Rocco's Motorcycle Trip 2011: Bismarck, ND

Three days after arriving in Bismarck, I promptly came down with a head and chest cold, wonderful. Other than that, my time here visiting with family has been good. We celebrated my mother’s 70^th birthday by taking her out to dinner on the day of her birthday, July 7. On Sunday, we were going to have this big picnic with friends and family at one of the parks in town but we had to move the whole thing indoors at my mother’s house because of severe weather. Tornado sirens even went off but unfortunately we never did see an actual tornado. Other than the unexpected bad weather, I think everything went well and my mom enjoyed her day.

This last winter and spring, Montana had record snow and rainfall which has resulted in the Missouri river, which runs through the Bismarck/Mandan area, in flooding. In all the years that I lived in Bismarck years ago and in coming to visit, I have never seen the river so high.

The weather has been perfect. Highs in the 80’s, the occasional daytime thunderstorm or rain, and lows in the 50’s. I am definitely not looking forward to the blistering heat down south.

Spent Sunday evening out at my sister’s and her husband’s place. We had some beer and played horeshoes. The kids rode motorcycles, scooters, ATV’s, and played basketball. A fun time was had by all.

We went over to my Uncles place last night and visited with him and his wife and drank margarita's, beer, and wine and had all sorts of snacks. After that my brother and his wife, my sister and her husband, and I we went to the Blarney Stone Irish pub for a few beers since it was our last night all being together. Its about time Bismarck got an Irish Pub. I love the Irish Pub :) The Blarney Stone is my favorite bar in Bismarck.

My son was supposed to fly back to Dallas last night but his flight was canceled due to bad weather in Denver, where he connects through. So this morning we had to get up at 4:20 AM for his rescheduled flight at 6:00 AM. Have I ever mentioned in this blog that I really don’t like having to wake up early in the morning? His flight left on time and he made it to Denver and found his connecting flight and gate. This was his first time making a connection by himself. It helped that he didn’t have to change terminals.

Even though I have enjoyed my visit back home with family, I am ready to get back on the road. I am not, however, looking forward to the end of my trip. I am trying not to think about that for now. I will be back on the road in a few hours and the weather looks perfect so I should have a nice ride down to the Black Hills.