MONTANA!

Leaving TRNP, we knew faced some major dirt roads and hills, but we did not know we would face buffalo. They were just roaming in the middle of the roads and there were many more of them than us. We quite outnumbered and out-sized. It was quite and amazing sight. We kept inching closer to them pushing them along. When they realized we meant no harm to them, they all took off together and ran up a hillside. It took a while to get out of the park, but it was completely worth being as close as we were to the buffalo. We also had to get behind a pace car to lead us through the construction on the road out. Once out of the park we ascended a huge hill and backtracked about 20 miles to the next town which we passed yesterday. The park made all the backtracking completely worth it. In the town of Watford, about a dozen of us stopped at truck diner and got another breakfast, because the first one was not satisfactory. After breakfast we were about 10 miles away from the first lunch, but when we got there, the only thing remaining was the cooler with a few things in it; the van and trailer weren't even there. I guess we had run out of food. Good thing we already ate. We continued on and eventually hit Montana, posed for some pictures, and then turned around and got a few with the North Dakota sign. 6 more miles followed and we hit second lunch where they had restocked with food! A PB&J with a banana, and we were back on the road with about 25 miles in our 97 mile day. Going into Culbertson was absolutely beautiful as we crossed the Missouri River and hit really cool mountains. One more climb and we were in town. We were finally staying at a church again! And they had food waiting for us when we arrived. It was awesome. We showered at the local high school, came back ate dinner, then had an affordable housing meeting and were exhausted from our near century, so it was time for bed.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

I'm not even going to talk about today's ride expect for the fact that we face enormous winds until the final 14 miles where it was at our backs and we were going up hills at 20+ mph. We arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park around 2 pm, but had to wait to get into the park because we need to cram everyone into the van in order to save money on entrance fees. There was also construction on the road to our campsite, so the wait was even longer. On the 5 mile van ride we saw some bison, which was pretty cool, but they were at a distance. When we got to our site, we set up the tents and then most people went exploring. Heather and I went on a hike through the valley and then headed up hills to get some amazing views. We roamed around the park through trails for 3 hours until we headed back to the campsite just in time for dinner, where I grilled up some brats and hot dogs. They were pretty good after what was already a great day. To make the day even better, after dinner we headed up another rock formation near our camp and sat on top to watch the sunset in front of us, and the moon rise behind us. It was breathtaking. We stayed up there awhile and just took everything in. Once we finally came down, we got ready for bed, crawled into our tents and went to sleep.

PICTURES TO FOLLOW LATER. SORRY.

More North Dakota

Today we were leaving Minot and headed to New Town, ND. I was supposed to sweep, but because a large group of riders wanted to stay in town and get coffee before they left, one of them volunteered to do this. By the time this was decided, most everyone else had left, so I had to book it for the first 10 miles to catch people. It was kinda fun, but it was also exhausting. After I caught people we took it slow, which was nice. The whole ride until lunch was a piece of cake. There were basically no winds and the scenery was awesome. By the time lunch came the winds had picked up and it looked like a storm was coming. Behind our lunch stop we found a really cool field of sunflowers, so we took some photos. We also had a Kodak moment at the hay bales. After lunch I rode through the really strong headwinds with Heather, and we stopped a lot for more photos. It just seemed like the day for pictures, as we could see for miles down the long straight roads, that were surrounded by fields. At the end of the ride we arrived in New Town, put our bikes at the High School, and went our for some ice cream and burgers. Afterwards I put a call into the family reunion and talked to a bunch of people and wished I could have been there. Dinner wasn't provided, so we made mexican again. The rest of the night consisted of everyone trying to catch up on their journals in the computer lab at the school.

Day Off in Minot

After one of the best nights we had, we woke up at 9 am to a pancake breakfast. It was delicious and I was able to eat as many as I wanted, because I wouldn't have to bike afterwards. I ended up having some of my pancakes with ice cream on them. Following breakfast, everyone just relaxed and planned their days. Many people planned on going to the ND state fair. Before the fair, we took a trip down to the bike shop to allow people to get new things for their bikes. Next, shuttles were run down the fair. The majority of people went, but I decided to hang back and ended up running errands with Nate. We had a lot of fun doing it though. We ended up getting a lot of things donated, including our lunch which was 2 whole pizzas from Pizza Hut. Once we got back to the church people were coming back from the fair and I ended up cleaning my bike with a bunch of other people. I really needed to clean it, because it had been making noises. That was pretty much the whole day. Not too much of anything. Really just a day to recover and rest up for a 11 day stretch of riding.

Best Worst Day Ever

The morning ride flew by until just before lunch, when the weather decided to start raining. This rain wasn't too heavy, but it was absolutely freezing. People were huddling in the van and trailer while they ate their lunches. It was quite the sight. After lunch it continued to rain for a few miles and then clear up. Just as we thought we would get to the church without any more bad weather, the skies turned absolutely black and it began to downpour. This rain was coming down harder than I had ever seen it. Kat and I tried to keep riding though it, but had to stop because it hurt too much as it was hitting our faces and the wind was blowing us sideways. While we were stopped, we happened to look up and see a billboard that simply read, "Have a Great Day!" We thought this was absolutely hilarious and quite ironic. The rain eventually passed, but the winds never died down. It was okay though, because the winds completely dried our clothes. The down side was that the wind was so bad it was hard to keep the bike straight. We eventually entered into Minot, rode passed the state fair and with one more steep hill we arrived at the church and couldn't have been any happier. Everyone just relaxed until dinner. After dinner almost all of us decided to go bowling. It was really awesome. There was also a bar there so the 21+ were happy. I don't think anyone could of had a better night at the alley. My game wasn't too good though. The first game I only managed a 75, but the second game I picked it up and bowled a 137. Back at the church after bowling we all gathered on the couches around a big screen and watched American Flyers, a movie about biking. At the end of the movie it was 2 am and half of the people watching were already asleep. We were able to do this because tomorrow is our second day off!

The Center of North America

This blog comes from my journal entry on the Bike & Build website...

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!

Welcome to North Dakota

Today was our longest ride of the trip totaling 119 miles. How I got to the end was quite the adventure. In the morning Nate and I were pretty much just sprinting and passing multiple groups of people and pacelines. We were about 27 miles in and 2 miles from the North Dakota border when I got a flat tire. That slowed us down as I had to change it and pretty much everyone we passed, passed us. After replacing my tube, we crossed the border where the state sign was quite uneventful. Normally, we will all gather and take photos, but this sign was on top of a bridge with no shoulder or sidewalk. Once across the bridge I saw UND and wanted to stop and look at the $100 million dollar Ralph Engelstad Hockey Arena. First lunch was soon afterwards, and the ride to second lunch was pretty uneventful, expect for a house being moved down Route 2. I rode most of the way from first lunch to second lunch alone, but after second lunch I rode with Julia and Kelsey. I was really happy I did, because I they ended up pulling me the entire way to the church. They also sang every song they could think of; they really entertained me, while helping me finish. When we got to the church I immediately went from my bike to laying down in the grass. I laid there for a while until spaghetti dinner was ready. A few of us went to the Bible Camp down the road to shower after dinner and we probably had the most fun you could have. There was a playgroud there with the animals on the springs. We all got on the completely undersided animals and rocked back and forth. We simply looked hilarious on them. Once we got back from showers we had an affordable housing meeting, which many people fell alseep during because of the long day.