We finally made it to North Dakota, so Chuck says we’re halfway there! I had an amazing day of riding today, much of which had to do with me wanting to prove Chuck wrong. It was another scorcher, near 90, and he didn’t think I’d be able to do much riding, or get very far. Hah!
It had been seriously windy last night and this morning. One of our tent poles broke a few days ago, and it was held together with duct tape, but it survived the wind admirably. It was really nice sitting there by our tent in the wind last night, drinking a beer and eating our peanuts and pistachios. We weren’t able to find a pizza in town last night, after driving around for quite a while, but we did pick up a cozy blanket and some cute little fuzzy, warm socks for me. No more cold nights!
We ended up at a place called the Lodge. It was very popular with the locals. They had our favorite beers, but again, not much food on the menu that we could have. I spotted broiled shrimp and baked potato, so we ordered that. It was heavenly after all the fish sandwiches, french fries and fried broccoli bites we’ve had. Uggh. Our tent was still standing when we got back to the campground, thankfully!
We started today with breakfast at the campground. They have a little restaurant/bar in the main building. Chuck ordered french toast and the lady asked “What kind of meat with that?” Chuck said, “No meat.” She looked up, surprised, “No meat???” I ordered an egg and cheese croissant and requested no meat as well. It must have been the shock of her life! We settled down in our seats at the bar and watched the horrible, awful morning news of the day on TV (but a bike ride like mine just isn’t newsworthy). We struck up a conversation with a nice gentleman next to us. We talked about my ride and he asked, “So you’re from VERmont?” It was funny the way he said it, with the accent on the “Ver”. He went up to the register and paid for both our breakfasts and wished us luck on the trip.
After packing up our gear (we’re getting good at it now), Chuck drove me to the start of the trail, since it was pretty far from our campground. I rode off and then realized we hadn’t arranged a place to meet for lunch. I texted Chuck and he wrote back “Garfield”. Keep in mind, I was on a paved bike trail. The wind was blowing hard from the south, and I was headed northwest, so it helped me along a little bit. PLUS I had music in my ears, which always gets me going. I made it to Garfield in about an hour and I wrote to Chuck “Isn’t it a little early for lunch??” We arranged to meet in Ashby at 11:00. I got there at 10:50, and went to a friendly-looking place called “Murphy’s Irish Pub”. I ordered a few glasses of cranberry juice and Chuck showed up at 11:45. I know he was busy with errands, but that’s the cooler part of the day and I sat waiting for him for almost an hour. I made some friends though. One man named Rick was especially nice, and he was really funny. His son went to NECI, so we chatted about that and I told him about my “cheffing” ambitions. When Chuck showed up, everyone picked on him a bit, but he took it pretty well. Rick asked, “So are you looking for loot?” I said, “Huh?” He said, “Loot! For your ride! Money! You know?” I said, “Definitely” He took out his money and gave me a generous donation, which we really appreciated with the way things have been going lately.
I got back on the trail and Chuck hung out with our new friends. Apparently, they were very impressed with me and had some sweet things to say. I got back up to speed pretty quickly. This is the best part of the trip. Flying down a beautiful bike path with incredible scenery on both sides, my favorite music in my ears (I was singing out loud when I knew no one was around), and I snuck up on a couple of deer who were walking down the trail and scared the bejeebers out of them. This part of Minnesota was very pretty and I took quite a few pictures. Did you know Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes? I made it to Fergus Falls and we stopped for an internet break.
It was blistering hot at that point, almost 90, maybe more…I rode as far as I could after that, but we had decided to get a motel room in Fargo, so Chuck helped me get there. Holiday Inns have been good to me on this trip…but not in Fargo. The nice girl at the desk did all she could to get me a discount, but her manager refused. He was not impressed at all with my bike ride. We didn’t feel like driving all over the place, going to different hotels, so we agreed to the price. We were both dying for a swim in the pool and a big, comfy bed. Thank you, Steve!!!!
The only pizza we could find was Pizza Hut, but it wasn’t bad, so we ate it and watched Independence Day (it’s always on TV on this date, of course) and went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment