- Day 1 -1 Week
- Day 1 -12 Hours
- Day 1
- Day 2
- Day 3
- Day 4
- Day 5
- Day 6
- Day 7
- Day 8
- Day 9
- Day 10
- Day 11
- Day 12
- Day 13
- Day 14
- Day 15
- Day 16
- Day 17
- Day 18
- Day 19
- Day 20
- Day 21
- Day 22
- Day 23
- Day 24
- Day 25
- Day 26
- Day 27
- Day 28
- Day 29
- Day 30
- Day 31
- Day 32
- Day 33
- Day 34
- Day 35
- Day 36
- Day 37
- Day 38
- Day 39
- Day 40
- Day 41
- Day 42
- Day 43
- Day 44
- Day 45
- Day 46
- Day 47
- Day 48
- Day 49
- Day 50
- Day 51
- Day 52
- Day 53
- Day 54
- Day 55
- The End
- Retrospective
We woke up on the early side fearing the continental breakfast would be lacking. We were pleasantly surprised. Not the make your own waffles we love but it all worked well. Much later in the day we would end up talking about how much the hotel breakfast saves. Not only the money, which is obvious, but the time and comfort. After breakfast we can go back to our room and use the bathroom, and finish getting ready, instead of trying to get fully ready and riding to breakfast and using the restaurant bathroom.
Once ready we headed for the road. The first mile through town was fine however as soon as we exited town the wind came.
I don’t know if I sounded whiny yesterday but the wind was really something I hadn’t give too much thought to. And suddenly we are fighting to stay on track and move forward. Flat and smooth roads should not take so much effort. Additionally needing to make sure you aren’t suddenly blown into each others path or worse the traffic. There was so much leg exertion as well as upper body for steering.
Pretty early on in the day the wind was blowing so much ear started to bother me. It almost felt like an ear ache. I couldn’t figure out if I was actually getting the beginning of a ear problem or if it was just excessive noise. This relentless howl inside my ear. Or was it my own body giving me weird cues, little hints that this could be all over, if you just stop riding. Not the day to give up for me.
We rode past a large pile of sand(?). It was kind of cool the way the wind had shaped the one side smooth and the other fell in different patterns. But A) how much waist does this company have storing their product where it can so easy blow away. B) Are we breathing all this in right now? I guess, now as I write this it might be piles of dirt they dug to get to what they want in which case let it blow to be someone else’s problem. Not very nice but certainly makes business sense.
As we made our way across the prairie I started thinking about the pioneers in covered wagons. Crazy enough to pack everything and start going that way, into the unknown void. However, at some point, I couldn’t imagine facing this wind. Coaxing the beasts of burden to pull while being pushed back with unending wind. Day after day after day. When someone dropped something and it flew away having the decision of go get it verse well, I guess that’s gone forever.
This lead me to think about the game ‘The Oregon Trail’. It was kind of interesting to think about the reality of those people, now that I am faced with this horrible wind. Especially when I am riding a modern bike, staying in hotels, having good food and this being “vacation”. While playing the game it felt like I always died of dysentery. No matter how well I played that always seemed to take me down. At least I have good food and water.
We rode till we got to town 3/4 of the way to our destination, Grand Forks, ND. It was a great feeling to know we have another state about to be under our belts. And the wind felt like it was starting to have less of an effect. We stopped for a quick lunch knowing we only have 28ish miles left for the day.
I looked for a bike shop in Grand Forks thinking we were going to be getting into town on the early side. I mapped out a path to get to the bike shop, find a close hotel, and find food delivery. It looked as if burring off Route 2 would save us a few miles, and maybe, just maybe there would be additional cover if there were more trees off the highway. Many farms and homes seem to have trees planted around as wind breaks, maybe if we go past the farms instead of the highway there will be less wind. Then I started thinking, how much gas would they safe planting trees around all the roads? I know vehicles are more and more aerodynamic these days, but wouldn’t less of a wind tunnel be better?
We make it before the bike shop closed, they were super friendly and very helpful. Though they did spot a crack in my rim that I will need to replace, as soon as I find another bike shop on the way, because all of the rims they had were for disk brakes. They helped us well past close and wished us safe travels. North Dakota has been extremely helpful and slightly disappointing in the 5 minutes we’ve been here.
To the hotel. Shower and I ran to the Fedex store to get a print I ordered last night hoping we’d make it here today. The wind made us work for it, and the shop found more problems for me but all in all I’m pretty stoked to be entering North Dakota on the positive. In fact after tonight, South Dakota and Alaska will be the only two states I have yet to visit. Not sure about biking through Alaska, but you never know.
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What up guys just checkin in to say hello. That’s one bad ass trip u guys are on keep it up