- 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 early and went downstairs for a quick breakfast. The bike shop in Gand Forks helped Jerry but unfortunately they pointed out more problems I had that they did not have the parts to fix. The only (ONLY) option in our path was Minot. Three days ahead to this morning, Day 27. I emailed them seeing their hours were till 4 on Saturday and closed on Sunday. We knew we had 65 miles to go before we get to Minot, home of Val’s Cyclery.
Check out and we hit the road.
Less than a mile and we see a large sculpture. We saw signs for the geographic center of North America yesterday, so we assumed this was it. I was very excited. I felt the shift to the west crossing the Mississippi, but this was the actual spot. And more over, we are not going as far west as Alaska so we are clearly more then halfway. Then we went another 100 yards and we saw a small stone structure with a plaque stating that it was the center of North America and not that large sculpture we thought it was. It was much less impressive but we’re still in the west… officially.
We were men on a mission and the road obliged. We hit it. It felt real good. The biggest thing I questioned about the Manhattan to Miami trip was: How would I feel if we did one more day? Or 10 more miles? Today was several days and several miles longer then that tour, and this morning we needed / wanted to hit it and we did. I mean, I write this in a hotel room with the end of the Tour de France ending on TV. We did not hit it like pro athletes or anything, but after 26 Days we were strong enough to go quick on fully loaded touring bikes.
The road had a fine shoulder with gentle hills and curves. As the road continued the shoulder tightened up to be a few inches outside the rumble strip. The really nice part was both sides of the road was covered with sun flowers. It might have been the road providing. Single file, little room for error, but lovely. We rode amongst the sunflowers for several miles.
We stopped for a pause here, and there but really just watched the mile markers go lower and lower.
I had seen a road that branched off Route 2 that looked to head right to the bike shop instead of riding south with the curve of Route 2, to turn into the city and turn back north to get to the shop. I was nervous to miss the turn so as we got within a few miles we stopped a few times to check the map. It was easy to see in the road before was 125th and our turn was West 4th. A few New York streets in mid North Dakota. When we finally passed 125th I knew we were very close. However, when we came to the next road, it was more of a dirt path… We weren’t even sure if it was a road or a driveway. I checked the map, and in fact, this is our turn. We question how much this will actually save us, if the entire way is this dirt and stone path.
We decided to carry on, and see if the road went to pavement up ahead or we would need to turn back towards Route 2. We rode the dirt for a minute and sure enough it soon turned to a real paved road. We stepped back up to a quicker pace that we had earlier.
We saw a rode bike turn on to our road a few blocks ahead of us. He quickly took off. We talked about living here and having these long straight roads with little traffic or obstructions to ride on the regular. However, there is winter. I don’t actually know, but it just looks like the kind of place that would have bad winters.
As we proceeded the road opened up to farm land on the right with train tracks and train yards on the left. And suddenly, with the openness of the road, or just because, but either way the wind was upon us again. Nothing like the last few days but we suddenly questioned if we made the wrong choice.
Along the road in the train yards there were more piles of sand, dirt or whatever blowing in the wind, again. More or some mystery airborne particle we get to breath.
Luckily the road carried us quickly up a hill or two, past more train stuff and large structures that looked like giant factories making god knows what, with food labels on the exterior. Is this where our food comes from? There was a large building with some kind of tube hanging over a driveway. In this driveway, was a truck with an open top slowly pulling forward as hundreds of pounds of powder dumped. I questioned if this was something that would soon be turned to food.
We continued to the bike shop. As soon as we walked in, Rory asked me what time it was. Not only did he know who I was, but he’s busting my balls that I’m late. The shop was incredibly busy for a mid North Dakota town on a Saturday afternoon. I did feel bad that they clearly had lots of work lined up and were working first come first serve, and now I’m here to ask for work done right now before we skip town. But thankfully the guys understood our need to keep it moving while not having my wheel break under me. They made quick work of it.
While they replaced the wheel we chatted about the state fair and the bands playing and what the town is like during the fair. The hotels in town tripled and beyond their prices. I can understand supply and demand but this was a lot. I looked for an hour before I could find a hotel that worked for us. Rory talked about how some people judged him for not making as much money as he could, being the only bike shop in town. But he pointed out how these hotels squeeze every cent out the public today when they could then they wonder why the public has no love for them.
After they finished with my bike we gathered our stuff and said our good byes and headed for the hotel. They all warned us not to take Broadway, because of all the traffic. We of course took the direct route, Broadway. A few blocks before the hotel we stopped at a supermarket.
While Jerry went inside I waked by the bikes. Several people came to speak with me. It was very nice, how supportive and inquisitive everyone was. But by far the two highlights were: An older man, with his grandson, who after our brief chat, reached out for a firm and deliberate hand shake. While we shook hands he made deep eye contact to insure I knew he was serious when he wished us well. It was a surprisingly intense and lovely sentiment, for no real reason. Shortly after, a pick up truck pulled up and asked, “Where did you start, where are you heading?” We chatted for a few and he was almost as intensely nice.
Jerry came out and we headed toward our hotel. I knew our turn was coming up but I didn’t see it till we just passed it. We only passed it by 20 or 30 feet so we just stopped on the side and started to turn around. As we were making our way back to our turn we heard a honking, and just to our left was that guy on in the pickup truck. We back tracked to our turn and made our way to be next to the pick up who just pulled over. He got out of his car to give us directions to Route 52 because I had told him that was next… Leaving out our sleeping here and hitting Route 52 in the morning. But still, how nice?
We got to hotel nice and early, which was appreciated. Jerry had bought some nice wine, and we ordered a pizza. Not as many miles as we cold have done, especially knowing how fast our morning was. But we now have two fully operational bikes, a hotel room in a sold our town, pizza and some wine… Not a bad way to end a day.
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