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.