including one she used in a Montessori program that helped teach kids to believe in themselves.

After the performers had each performed their two songs, they all gathered on stage and led the audience in a rendition of Amazing Grace. One of the performers, the guy with the bolo tie, is Merrill Piepkorn, a state representative from Fargo who is a candidate for North Dakota Governor endorsed by the state Democratic Party (which in North Dakota is called the Democratic Nonpartisan League Party).

I had a great conversation after the program was over with Roger Buechler, one of the singers. Roger now lives in Bismarck but grew up on a farm in western North Dakota and farmed there for 20+ years, after which he underwent nursing training at the United Tribes Technical College and spent the next 20 years working as a psychiatric nurse. Though Roger is not himself Native American, he attended a college that caters to Native Americans and maintains many friendships and relationships in the Native American community. He told a story about being in front of a group in the psychiatric ward where he worked that included meth addicts, clinically depressed patients and others suffering mental illness. The group knew of his musical talents and begged him to play his guitar and sing for them, which he did. He said that when he performed the Hank Williams, Sr. song I Saw the Light (which he also played for us that morning), the crowd responded with one of the most extraordinary displays of energy and enthusiasm he had ever seen.

Roger was the only musician whose photo in the program includes a horse. I noticed he was wearing spurs on his boots and asked about them. He said they were just for show, and that he would never spur a horse. I accompanied Roger out to his car and asked if I could help carry some of his stuff. He said, “sure, carry my guitar,” which I considered a high honor.

My next stop was the Dakota Cyclery, also very close to my hotel, where highly experienced owner-operators Loren and Jennifer Morlock were exceptionally helpful in diagnosing the source of my front derailleur issues.

Here is my bike on the stand, where Loren removed the chain rings, which are the toothed sprockets that are connected to the crank and pedals.

This photo shows Loren inspecting my chain rings.

We believe that wear on the chain rings, especially the smallest one, is what has been preventing me from reliably getting into my lowest gears. Loren removed the chain rings and looked through the shop’s vast collection of parts for suitable replacements. He wasn’t able to find any, and although replacements could be ordered, the next day was Memorial Day, and needing to wait for replacements would require me to delay my trip by at least a couple days and necessitate changing all the hotel reservations Trudi had made for the coming week. I didn’t think that was a good option.

Loren put the bike back together again and had me give it a test ride. Amazingly, the front derailleur worked perfectly every time I used it, even though it was the same equipment I had when I showed up at the store. I came back to the counter in the repair shop and asked him what he had done to fix the problem. He looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t know.” This reminded me of a technique that my father-in-law Orville used in trying to fix something–take it all apart and put it back together again. Invariably, this seemed to fix what was wrong.

Next, I managed to get in to the family-owned Cowboy Cafe restaurant that Ruth had recommended, even though it was two minutes to their 2 p.m. closing time. They served the best hot beef sandwich I’ve ever had.

While there, I met several interesting folks. At the next table was Monsignor Jim, a priest from Bismarck who just retired from his pastoral duties last year. He was with his nephew Drew from Milwaukee, who had just graduated from Notre Dame and was soon going to be starting a job in New York City. They were both very interested in my trip, and I was impressed by Drew’s questions, like “what would you do differently if you were just starting out knowing what you know now?”

I also had a nice visit with my waitress Laney, on the left in this photo. She was also quite curious about my cross-country journey. She works at the restaurant with her future sister-in-law Siri, on the right. I also met Siri’s parents outside the restaurant as I was leaving. I think this was one of the friendliest restaurants I’ve ever been in!

I walked around town for a bit after lunch. As you might imagine, Medora is very much dominated by Theodore Roosevelt’s legacy. I liked this statue of Roosevelt, and the quote from him on the accompanying plaque: “It was here that the romance of my life began.”

I tried to tour the Cowboy Hall of Fame Museum, but alas, got there just as it was closing.

Amazingly, though, I recognized the volunteers who were in charge of the museum that day–it was Paul Larson, the first singer I had heard that morning, and his wife. I asked Paul whether the Cowboy Hall of Fame accepts new honorees and he said, “oh yes,” and gave me a flyer for the 2024 Induction Weekend, on June 14 and 15. At this point, two guys named Garrett and Danny showed up, also wanting to tour the museum, and they too had to be told that it was closed. But then it turned out that these guys, who both grew up in Lacrosse, WI, also have an interest in music performance and we spent nearly a half hour in the lobby of the Hall of Fame talking about some of Paul’s favorite artists (like Merle Haggard), and Paul, who is 79, sang several songs for the three of us.

I didn’t make any progress on the bike today, but on the whole felt like a very productive day filled with music and new friends.