North Dakota---"So that was Mrs. Lundegaard on the floor in there. And I guess that was your accomplice in the wood hipper. And those three people in Brainerd. And for what? For a little bit of money. There's more to life than a little money, you know. Don't you know that? And here ya' are, and it's a beautiful day. Well I just don't understand it."

I was having a disturbing dream (no...you don't want to know...) when I heard footsteps upstairs. Patty and her mom were fixing us breakfast, bless their hearts. Thank you both so much for your generous hospitality! We left Edgeley with Patty, who rode west with us for 20 miles and then turned around. She remarked that North Dakota is NEVER this calm...wind-wise. Well...let's make an exception...just for today. :)






North Dakota surprised me. I thought it would be brown and frankly...ugly. Instead, it was green, with lakes dotting the landscape. The lakes were formed from the flooding last year and many, many farmers lost their homes, barns, livestock, and livelihood. We passed farms where water surrounded the house, barn and outbuildings with no way to drive to the farm.

The landscape has changed and I think it's safe to say none of us mind. We were all getting pretty tired of corn and soybeans. The terrain here is a lot more grassland, and stretches of water with birds of various kind. One of my favorite scenes of the day was a deer in a field of wheat...she was bounding through the field and would stop every now and then and look at us...and all you could see was her head above the stand of wheat.








We saw piles of rocks in the fields...and Patty had told us that one of her first jobs was to pick up rocks in the fields for her uncle...for 50 cents an hour.


Somewhere mid-ride, we had to go through a mile or so of construction. They were rebuilding the road where flooding had damaged the asphalt, and we had to follow a pilot car over a dirt and rock road. I thought my bike felt a little...bouncy...and when we got through the construction, sure enough, I had a flat. Karen just "happened" to be parked at the end of the construction, so I swapped out bikes with intentions to fix the flat later.








I finished the ride with 1715' of elevation gain, 100.4 miles, and an average of 13.9.

We loaded up the bikes and drove south to Pierre where we stopped at a McD's to update the blog. I was standing at the counter buying an evil Coke (yes...shame on me) when Laura came walking up to me with a grinning Clay Kind! I ride with Clay back in Vancouver! He had been in Minnesota for a family reunion and was headed home, stopping at McD's for a rest stop. What are the odds?


We stayed in Pierre with our Warm Showers hosts Tom and Ellen. It was 97 degrees when we got off the bikes, and 102 when we got to Pierre. Ellen graciously let us "chill" for awhile and must have asked us a dozen times "What can I get for you? What do you need?". She and Tom have rescued all kinds of cyclists, and we were thrilled to be in air conditioning and able to take showers and do our laundry. We had a wonderful meal of lasagne, green beans, green salad and fruit. Ellen's granddaughter Kate even helped by making carrot sticks. We didn't get to meet Tom because he was at a meeting, but we thoroughly enjoyed our conversation with Ellen. Thank you both for hosting us! She looked over our route tomorrow, we make one change, and then all of us headed for bed, anticipating an early start tomorrow.




maybe you can't...because you won't...