Again, we apologize for not posting in a long time, it has been hard to get internet...
June 20th: Medora to Hebron
We started off this mourning early, we went into the cool tourist town of Medora to get new tires at the bike shop, Drew and Neal really needed them. The lady who owned the shop was super nice, especially when we cleaned her out of tires, and when we told her that we thought she had the only legitimate, non-touristy shop in town, she replied "I know, right?". The shop was called Dakota Cyclery and it was a cool little place. Next, we went to the coffee shop to get breakfast, the owner inside was also very nice and gave us our breakfast on the house. We started off by going on the interstate for a couple miles then turning onto an awesome frontage road where we encountered only one or two cars. When we went through Dickinson, however, we were not-so-pleasantly surprised. The town was overcrowded and filled with semi-trucks and traffic, no doubt due to the oil boom in the northern part of the state, and, boy are we glad we didn't go up there! We B-lined through the "town" and quickly got back onto the frontage road. We stopped to have pizza in a tiny town called Taylor. We then set off for the last 20 miles into Hebron. Hebron was anawesome little town with the train tracks bisecting it. We stayed in the city park next to the pool (which gave us a deal, $1 each for swimming), it was a good day.
June 21st: Hebron-Bismark
We rolled out of camp fairly early and continued on the nice frontage road that would lead us all the way to Bismark. It was sunny and hot all day and we were cruising pretty fast. We stopped to eat in New Salem, home of the worlds largest cow statue named New Salem Sue. She is 38 feet tall and 50 feet long and was constructed in 1974. The last 20-25 miles went pretty quick, but we had rolling hills all the way up until a final decent into Bismark. We stopped by a Scheels in town to get Neal some Jetboil fuel then headed off to our host family. We stayed with Lorelei Anderson and her family, they gave us a tour of Bismark as well as taking us out for some scrumptious frozen yogurt! I would really like to thank them for helping us out so much, in fact, they are still helping us find places to stay along the way!
June 22nd: Bismark-Napoleon
A front moved in overnight, so, wee had a brutal headwind while climbing out of Bismark. It was also super hot. This was the first headwind we have had this whole trip, and we were struggling all day. I didn't see anything too great on the road because I was too busy tucking in behind Drew and Neal, I am so light that the wind just blows me back! We finally made it into Napoleon around 6pm after echeleoning across the length of the empty road. It would have been quite a sight, coming across four bikers in a diagonal line taking up and entire lane. Lorelei and her parents got us in touch with Tony Braun, who wee would like to thank for helping us get a place to stay. We ate at a local bar where we had some laughs because our waitress was a little....uhhhhh.....frazzled? Eccentric? Impatient maybe? Tony and his family came and talked to us for a while, it was a lot of fun. The next mourning, we met Tony for breakfast where we talked to some other locals. We decided that Napoleon has some of the nicest people in America.
June 23rd: Napoleon-Little Yellowstone
We set of in the mourning ready for a near century, and we still had a headwind... The only place to stop between Napoleon and the Little Yellowstone Campground was a town called Gackle. We stopped at the tasty freeze and got some ice cream and drinks and started to make some sandwiches. I would just like to say, we have been happy with North Dakota, mainly because the people here are so incredibly nice, but there was one woman, in the Tasty Freeze, who was the ONLY unfriendly person we have met in this state. She was getting annoyed with us for no reason! we left Gackle with two gallons of water (there were no services on the road for 40+ miles and we were sucking up water like crazy). After battling the headwind for a while, we finally came across an awesome convenience store where we got some ice cream and more water (there was none at the campground). We road six more miles and were finally at the Little Yellowstone Campground. When we pulled in, there was a birthday party going on for 5 year old Levi, they invited us over to their site for ice cream, cake, lemonade, and dinner. It was a ton of fun and we are extremely grateful.
June 24th: Little Yellowstone-Fargo
We climbed out of the campground into a strong headwind, then it became extremely flat, this was the North Dakota we were warned about. We came into a town called Enderlin and got some groceries for the day and headed out. We were on the same road for 50 miles and it was flat as a pancake and straight as an arrow. We all cheered with joy when we made a left turn onto a new road. We ate lunch at a town called Kindred then continued on our way. The road zig-zaged into Fargo and we came FROM THE SOUTH into town (we are all still very disoriented about the directions we are going because the ACA maps never seem to have north going up, but we love them anyway...). We stayed with the Conrads and got ready for our rest day.
June 25-26: Fargo-Fargo
Yesterday, we biked around town for a little while before deciding to see the new Pixar movie. On our way to the theater, I ran into a parked car and completely bent my fork, so we have to take an unexpected rest day here. I am fine though! I actually landed on my feet, though I don't know how... We still went to the movie, and it was good! Today, we are just laying low and blogging...obviously.
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