Fargo to Fergus Falls (83 miles)

7-15-2010
Today wasn't a hard ride, but it also wasn't an enjoyable day.

We started off with a ride through Fargo.  The streets were fairly busy, but the traffic was amendable to us being on the road.  However, once we got into Minnesota (no welcome sign again!) the roads became really awful.  There was very little shoulder, and the roads were criss crossed with deep cracks.

Jeeze, where are the trees!  This looks the same as North Dakota.  (By the end of the day we were seeing lots more trees.)

Those cracks really ate at everyone.  The constant bah-bump, was annoying and painful on our sore rear ends.  After a day of that, we were not feeling like doing another day of it.  So at Pelican Rapids we decided to have some lunch (McDonalds, 2 burgers and a large chocolate shake) and then head off of the Adventure Cycling route to Fergus Falls.  There we'll be getting on a 120 mile bike path to near St. Cloud, and then getting on anther trail along the Mississippi River to Minniapolis.
Now we're all camped in a city park, enjoying dinner, and glad to be right next to the Central Lakes Trail, on which we'll ride for the next day and a half.

Cooperstown to Fargo (92 miles)

7-15-2010

A quick, enjoyable ride.  What a great decision it was to wait out the storm and bad winds for a day in Cooperstown.

We all slept in a bit in the morning, then quickly got ready to leave.  There had been severe thunderstorms while we slept, but the skies were clear, and the sun was shining when we left.
The ride started off nice, there wasn't much wind, and we just got the miles done.

Tom said fairwell after about 20 miles.  He was heading North to the Headwaters of the Mississippi, and we were heading South to Fargo.

After a couple of miles, we arrived at the November-33 missle launch site.  It was pretty neat to see the topside of the missle silo, and to read all of the interpretive signs about it.

Very cool.

It's amazing how little of the structure shows above ground.  The tall white pole on the right, is a motion sensor.

We arrived in Hope for a little snack, then headed on to Page for Lunch.  After Page, the west winds really picked up and we were scooting along at 17-23 mph.  In 2.5 hours we covered 40 miles!  It's so much fun to ride that fast so effortlessly.
Then we turned South for Fargo.  This was a little tougher, but the wind was still helping us a bit.
One of the amazing things during the ride today was the amount of water everywhere.  All of the ditches, rivers, and lakes were overfull, and in many places actively flooding.

Cooperstown - rest day (9miles)

7-13-2010

This morning we were packing up to the threat of thunderstorms.  Just as we got on the road, it started to rain and thunder, so we took shelter in a cafe in Cooperstown.  After watching the weather, and checking the forecast, Jeff, Doug, Therese, Tom, and I decided that it wasn't worth fighting the wind and risking hail/tornadoes.  So we decided to get a hotel and stay in town.  Don and Joe decided that the were going to try to beat the storm to Fargo.

After waiting out the rain, we found rooms at the Westside motel.  Then rode our bikes up to a really cool museum of a Minuteman missile control sight.

It was a great tour, very interesting to see and learn about this part of our history.

Pretty amazing, huge door enclosing part of the control room.

Each room Is suspended from the ceiling, so that the equipment would be more likely to survive a nuclear attack.  This in addition to being surrounded by 4-8 feet of concrete and 50 feet of packed dirt.

It was cool to see how old the technology was that they used here.  Even though it was closed down in 1997.

The last two people who had an alert in this missile base.

A neat mural that a missileer made in the control room.  Oscar the grouch because the base is "Oscar-Zero."

The misseleers and when and how how many days they spent in the control room.  They would be locked in for 24 hour shifts.

After a nasty 4 mile ride back to town, fighting 15 mph headwinds, we went back to the hotel to relax.  I as able to finish my book, then I took a nap.  Then a little dinner at a burger joint, yum!  Now, I'm watching a little TV and looking forward to sleeping in a bed.

Tomorrow the weather.com is predicting north and west winds all day long.  That should help us to push all the way to Fargo (90miles) where we can meet up with the rest of our group.  

New Rockford to Cooperstown (63 miles)

7-12-2010

We set off fearing our worst wind day yet, and while it was tiring it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.

The Bison Motel, it's amazing how nice a mediocre little motel is after camping for a while.  

We again slept in a little bit.  Between not feeling rushed to be out, and not having to pack up camp, I was able to get an extra hour of sleep.  The a quick breakfast of PBJ sandwiches and coffee and we were on the road.

The first 15 miles were tough.  The wind was blowing strongly into our faces and I was still loosening up.  After a bit of struggling, I rolled into Carrington, where everyone else was just sitting down for a little 2nd breakfast.

For the last thousand miles we've been seeing acres of these different colors.  The blue is flax.  The green is soybeans (though we've seen a lot of wheat and corn too) and the yellow is canola.

After resting up, we got back on the road.  This time the wind was only partially into our faces, so it wasn't nearly as bad.  We made good time to Glennfield where we had lunch in a city park.  Then it was back on the road to Cooperstown.

A pretty Lutheran church that we road past.  Jeff is standing on the porch, and Don is riding on by. 

This stretch was much more difficult because it was getting warmer and we were getting tired.  Finally we pulled into town.  A shower, and some grocery shopping helped to finish up the day.  Tomorrow we're thinking about trying to finish the 90 miles to Fargo, though I'm not sure if we'll make it.

Esmond to New Rockford (60 miles)

7-11-2010

Another, "fight the wind" day, at least it wasn't that hot out this time.

We had a late night because the band didn't stop playing until after 2am.  So we decided to sleep in a little, and have breakfast in town.  Breakfast was fantastic, I had the special; 2 eggs, 2 pieces of bacon, and 2 pieces of French toast.  Now with our fuel tanks full, we headed out into the wind.

The fantastic cafe, perfectly situated to save us.

The morning was tough, we had a 5-10 mph head wind slowing us down.  Finally, we got to our midway point, Minnewauken.  An interesting little resort town, that's experiencing some major flooding.  The snow is melting faster than the lake can drain.  Some town members were telling us that they were worried that the town would be drowned.

Tom looking at the flooded road near town.

After a nice little break in town, we got on the road again.  The road conditions were unpleasant, though at least we weren't fighting the wind the whole way.  Finally we pulled into town and found a hotel.  We had decided that after a couple of exhausting days that we deserved a rest in a hotel.

After doing some laundry, I made dinner and went to bed.  Ahh so nice not to have to set up a tent, and to be able to sleep on a mattress.

Granville to Esmond (80miles)

7-10-2010

What a day!  We started off early, expecting it to be the hottest day of our trip so far.  However, we didn't end until late in the afternoon, hot and exhausted.

We were on the road by 6:15 am, hoping to avoid some of the day's heat.  Then about 19 miles into the day, we had a decision to make.  We could either go south on 14, or go on to Rugby.  Jim and Bob decided that they'd rather head south on 14, because of construction on highway 2.  The rest of us decided to brave the construction because we wanted to get to a town sooner than 32 miles and we wanted to see Rugby.

4 miles later we were enjoying another fantastic breakfast in a Towner cafe.  Then we were off towards Rugby.  We quickly ran into the promised construction, but it wasn't as bad as we were afraid of.  The traffic wasn't too heavy and the road was paved the whole length.  However, it was definitely scary having semi-trucks pass right next to us, because they didn't have room to get over a lane.

It's getting hot already, jeeze.

Finally we arrived in Rugby, the geographical center of North America.  After a few pictures and a dairy queen, we were on the road again.

The center of the continent, cool!

By this time the day was getting seriously hot, by the time we got to Esmond we were told it was 100 degrees.  To make matters worse we fought a crosswind the entire afternoon, which slowed and frustrated us.

Don, like the rest of us, is hotted out.

Finally we arrived in Esmond, where we found a great cafe, with cheap good food.  Then we set up camp, and went to enjoy live music.  It just happened to be Esmond Day, and they were celebrating.  The party lasted until 2am, though none of us lasted even close to that long.

We've had many great sunsets, though this is the first one that I thought might turn out in a picture.

Stanley to Granville (87 miles)

7-9-2010

Today we were aiming to get some miles in.  We first thought about Surrey, but after arriving there fairly early and with a tailwind, we road on to Granville.

Many of the small cities that we pass through have these great signs welcoming you to their town.

For the past several days, we've stopped after a couple of hours of riding we stop for breakfast.  In yellow is Ron, who we met in Idaho to ride with, but decided to mostly ride on his own.  We have met up several different evenings.  On the right is Rudy, we camped with for a couple nights.  He is on the was to Rag Ride in Ohio.

The ride was fairly uneventful.  We rode through Minot, which felt like a big city.  We rode right downtown to find a bike shop, and the streets were very busy.  We were also very overheated, so we stopped into an Irish pub for a lemonade.

We all love these wonderful city parks that are usually free and very convenient to use.

In Granville we found a nice park, until we looked at the bathrooms.  We were without flushing toilets or showers, which made the night fairly uncomfortable.  After setting up camp, Don and I decided that we were not interested in cooking, so we went into town to the White Buffalo bar, and had a steak dinner.  It was good, and affordable.  After we were finished eating; Doug, Therese, and Jeff joined Don, Joe and I for drink and some laughs.