Day 84 - Monday, July 6th, 2009
- Start: Stanley, ND
- ATW: Palmero, Tegas, Berthold, Burlington
- End: Minot, ND
- Day Miles: 55
At 7:30am Heather woke up for a bathroom break. She met up with Dave as he was washing up breakfast dishes. While they packed to leave Heather went back to sleep. Another hour of rest and we were up and getting packed. We still had a slight headwind but decided we would ride anyway. Upon the recommendation of Dave we took Old Hwy 2 for a short scenic route. Just after getting on the road a large vicious dog came barreling out of a yard and straight for us. We were pedaling us a slight hill and out came our new “magic wand.” Friends had given us an orange flag for the back of our bike. It was on an extended rod with a connector in the middle. Somewhere back in South Dakota on a severely windy day the connector broke and the flag clattered to the pavement unbeknownst to us. All the we now had was the leftover section of flag pole which was a handy dog attack thwarter. Heather waved it like mad while we pedaled hard to get away from the dog and the two more who were coming down the lane to join in the fun.
12 miles later Heather noticed that the bungee cord holding some drying clothes had let loose, maybe in the dog attack? With no way to know we rode on, who needs spare pairs of underwear anyway?
Through out the day we passed between glowing fields of yellow. Large swaths cut between the darker browns and greens of wheat, hay and pastures of grass. We connected back up with Hwy 2 and waved to a lone cycler on the opposite side of the highway. Four lanes of traffic separated us all so we settled for a wave and shouts of “hello.” In the next town of Berthold Heather mailed off a full journal and we rested in another gas station oasis eating ice cream.
When we reached Burlington we didn’t feel like stopping our ride but the next city was Minot and we don’t usually go near cities. Wasn’t someone from warmshowers.org located there? Heather called up her dad again, who was traveling and with the use of his blackberry he tracked down the info needed. Heather called and left a message as we rode on to Minot. Maybe we’d get a call back. If not, we’d figure it out there.
While eating a late lunch at a truck stop on the west side of town we connected with our host who welcomed us to her home. Half an hour later we were greeted and shown around. Then our host went to catch up on sleep as we showered, walked out to dinner at EbeneZer’s Pub and then wrote in our journals until 10pm. Then sleep.
