We made a dramatic recovery at Lund's Landing on Sunday. Not moving for pretty much an entire day except to eat a ridiculous amount of food really works!
The next day, Monday, we decided to veer off the Northern Tier route for just 100 miles to avoid a headwind going south and some tough hills and an Indian reservation. Instead we ventured through plains that were covered in oil wells, with their distinctive structures. We also saw a lot of Haliburton insignia, which made us think about how much stuff is going on in this country that none of us ever know about, because it may happen in North Dakota. That makes me think of UFOs, which are also exciting. Then we went through the pathetic town of Stanley, North Dakota for lunch. We arrived 82 miles on at Berthold, just outside Minot, having barely broken a sweat, the tailwind was so strong. As we have for most of the past couple of weeks and will for the rest of North Dakota at least, we stayed over in a city park. These are just the designated greens where the playground is, and near the baseball field. There is usually a lot of action from the younger set, who come out to play after dinner and stay out really late because it doesn't get dark until after 10. It seems like life is really different up here in the summer, when it can be so hot and it is so light. In the winter it has gotten down to -60 F, and in the summer up to 121 F, a huge difference!
On Tuesday morning we rode 25 miles into Minot, where we spent 6 hours catching up on bike repair, laundry, library, and grocery shopping. We also met 2 other cyclists from Boston heading west who were very jealous of our winds! They were very nice, we love meeting other cyclists. We got back on the road at around 4, planning to go 35 miles to a campsite in the Denbigh Experimental Forest, which sounded exciting and potentially dangerous, especially since a lot of buildings in Minot had nuclear fallout shelter symbols on them, but it turned out to be nothing special. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the campsite, so we had to go 12 more miles on to Towner, where we did not arrive until 7:30 p.m. Fortunately, we had delicious dinner to make! Pizza with pineapple, ham, mushrooms and onions, Chef Chaos's specialty.
This morning we reached Rugby, North Dakota, the geographic center of North America. Who knew!? We are very excited to be in such an important place. Mom and Dad were nice enough to send us a new bike pump, Cate's watch, and Cate's bathing suit, which we just picked up at the post office. Our goal for the day is Minnewaukan on Devil's Lake, but our secondary goal is that Minnewaukan will have a cinema because we are desperate for that silky darkness and the salty popcorn. We would see anything, anything, even Kung Fu Panda, or Indiana Jones for the second time!
- The Pandas
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1 comment:
cool teepees! and to be at the center of everything who knew?
keep going with the tailwind.
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