After two consecutive days of waking up at 5 AM for rides over 90 miles, we had an extra hour to sleep today. Although we did get more sleep, it did not seem to make any difference because we had completed 116 miles the previous day and we were absolutely exhausted. Lucky for us, we only had to ride about 60 miles into Rugby, ND today. The bad news is that we would be on Route 2 again, battling the energy and speed draining headwinds. I rode most of the morning with Kat and Rachel; we took it pretty easy and went at a comfortable pace. We found it a little odd that only a couple people passed us, but it seemed as if everyone had the same mentality and just rode easy.
Finding a good lunch spot anywhere in North Dakota is always tough because towns are so sparse and spread out. Kelsey eventually found a spot in what was pretty much the only town from Devils Lake to Rugby. The town was called Leeds and consisted of just a few buildings. We ended up eating in the parking lot of a frozen food company. At lunch we discussed our plan of attack for the North Dakota State Fair in Minot and talked about which concerts were going to be there during our day off and what else we wanted to do. We also tried to get free or discounted tickets to the Fair, but were unsuccessful and it looked like we be paying the 7 bucks for admission.
Following lunch the sun decided to hide on us, while the wind blew harder in our faces. The remainder of the ride was pretty boring and long as we rolled over more flats and passed field after field, until we finally hit the town of Rugby, which claims to be the Geographical Center of North America. We all thought that was pretty cool and posed for some pictures in front of a rock tower marking the center. In the same parking lot was a diner and seeing as dinner would not be provided tonight, about a dozen of us ate there. The food and service was excellent. The most popular order was a double bacon cheeseburger with curly fries and a glass of chocolate milk. We also worked a 20% discount on our meals, which is always awesome.
Once we completed our meals and the one mile left to Rugby High School, a large group of us headed downtown to explore and gather items for the evening activities. People had been looking forward to this evening for weeks; it was our Prom! The store of choice was the local thrift store, where we picked out ridiculous costumes. After we cooked a Mexican dinner and had our weekly family meeting it was time to party at Prom. The lights in the gym were dimmed and we bordered the dance area with our red LED blinking lights. It was quite the sight. The theme for the evening was couples and we ended up with a Hugh Hefner and his bunny, a salsa dancing couple, and a pair as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich among other funny costumes. As the festivities got underway, the music was not loud enough coming from the laptop, so we moved the party outside to the parking lot and used the van stereo. Outside, we got some odd looks from locals who happened to be driving by. We were slightly apprehensive about this so we moved back inside and found a way to connect our music to the loudspeakers in the gym. And as the music got louder the night got more fun, as people starting dancing on top of bleachers and balconies and raining fake money down upon the people dancing below. The ridiculous night continued to curfew and then had to unfortunately end, because we would have to wake up in the morning and bike ride another day before our second day off!
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