Where shall I start???
Well, I guess I'll try good old chronological order.
Our flight to Minneapolis made up all sorts of time, but we happily clutched our boarding passes for Bismarck & boarded the plane. For some reason, the seat next to me was empty & Bruce was at the other end of the row in a seat that some other guy had also been assigned. They both had boarding passes for it. That one was easily fixed since no one ever did claim my empty neighboring seat. If only everything could be so easy. As we started our landing I began running through all the steps we'd be taking to get ready for today's ride. That's when it occurred to me that I had left some stuff in the rental car in Minot, including my bike helmet.
We gave the Bismarck Hertz people a lot of innocent entertainment trying to explain just what we'd done, and what we hoped they could do about it. Once again we experienced the thoughtfulness of the small city citizens. In short order we were on the way to the bike shop, and our car rental buddies were left with my name, my Minneapolis cousin's address, my email & phone and permission to charge us for forwarding whatever they find in the car. I trust they will draw the line at any trash we may have overlooked.
Repacking, reorganizing, finding another map of the state and another helmet, one more city (with vegetables) dinner and early to bed.
This morning we headed out in a light fog. No problem with visibility, and the temperature was nice and cool. There was even a bike path that took us well beyond any city traffic. The fog lifted, but the clouds lingered all day. The heat was never a big deal. We headed into Moffit, where we could see a national wildlife refuge on the map. We didn't see any entrance, but the post office was open & the lady at the desk gave me directions. If, by the way, you ever want to see a post office without a line, Moffit's your place. She had her feet up & was reading the paper & seemed mildly disappointed I didn't hang around longer to talk about our trip.
The wildlife refuge required riding three miles on an unpaved road. I now take that pretty much in stride, which is a huge change for me. When we arrived, the ranger was able to answer all our bird and plant questions. There were great birds & wildflowers. We saw a killdeer that chose to put on its show for us. Although I had heard about it, I don't think I had seen it before. The bird tries to distract you if you get too close to its nest by pretending to have a broken wing. This one went all out & pretended noth wings were broken. I felt less guilty when the ranger told us the chicks were already as big as their mother & didn't really need the protection.
Anyway, we headed out again & stopped for a snack in Hazleton, where everyone was talking about the huge windstorm that had hit our destination, Napoleon. 94mph winds, they said, and we would be amazed at the damage to the grain elevators. Hmm.
We rode on.
I got a little bit ahead when Bruce stopped to identify a plant. Soon I heard him call me on the little walkie-talkie. He had a call from the B&B we had a reservation at tonight. The lady apologized - she had to cancel as a funeral group was taking over the whole place.
At this point we had ridden about 65 miles with several left. It was about 4:30.
She said she had lined up something else for us, but I kept imagining arriving in Napoleon only to be told of a lovely place in the next town. Towns are NOT close togethet here. So when Bruce caught up we called and were reassured that the alternative was a house in the town. So we pedaled and pedaled and here we are.
Did I mention?
We had headwinds all day; about 4 miles before we arrived we were riding on a bit of road that runs between two large bodies of water - I mean large - that doesn't even make the map; one of the roads we were on was, well, do they call it chip & seal? stuff that could put those awful mattresses in motels that vibrate if you deposit a quarter to shame - I once talked my parents into letting me waste a quarter on one - we got about the same effect for hours today for free.
Oh, just one more thing: we are on tornado watch until 1 AM.
Miles today: 78
Miles so far: 1820
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