Towns like Surrey, ND make bike touring easy and cheap so thanks for the free camping spot. Up to this point on my trip I have not stayed in one hotel and I only paid to camp once way back in Washington. I would guess that I end up camping around 70% of the time and If I paid every night to camp the trip would become so much more expensive. Riding into a town at the end of any day of riding is a wonderful feeling but I can't just give up and drop my bike and gear. At that point I have to figure out where to make camp. It is not too difficult in the Midwest since so many towns allow camping in their city parks but as I move East I am confident that free camping will become hard to find and I will have to do much more "stealth camping."
Figuring out logistics such as camping and eating is much more rewarding and challenging in my opinion than any of the riding I am doing. 70 miles a day is no walk in the park but it doesn't stress me out all that much. However, figuring out food and camping can be tough at the end of a day.
This is a pretty typical dinning facility for me. I get my camping stove out, make some pasta and listen to music while just relaxing. This trip has forced me to become a much more creative and innovative cook. I am trying different things that I would have never tried back home in a stocked kitchen. Sometimes my "experiments" are rewarded when the food tastes good, but I've taken down a few concoctions where the food tasted horrible but I was to lazy to throw crap out since I was too tired to cook up a refined batch.
Riding by the Geographical center of North America co-located with Rugby, ND.
Saw this retired Thomas Built bus sitting in a Walmart parking lot coming through Devils Lake, ND. Owning a bus someday is on my list of future projects and I will definitely have my own Cool Bus sometime in the future.
The days and nights prior to riding into Grand Forks were some of the soggiest I have experienced thus far on my trip. It rained on me three nights in a row while camping in the tent and I rode through a lot of rubbish during the days too. I don't mind riding and camping in the rain too much but it was getting pretty old by the time I rode into Lakota, ND on August 30th. Because of poor planning on my part I rode the last 5 miles into Lakota in the dark. I have lights on the bike but riding down HWY 2 at night was a bad spot to put myself in, fortunately the shoulders were wide on the stretch of road leading into Lakota so I wasn't taken out by some 14 year old driver on the roadside that night. (Yes, North Dakota gives Driver Licenses to 14 year olds, something I've though about many times before while riding bike and driving bus back in Grand Forks)
I set my tent up in the darkness beside a hangar at Lakota's municipal airport and didn't even bother to change out of my gear or make myself dinner. I was exhausted and cold from the rain and winds I had rode through that day and the mosquitoes were the worst I had seen on the trip so it was easier to just get in the tent. I awoke the next morning to overcast skies and what looked to be another day of riding in the rain, however I was excited to hit the road since I would be in Grand Forks, ND by the end of the day. I was also excited to see what had happened to the winds while in the tent that night. As soon as I stepped out of the tent I looked at the windsock on field and it stood completely horizontal and was indicating a direct tailwind to help push me into Grand Forks.
These two photos are probably my favorites from the trip so far. I though I would be riding through overcast into Grand Forks that day but just before riding away from the airport the cloud deck over me cut away and I got clear skies for my entire ride. I checked the winds when I got to Grand Forks and they were sustained above 20 knots and gusting into the 30s. It made for the best riding I've experienced on the trip thus far and I made amazing time into Grand Forks. Since my odometer/speedometer had crapped out on me earlier I couldn't watch my speeds real time, but I later sat down and calculated my average speed during a 14 mile stretch of my ride that day and found I had averaged 27 mph during that 14 mile stretch. Consider how loaded down I am with gear and that is an amazing figure. For comparison, I will typically average around 12-13 mph on a calm day on flat ground.
I've grown very intimate with all forms of road kill during this ride. Deer, skunks, coons, turtles, foxes, birds and others are common companions on the berm. During my ride through the lakes region of North Dakota I became familiar with even more roadside friends. North Dakota's lake region spans a good portion of HWY 2 from Devils Lake to Grand Forks and it is common to see lakes and wetlands immediately adjacent to the highway. This means that many frogs, toads, salamanders, and other water critters make their way up onto the roads. During the day it seemed that not many would be up on the roads and the ones who did make it up were easy to see and avoid as I approached them, BUT things were different once it got dark out. During my "night ride" into Lakota the previous night the roads were just thick with frogs and toads. I did my best to see and avoid but I cringed as I felt pieces of their little bodies hit my legs. Every now and then I would see one jump right into my spokes then hear the sound of death an instant later. It was sort of funny but I couldn't get the image of Kermit the Frog out of my head the entire time so I suppose I must have felt a little guilt with his image in my head.
The next morning I was constantly reminded of the carnage I must have caused the night before as I saw the bodies of frogs, toads, and salamanders who had met a similar demise during the nights prior. I snapped a photo the next morning in memoriam of those I had killed. Sorry guys, I promise not to ride bike at night anymore.
Back Home in Grand Forks, ND
Grand Forks has been my adoptive home since the fall of 2005 when I started my first semester at the University of North Dakota. My time in Great Forks, and North Dakota in a larger scope, has been such a great experience and I am grateful for choosing to head Northbound after high school. Getting back into town was overwhelming since I had spent so much time solo during the past month and I was suddenly swamped with people to hang out and chat with.
My first stop in town was out at the airport since it is adjacent to the highway just prior to town. It was fun walking into Flight Operations decked out with my cycling gear and seeing some familiar faces. I just hope I didn't offend anyone with any possible odors I may have been giving off at that point. My last shower had been in Stanley, ND where I had stayed with Weather Modification meteorologists for a night. After riding away from Stanley I went a good 4 days without a shower. No one made any comments to me so it must not have been that bad. Had I not ridden through so much rain during the days prior I am sure I would have been in much worse shape.
Spent a lot of time at the bars enjoying beverages with friends. I have been extremely frugal with money since leaving Seattle but between Williston and Grand Forks I really spoiled myself. I am afraid to add up my expenses from my time in North Dakota but I will make up for it once I'm back on the road. So there is that saying; When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Well, in Grand Forks they drink a lot so I did just that. My liver might not forgive me for some time.
I may have thrown some money around while in Grand Forks but ultimately I came out ahead during my time in town because I was able to log some hours behind the wheel for UND. I've operated buses on campus since 2006 and it will be one of the things I miss most about college as I move on. There are so many reasons why it was such a kick ass job, however I consider the friendships I made with fellow co-workers to be the best thing I pulled away from it in the end. In fact, I think some of my best friendships from college have been with fellow drivers. There is something about the job that is fraternal, which I can see in aviation too. I am confident that I will remain close friends with many of them as we all drift separate ways.
Here are a couple of pictures from my last day driving bus. I promised myself that I would never touch another UND bus again so I guess I am officially retired. There is a tradition in the aviation community for pilots on their final flight before retirement called "the shower of affection." It is meant to be a final salute to commemorate their years of service to a company. I'm not sure if it still occurs much because I have never seen it in person but the tradition involves the airport fire engines greeting the arriving aircraft as it taxis back to the gate with the retiring pilot. The fire engines use their water cannons to form an arc over the aircraft to create the so called "shower of affection." Well I got my own shower of affection as I drove the bus back to the bus garage thanks to the pressure washer and hose in the wash bay. Thank you so much to the guys who hosed me down. It was extremely flattering and a memorable way to end my last day behind the wheel. I'll miss driving with you guys so much.
My time in Grand Forks gave me a chance to give the bike a good look over and make sure it was ready for the next 2000 miles. One change I made to the bike is the addition of panniers to the front rack of the bike. A pannier is a crazy French word that took me years to say correctly, but it is essentially just a saddle bag to hold stuff. The additional panniers will allow me to carry extra warm clothes since the temperatures are starting to suggest fall is here. The additional weight up front will also make the bike more stable so that will be a welcomed change.
While I suppose I will now be caring a little extra weight with the additional storage space, my layover here in G-town did allowed me to get rid of some souvenirs which had been weighing my bike down. About 600 miles ago while still deep into Montana I found a crescent wrench along the road which was just too nice to leave on the road side. Then in Eastern Montana I found another wrench which I couldn't pass up. The best was yet to come however because I came upon a monster while pedaling myself away from Williston. I found an 18 inch Crescent wrench sitting just into the grass on the side of the road. I worked at a hardware store in high school and I knew right away the value of such a wrench. The 18 inch wrench alone weighted close to 4 pounds but I had to bring it with me. So in all I had hauled around 6 pounds of solid metal tools with me across the great state of North Dakota. It was well worth the hassle though because together they are easily worth 60 or 70 dollars.
I love road treasure and I always keep a keen eye out for cool stuff while riding.
While I am so excited to ride away from Grand Forks tomorrow, I must admit it will be very tough to leave Grand Forks behind. This layover has been a great reminder of just how good I've had it the past couple of years. It scares me to think that I might not run into some of the people I have had the pleasure of knowing up here again. With friends from high school there will always be our hometown to link us together and rendezvous at during holidays and vacations. This link does not exist with my friends from UND, because once done with school everybody splits to far away places nowhere close to Grand Forks. This really freaks me out but I will do my very best to preserve the friends I've made in Grand Forks.
That's all I got for now. I think my next update will be from Waconia, MN or Minneapolis, MN and that will be in another 5 or 6 days. Maybe more if I get distracted by all the beautiful people in Minnesota. Bye for now.
