No posts for a while because we haven’t had internet at all here in North Dakota. At the moment, we’re camped out at a motel/RV park that happens to have it . Marissa is still snoozing so I figured I’d clue you all in quick.
We are currently in Rugby, ND, the geographical center of North America, about a days ride from Minot which is about half way across the state. Coming out of Fargo, we had a day of headwinds followed by 2 beautiful days of tail winds. We were talking real pretty to the wind, trying to shmooze our way across the state with promises of love and devotion if she would only keep on blowin at our backs. Well, all was going well until we reach Fort Trotten on Devil’s Lake when the wind brought us some very heavy rains and thunderstorms. Lots of truck traffic and no shoulder to speak of kept us pedaling as fast as our legs would carry us to Minnewauken. I also had the wonderful fortune of discovering that my rain jacket is not so rain proof. Lucky me.
The next day turned sunny but we’re once again riding into headwinds that were supposed to be coming from the south but really were straight west into our faces. When it’s like that, we can barely manage 10 miles an hour which makes putting in 60 miles an arduous task. That’s also the number of miles we have to do today to reach Minot before we can take a rest day. Accuweather (which is not so accurate on this trip), has promised us some lovely 45mph westerly gusts.
60 miles a day also happens to be the magic number we must average the entire rest of the trip in order to make it to Seattle and hop a plane back to Cleveland. I’m due to serve as the best man in my friend’s wedding on the 16th of October so I can’t exactly be late. Needless to say, we are on a schedule that really doesn’t allow much flexibility.
Knees are killing me at the moment too. Sorry, such a bitchy post. Our spirits aren’t exactly peaking but hopefully we’ll be in better shape tomorrow as we try to catch the Browns game, haha. Until then, feel free to send me any great stretches for knees and lower thighs. Or all you folks out east can start puffing your cheeks, blowing the wind westward. We’re gonna need it.
