Vancouver!

We threw ourselves into the Pacific Ocean yesterday with excitement. We made it across the country on our bikes. There were so many emotions...happy to be there, sad we are leaving each other soon.

Today we package our bikes to be shipped home and one by one we will each depart for the real world again.

Almost there...

As we tend to do, almost our entire group ended up at a breakfast cafe this morning at mile 9: Washington Cafe and Bakery. The people there were so friendly. We got multiple loaves of bread and brownies to take with us for free! The kindness of other people is amazing. We took a group picture with one of the women there and had a great time.

Afterward we got back on our bikes to tackle our final long day. We rolled up and down the road writing inspirational and sentimental chalk messages to each other. Then out of nowhere we were riding along the Puget Sound. It was overwhelming to realize that we have come all the way from New Hampshire.

The afternoon was beautiful cycling along with the water on one side and the lush rainforest on the other. Everytime we came around a corner is was another cool thing to look at. We were cycling under a canopy of trees...awesome.

From there we cycled through Bellingham and on to Lynden where we are for the night. The final miles of the trip we could see huge mountains in the distance. The best was Mt. Baker, which reaches 12,000 ft and was covered in a blanket of snow.

Tomorrow we head into Canada and get ready for our last day and our wheel dip into the Pacific Ocean!

Northern Cascades

Yesterday was our final day of mountain climbing. We woke up to very cold weather, shivering in our sleeping bags. Finally we all managed to get our bags packed and breakfast eaten. I took off with Diane, Kate, Kelsey, and Ellen.

The Washington Pass is about 12 miles of climbing through beautiful rocky peaks still covered with snow in some places. We took our sweet time, stopping often to enjoy the scenery and rest our legs. Upon reaching the top we walked out on an incredible scenic overlook that looks down on the road we climbed up. It was neat to see from above.

From there we had a 3 mile descent before hitting our second climb, Rainy Pass. From the direction we were coming the second climb was only 1.5 miles. I wouldn't even consider it a pass, though I wouldn't want to climb it from the other way. We took off from that pass down a 20 mile descent to lunch. It was unbelievable. We descended along amazing rocky cliffs and a mountain creek. There were waterfalls falling down the cliffs and beautiful mountains in the distance.

After lunch the descent continued and brought us to a teal river...it was gorgeous. As we came out of the mountains the road became much more wooded and hardwoods began to appear. The trees almost covered the road completely from sun...it was a like a tree tunnel. At times it felt like and smelled like Ohio.

A couple miles from our campsite we stoppped at Cascadian Farms for a snack. The company was founded in the valley here. I had a Ginger ale and a whole pint of blueberries. It was so refreshing. Once at camp I headed down to the river for a freezing cold, but great bath.

It feels so good to have the mountains conquered and behind us. Washington challenged everybody and we are all happy to be descending into Vancouver.

Another day, another mountain pass

Yesterday I rode sweet with Stephanie and trekked along with Nate and Erin as well. We ate breakfast at a local cafe in Republic before hitting the mountain pass just outside of town. We climbed for 13 miles slow and steady, then enjoyed a very long descent alongside rocky formations cliffs. I am surprised by how arid the land is here. It has something to do with the mountains holding back the weather systems. We were stuck at lunch for an extra 45 minutes because Nate left his helmet in the van but we were well rewarded after with a long 5 miles descent. We then spent a long time drinking milkshakes at a local cafe before heading into our host. 

Today we climbed our 4th mountain pass. It was 18 uphill and took a very long time...plus our legs are quite tired. The descent was totally worth it though: 8 miles of 6% grade. Since we're camping tonight we all took our time riding today. Right now we are in a very cool town, Winthrop, that looks like a cowboy/western town and has awesome shops.

Tomorrow we have two more passes and then its all downhill from there.

Oh mountains

Significant moments from the last two days:
- coffee club stop leaving Sandpoint, tasty yerba mate
- rainstorm...stopped to wait for lightning
- soaking wet and freezing
- McDonalds lunch stop, craving a burger and fries, warm coffee, dried off with hand dryers
- cool birds flying in formation, loud bird in tree, maybe an osprey
- big mountain pass...big surprise...12ish miles of uphill, so tough and challenging, mentally and physically worn out
- 17.8 mph average this morning with Kevin through rolling hills
- helped dig out a canoe
- got in van for a hurting back, missed the 20 mile climb pass
- looking over grant applications tonight as a group
- everybody worn out and ready to be home, these last days are tough

Picture Time (on our day off)

Today was our last day off and I spent it resting and walking around town. Then I got an incredible 1 hour massage (full body) and now I feel absolutely amazing. Now for some pics: (and yes they're out of order again).

Dog at lunch on reservation

Can you find the cow elk?

Descending in Glacier

Notice the rainbow

Do I need a caption for this?

Glacier...east side

95 mile ride into Sandpoint

Glacier from afar

Going to the clouds

Beautiful river with swinging bridge

Montana to Idaho

On these super long days, 95 miles today, it feels like several days have passed between the morning and the evening. Many of us began our day at McDonalds to get some extra protein for the day. Then we started out along a road next to a beautiful river. There were rapids and rock formations everywhere. At one point we even saw a cool swinging bridge across the river. It was like a scene out of Indiana Jones.

It is so fun to be among the mountains. They never fail to amaze me. Our first lunch was at a lake by some incredible huge cliffs. After lunch things got pretty silly. I started my day with Diane, Ellen, Kate, Collin, and Rob. I left lunch with Rob and Kate because the others were waiting with Diane who left her helmet in the van which had left (they ended up hitchhiking). The road continued to be beautiful but the rolling hills were tough for me. My ability to bike uphill is diminishing.

I eventually fell behind my group and biked alone into Idaho. Crossing the stateline was epic as we have been in Montana for over a week. Idaho has more rocky features and does feel a bit different. When I finally got to second lunch I found out Rob and Kate had also hitchhiked and left me behind. Oh well.

After that lunch I joined with Katie K, Caity, Nate, and Erica. The road was under construction and the pavement had been striped so we found a great detour along a parallel road. We were riding along Lake Pend Oreille and it felt like we were on the coast of Italy. After a couple of miles we came upon a little hippie cafe where a bunch of our cyclists were hanging out. I honestly felt like I was in another country.

I departed with Nate for the final part but when he stopped to take a picture I got ahead and finished solo. A train came along and I watched it cross the water on the tracks. It was so neat. The road had to go around the lake.

Our host is great Dinner was made by a man who has been in the restaurant business for years. It's was unbelievable. I had beets, green beans, a sausage dish, quinoa, peas and corn, two kinds of soup (carrot with ginger and a Mexican soup with hominy), fancy bread with toppings...etc. It was literally like eating in a restaurant. Incredible! For dessert...huckleberry ice cream.

Our entertainment for the night was Frankie, a 95-year old woman of the congregation with more spunk and attitude and humor than anybody I know. She even participated in our game of slackjaw and had us all busting up with laughter.

Our night ended at a local microbrewery with some huckleberry ale.

Koocanusa Reservoir

Our host this morning gave us a great breakfast of pancakes and eggs to fuel us for the day. I started out the morning with the "coffee club" (Nate, Kelsey, Erin) and broke away for solo riding the rest of the day. We rode along the Koocanusa Reservoir today, which was incredible. All along the rode were huge rocky cliffs to our left and big rock formations to our right. We climbed atop some for a better view.

The ride was a bit tough for everybody. We think it was because of the thermal winds. Nobody could hold ther normal average. I took it slow and just enjoyed the riding. The air here is so crisp and smells of pine. It's wonderful. The last bit of the ride took us past the dam and along the river valley into Libby.

There was a car show in town which was fun to walk through. There were cars from every decade! It was neat. Once at the host Kelsey and I went over to McDonalds, since our group has to make dinner tonight. I enjoyed a tasty smoothie and fries. Yum! After a nap we ate pasta with peanut sauce and then got milkshakes down the street. It's all about food with us. I'm looking forward to resuming my normal-person eating habits when the trip is over.

Blue Lake and Pine Trees

6:30 wake-up, then my team (the coffee club) went to breakfast across the street at the Buffalo Cafe. I got huckleberry pancakes, two eggs, and bacon. Yummy! Huckleberries can't be cultivated so they are all handpicked in the wild. And they only grow in the north and in the mountains. I want to get everything huckleberry while we're here.

Our route took us on some amazing roads through pine woods. It smelled like Christmas. The entire day we had an incredible view of the mountains. Lunch was at a lake, the color of clear blue. It was gorgeous. We spent a long time relaxing there as today we only had to bike 55 miles. Just as we were leaving we saw another bald eagle soaring above the lake.

The ride was relaxing but my body is tired and slowing down. We are in good shape, but as we start climbing hills again I can feel the wear of 9 weeks of biking.

When we got into town I put a new chain on my bike, with Kevin's help, and cleaned off all the dirt. Dinner was excellent and I had rice pudding for dessert. It was so tasty (not too sweet), I had to get the recipe. It is so easy!

Tonight we are in Eureka, about 7 miles from Canada. The big resevoir here is named for the river, Canada, and the United States: Koocanusa!

Climbing the mountains into the clouds

Tuesday was our last day in the flat land of Montana as we approached the Rockies 60 miles away (but visible). We left Cut Bank and were quickly met with the worst headwinds thus far. I struggled along with Kelsey behind Kevin and Nate. We took lots of breaks and finally came to lunch in a town on the Blackfeet reservation.

We were greeted at lunch by several dogs. One was a puppy, maybe a couple months old, and looked exactly like Marlow at home but with different coloring. She was so cute and sweet; I pet her for a long time.

After lunch we continued our struggle in the wind as we began to see a change in the terrain. The road began to curve and pine trees began to appear alongside of us. Soon enough we were climbing up and up, and the mountains were right there. It was pretty incredible. We ascended and descended for the next 20 miles before arriving at our destination. Along the way we saw a bunch of horses that weren't fenced in, so I assume they were mustangs.

I struggled a lot on the hills but it was worth it for our post-ride meal. Before heading to our campsite, Nate, Kevin, Debs, Erin, and I stopped for an early dinner. I had a bison burger with sweet potato fries and a slice of razzleberry pie for dessert. It was the best way to end the ride.

Upon our arrival at the campsite we watched an incredible change in the weather. Suddenly there were tremendous winds and dark storm clouds started pouring over the mountains. We threw up our tents and secured the rain flys as fast as we could. By the time the rain started we were safe inside.

We woke up yesterday to rain and wet tents and 40 degree weather. I bundled up in leg warmers, spandex, sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, my jersey, a fleece, raincoat, and a wool hat. We eventually got the trailer packed and the tents put away and scarfed down a breakfast of bagels and yogurt. Despite the weather we ventured out to conquer the Going to the Sun road, 17 miles up and 33 miles down.

The rain had stopped finally when Kelsey, Nate, and I started out. The road was incredible and fairly flat for 10 miles as we biked along a lake. Within the first several miles we saw 3 elk cross 100 ft in front of us and run up the hill to join their herd. We even heard their call, a strange sound like a haunted house creaky door. Later we saw a bald eagle leave it's perch and soar down to the lake. It was awesome.

The mountains were superb, especially with the low lying clouds that filled the valleys. We stopped often to take pictures. Once the first climbing began we warmed up but we froze each time we stopped. At one point we stopped for a break at a bathroom and sat inside to refuel on some energy bars. The last 7 miles we took lots of breaks. Within the last 2 miles we became one with the clouds. It was mesmerizing; you couldn't see 100 ft ahead of you.

Finally we reached Logan's Pass at the Continental Divide, 6646 feet. We ran into the visitor's center for warmth, except as our sweat dried we stayed pretty cold. On the other side of the pass the clouds were parting and blue skies were showing through. It was 37 degrees up top so we were eager to descend. Descending is tough though because there is freezing air in your face and the roads are wet. We feathered our breaks and pedaled in a low gear to keep our legs warm. When we stopped I literally put my hands in my mouth to warm them.

The views were unreal and there was a rainbow. How perfect?! There was some road construction going on so traffic was held up for a while. One of the construction women gave us her car keys and let us warm up inside. It was so nice. We eventually were allowed to continue and we slowly made our way down the mountain. We had 12 miles of 7% grade. It felt pretty epic to ride the Going to the Sun road with the power of my own two legs. The final miles were along a river trough beautiful pine woods. It was incredible. I will definitely have to return someday to hike and camp and enjoy the mountains more.

(Today we had our final build day. It was right in view of beautiful mountains. We spent the day putting up second story floor trusses on a duplex. It was a typical build day with a great supervisor.)

Pics of Glacier to come!

Flying in the plains

This morning we were feeling powerful and had a slight tailwind. My average at lunch, mile 37, was 17.5 mph. It was good to be flying on the bike again. After lunch we came into the town of Shelby (3500 people including the 500 prisoners, so we were told). We stopped at an incredible coffe shop/gift book store. The barristas were so friendly and put up with all our questions about the drinks. I ended up getting an ice cream mocha...so much sugar everyday on this trip.

It didn't take much longer to bike the final 25 miles. It was fairly flat, but it was one of our last days of flat land. On our way we passed a huge wind farm; it was maybe 10 miles long. We also got to see a train going super slow with small cranes on top lifting up railroad ties from an open car and putting them on the side of the track. It was really cool to see.

Other cool things from the day:
- lots of hawks making lazy circles in the sky
- neat tunnels under the road for horses to get to the other side
- the Rockies in the faint distance
- a fun western store that sold everything from saddles and tack to boots and hats to horse feet treatment
- murals all through the town of western scenes

Chinook and Chester

Chinook (yesterdays destination) means warm winds, which we definitely experienced. We fought winds all day and my great average of 16.4 the day before dropped to 13.4 today. It was pretty much miserable the entire time. My body is breaking down; my knees hurt, my shoulder hurts, my hands hurt...etc. Ice ice ice is the name of the game now.

In the morning I did get to see a hawk flying really low to the ground about 100 feet from the road. It's wing were completely spread out. I've never seen a hawk that close in the wild before. It was very cool. Besides that I tried to start another cow stampede by mooing at a herd today, but it didn't work. My mooing is pretty weak unfortunately.

The highlight of the yesterday was seeing mountains pop up on the horizon. On the map you can see some formations starting to appear before Glacier and we saw those today. It was great to look out and see something other than bluffs. The other great thing is that one of Chinook's major industries is forestry, which means...there are trees! Suddenly things are starting to turn green again and that feels good.

Today I decided to ride in the van to let things recover. I don't want to push myself too far before climbing the mountains we are about to encounter. The van is pretty uneventful; I read, napped, listened to music, ate.

A jazz musician's set list

This morning we watched stormy weather roll in from the west. Since you can see so far we could safely bike and marvel at the incredible lightening at the same time. For a moment we thought we may have to stop but we out-biked the rain. It felt like we were storm chasers. The clouds were ever changing and so beautiful and unique.

We came to a small town at mile 30 and stopped at a super cute cafe. The woman there had a little home kitchen and was serving bisquits and gravy. She also had ice cream and hot drinks. I had delicios bisquits and a spiced chai. It was heavenly. Little did we know lunch was .5 mile up the road, so we stopped breifly again to pick up snacks for later.

After lunch we experienced blue skies. The weather changes so fast around here. Kelsey and I took off and rode 23 miles straight before taking a break...very unusual for us. We were averaging 16.3 miles and rolled into town at 12:20. 70 miles in a little over 4 hours.

The temp got very hot towards the end of our ride, so we stopped at Dairy Queen; a vanilla cone has never tasted so yummy. With so much time at our host site, most people took naps, watched the Olympics, and just relaxed and hung out. For dinner tonight we have a hodge podge of donated food from around town.

It's hard to believe there are only 18 days left. My body is telling me it's time to get off the bike and my mind looks forward to home, but these last weeks will be fun. The mountains are coming up, another day off in Idaho, and Washington (a state I have never experienced).

Glasgow

55 miles from Wolf Point to Glasgow, easy riding, fluffy blueberry pancakes for breakfast, big dark storm in the distance beautiful over wheat fields, brief rain storm during lunch under the protection of a tent, sun greeted us for the second half of ride, pioneer/cowboy museum (awesome displays of saddles, handmade spurs, animals, tribal wear...etc), mail day (got some great packages and letters), and more hanging out.

Flat Land

Contrary to yesterday's excitement about rolling hills, we still have 400 miles of flat riding. Luckily today we enjoyed great views of bluffs in the distance and incredible rock formations on the side of the rode. There is at least variation in the landscape. It feels very similar to the southwest area of the United States, but with wheat fields. The area is dry and the ground is arid. Today we had the pleasure of riding on a very empty country road that runs parallel to route 2. It was great to finally be able to ride next to somebody and hold a conversation with them. Here are some of the highlights from today:

- Getting chased by 3 aggressive farm dogs. I yelled at them very sharply to go away. It worked.
- Seeing lots of horses and their babies.
- Starting a stampede of cows and their young. I've never seen cows run like that.
- Flying down the road and feeling good on the bike today.
- Hearing a Great Horned Owl twice in one day...morning and night. We don't have those in Ohio. It's so beautiful.

And now for some pictures of landscapes, because other people take the pics of me. Sorry, but they're beautiful. (And slightly out of order, but oh well)

Sunset over Brush Lake

There were so many sunflower fields in North Dakota.

Long open road

Herd of cows that stampeded.

White cows, that looked like plastic farm set figures.

Incredible Montana rocks...where did they come from?

A big open sky

There are still no trees but the hills are starting to roll and the mountains are starting to show themselves in the far distance. We came over a hill 3 miles out of Culbertson this afternoon and the landscape transformed. It looked like Ireland on a smaller scale but with rocky ridges and red rock. It was beautiful. A man at the church says we still have 400 miles of very flat land, but it's good to know the mountains will greet us at the end.

This morning at the campsite we woke up at 7:30, a luxury we have not experienced yet (it was 8:30 our time since we just crossed time zones). The winds were so fierce our tents were going crazy. Luckily they were tailwinds. Once we got on our main road we flew with no effort at all. It was incredible and so quiet because the wind was not blowing in our ears. I could coast at 20 mph.

Unfortunately we couldn't continue to enjoy the wind because our road turned, but we never had to face it head on. Today was a 50 mile day, piece of cake, so lunch was early in a small town. One thing we've learned to do well is spot water towers. When you see a water tower, you know civilization must be nearing. Today a water tower marked lunch for us.

After lunch we had 25 miles to go. The land here is so open that you can see for miles and miles. We watched rain clouds start to approach and could even see it raining in the distance. Finally we were sprinkled on a bit, but it felt great and smelled great too.

Our host is so sweet. We walked into an array of snacks, which included homegrown red plums and cherries. They were to die for. The plums were teeny and I ate probably 20. I just couldn't stop. Before dinner a bunch of us went to the local museum, which was a flashback for me to all our family trips to historical villages. There were tons of rooms set up like different buildings around town and the musuem was full of old collections of things of days gone by. I particularly enjoyed the case packed full of spurs and horse bits. There were so many different designs.

Dinner was superb...lasagna, Texas golash, salad with real greens and veggies, bean salad, pasta salad, sticky buns and other dessert, and lots of fruit. I am now thoroughly stuffed and looking forward to sleep.

Camping in Montana

Yesterday morning we had perfect weather, a bit chilly and no winds. Tyce and I knocked out 35 miles pretty quickly, which took us to lunch. The rode was nice and the truckers that passed us were very kind. They got way over and slowed for us.


After lunch I started out with Tyce, Aaron, and Erica but dropped back to ride slightly slower. I rode about 20 miles alone and had a great time. I thought about being a lone cowboy in this land on my horse, except that I was on a bike. We have been in such remote areas, there are hardly any houses and signs of human development, which is incredible. There is so much open space out here.

I eventually caught up with my group and we ended up at a cafe in a teeny town. Since we were headed into a night of camping with little food, we needed to load up. I enjoyed some sweet potato fries and cottage cheese with fruit. I also bought two Naked smoothies that have a ton of veggies and fruit.

We crossed the Montana stateline 2.3 miles from our host. It was fun entering a new state but eastern Montana pretty much looks like North Dakota. Our campsite has no trees anywhere and you can see for miles in every direction. It's definitely not my kind of camping. I want trees.

Upon getting into the camp everybody went swimming in the 200ish acre lake that is so full of calcium there are no fish (it clogs their gills). It was so refreshing and great for relaxing our muscles and moving in a different way. We spent the afternoon and night hanging out, making dinner, putting up tents, and trying to find shade. The tent I stayed in had a screened roof so we could see the stars. It was beautiful.

Winter to Summer

We began our morning in 50 degree weather, bundled in arm warmers and wind breakers. I'm sure this is different than the weather Ohioans are experiencing right now. As the day moved on the temp warmes up to the mid 80s.

Our route took us through the flood zone again, which was unbelievable to see up close. So many homes have been destroyed but people are rebuilding and returning.

Just out of Minot we rode through a gorgeous valley with big fields and rolling hills. We haven't seen scenery like this yet in North Dakota. The greatest part about the route was that is only took us on route 2 for four miles...a pleasant and welcome surprise for everybody.

After lunch we rose out of the valley. I rode alone for the rest of the afternoon so that I could take my own pace, which was incredibly slow because of the headwinds. I wasn't in the mood to draft today, I just wanted to enjoy my surroundings. I took lots of breaks, watched two deer for a bit, tried to imagine what it was like coming to this land as a settler, and enjoyed myself. The road was very low traffic. Once in awhile there was a truck going to the oil rigs we were passing.

The landscape was marvelous. I could see for miles down the road and the fields are either side stretched forever. It's amazing how vast this land is.

The last 10 miles I started to really struggle with the wind. Finally Tyce came up behind me and pulled me the rest of the way, blocking the wind with his height. It saved me.

The town tonight is so small. There are about 250 people, though it has to draw from the nearby farms. Main St looks like an empty movie set. The total square mileage is 1.2 and .2 of that is the lake.

We had dinner in a park and two of our riders gave a safety bike clinic to tons of kids from the town. It was a relaxing evening and the food was filling. Tonight bedtime will be early because we have 10 more days of straight biking. At least our mileage really drops a lot.

Flood Recovery

Our morning began with an amazing breakfast of french toast, egg bake, muffins, and fruit. From there we were shuttled to Hope Village, a non-profit involved in disaster recovery. The area was full of tents and trailers where volunteers stay for a week at a time to help. We split into 5 groups and were taken to various places around Minot to help with flood recovery.

The intern, who was driving my group, gave us a tour of the flood area. It was shocking. Water came up so high in the city, buildings flooded that were guaranteed never to flood. New neighborhoods along the river were destroyed and thousands of homes were lost. FEMA has only minimally assisted and flood insurance is hardly covering anything. It is so sad.

We were working with an AmeriCorp group on a home that had been taken down to the framing. Our job was to pull out junk from all the framing, like extra nails and staples. I spent most of the day trying to pull up flooring in one of the rooms. It was some kind of linoleum and was super tough. We had to use hammers and crowbars to pry it off.

The day was freezing cold and rainy, which was very unpleasant. I was cold most the day except for when I walked to a nearby gas station for some hot chocolate. I felt like it was winter time...I never drink hot chocolate in the summer.

In two days we shall enter Montana, our third to last state of the trip. I look forward to the beautiful landscapes and Glacier National Park, but most of all I look forward to escaping the headwinds we have been experiencing.

Sweepy Day

Kate and I were sweep today, which meant starting our day at a cafe for breakfast with a bunch of other riders. I enjoyed two fried eggs and a delicious waffle (I've been craving waffles for weeks). The cafe, interestingly, is located at the monument that marks the geographical center of North America. Since it's erection it has been proven to be several miles off, but it's still pretty neat.

The actual ride was very frustrating. We caught up with Kelsey, Nate, Lucas, and Ellen early on and stuck with them for the rest of the day. This was an excellent choice because the wind today was worse than ever. Finally we reached lunch and ran into a biker headed from Idaho to Duluth. He had everything with him in a little trailer. He told us about the terrors of route 2 closer to Williston, so I hope our detour takes us far around the scary trucks that don't care for bikers.

After lunch we saw the weather change a lot as the sky darkened and multiple layers of cloud cover drifted in. The dark blue was gorgeous with the freshly cut wheat fields. The clouds soon began to pour rain down on us and perhaps even some hail. It was freezing cold and miserable.

We were about 12 miles out from our host and Sean came by with the van and trailer. He said the shoulder got terrible up ahead and Baxter described it as terrifying. He asked if we wanted a ride and without hesitating we agreed. We were so cold and didn't want to ride a road that Baxter actually described as horrible.

Everybody was happy once we were all safe at the church and off the nasty road. There was a wedding at the church so we has to lay low for awhile. We all got into warm clothes and wrapped ourselves in our sleeping bags. In my room Hans set up a movie and we all snacked, watched the movie, and slept. It was super relaxing.

Pizza for dinner topped off the day with an evening of more relaxing and recovery.

More biking

Today route 2 got me when we hit some awful bumps, the girl in front of me clipped Ashleys tire and tumbled, and then I ran over her and crashed to the ground. Luckily we all walked away with minimal injury, just some cuts and bruises.

The general ride today was easy as it was half of what we did yesterday. Plus, the sun was shining and the wind had died down a lot. There was actually some beautiful scenery today. For part of the ride I rode with an alumni of our route who also recently rode from Alaska to Aregentina with his brothers. It was neat talking to him about his experiences on the route and about biking in general.

We are staying at an old armory/community center, which was great for prom night. Everybody got dressed in crazy dresses from thrift stores. My date and I dressed at Charlie Brown and Snoopy. It was great. I danced and ate sweets until I got tired and now I'm headed to bed. Even though the night was fun, we still have to bike tomorrow and my body needs to recover from my tumble. Bruises are not fun.

Oh North Dakota

Today I biked 116 miles with a pedal time of 8 hours 15 minutes. My group divided the day into six 20 mile increments to make things easier. We drafted the whole day because the headwinds were ridiculous. I ate so much food today and energy on the road to prevent from tanking...it worked. Route 2 is getting to everybody. It's a terribly hard mental challenge to be on one road for 114 miles. Thinking back on the day I actually have trouble recollecting the ride. It was mind numbing and it sort of drove us crazy. From here on out the mileage drops significantly, though we are stuck on the same road for quite awhile. I am headed off to an 8 o'clock bed time to get lots of recovery rest and prepare for our 59 miler tomorrow, though that will be a piece of cake.