We made a big turn to the east today heading towards Fargo via Minot, ND. A little bit of a GPS blip on the first part of the trip but we rode about a 350 total miles. A very nice day again with plenty of sunshine and some decent wind from the north which I was told by a gentleman from Fargo was a calm wind by North Dakota standards!!
A morning coffee break with a hard to find Hostess Fruit Pie. I often yearned for these on our bike trip last year but they had become scarce compared to when I was a teenager. However, my lovely wife Angela scored some for me locally before I left home. Today was my last pie from the stockpile. The rest of the trip could be dicey. 😱
Another gas station break with Rick resting on he curb with a Diet Coke, his drink of choice.
My interest in getting to the Bakken oil field was to see first hand what the boom town looked like. Clearly the lower price of oil has taken a toll on the boom as evidenced by all the empty bunk houses and oil tanker trailers we saw. However there still was a lot of activity and quite a few flares burning off natural gas due to the lack of pipelines to transport the associated gas production. We were told by Matt and Jeff last night at dinner that the lull in activity and leadership from
North Dakota has lead to a lot of gas pipelines being put in to reduce the flaring. Good for them.
I came to North Dakota because I'd never been here. And I went to Minot today because countless times over my life I've often heard on the evening weather forecast that "the coldest spot in the country today was Minot, ND with a low of -15 degrees...". It actually was a nice, good sized town and now in the future I'll have a mental picture of Minot on a very cold day the next time the weather person denotes it!
Rick was leading the way this afternoon and I let him get a little bit ahead of me. When I caught up to him I found him like this. I guess he just had to stretch his legs along the side of the road.
I've been trying to eat healthier and Rick has been a good influence on me. However, this afternoon my need for fried food overcame me and I brought Rick to the dark side of nutrition with me.
Rick looks like Mad Max screaming down the highway.
A bucolic view as Rick crests a hill in the northeast Dakota countryside.
Rick found us a great little city park to camp in just off the Goose River in Mayville, ND, about 50 miles north of Fargo. We even had a roof over our bikes!
This baby robin near our shelter is able to fly but apparently not enough to get back up in a tree. We didn't notice it until it's parents started chirping and flying at Rick as he was walking by.
The local Sheriff cruising the park on the look out for "bad hombres". Luckily he didn't see us.
The city park has this excellent garden called Rainbow Park.
Jen, second from the right, told me she and other volunteers maintain it with support from donations.
And here I am enjoying the garden as I write this blog, the sounds of the volunteers chatting away while they worked. I'll be sure and leave a nice donation. It was a wonderful day followed by a wonderful evening.
Tomorrow we ride to Duluth, MN, another town I've never been to but always wondered about.
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