Date: 2007-07-06
To: View Entry
Miles today: 0.0

7-2-07Rugby, ND67 miles today1427 Northern Tier miles5513 total milesI felt GREAT when I woke up!! I really needed that zero yesterday and I needed all the sleep I got.I had my Starbuck's and went downstairs to the continental breakfast.I couldn't wait to get started riding today. :-))We did get started by 7am. It was one of the warmest mornings we've had since we left last April 1st. I'm not sure, but it must have been in the middle 60's along with some humidity.There wasn't much wind and there wasn't much traffic.The lack of traffic surprised me because Minot is a pretty good sized city and it was rush hour.We rolled along at a nice rate of speed and left the bypass about 5 miles later. We headed east on Rt 2.That's where we lost the shoulder again, so we rode on the side of the road until we got a small shoulder about 10 miles later.We did spot 2 deer in the fields. I think they were whitetail deer, but not sure.It got a lot flatter riding on the east side of Minot. There were fields of corn that was just a foot tall and there has been fields of a low plant that grows about 18 inches tall and has yellow blooms on the top of it. They have a distinct smell that I'm not familiar with.There's also a very low growing blue flowered crop that I don't know about.I was wearing my new white long sleeved shirt to help keep the sun off my arms. I think that's going to work out nicely.It kept getting warmer as the morning went on. I was ready for a break by the time we had gone about 40 miles. That's when we hit the first services of the day at a small place called Towner.We stopped and had sodas and a snack.We still had about 25 miles, so we headed on.The wind was in our faces again, but only blowing about 10mph. That still slows you down, but it's WAY better than the winds we've been riding in.We got to Rugby, ND. It's the geographical center of North America and it has a monument at the exact spot.We got our pictures taken there by a guy that was excited to learn about us riding across the country. :-))We had a small lunch at the cafe, then headed for the motel on the east end of town.I was pleasantly surprised that it was a nice place and had a computer!!I got onto my journal and saw that Chief finished posting pictures, so Mrs Gorp sat there with me and we did our best to remember each picture and write a short caption. I even posted some pictures on the journal pages too.Thanks Chief, you came through for me again!! You're a good guy in my book, no matter what Liteshoe says about you. :-))We went to the restaurant that's connected to the motel and had broasted chicken. :-))Mrs Gorp asked the young waitress for more water. The waitress forgot and was busy doing other things...well, Mrs Gorp was giving the waitress THE look.The waitress must have felt those eyes on her and gave a quick look, then hurried along and brought Mrs Gorp a whole pitcher of water. She's a lucky girl!! :-))Another great day on the Northern Tier Bicycle Trail. :-))7-3-07Devils Lake, ND60 miles today1488 Northern Tier miles5573 total milesMy automatic Starbuck's brewing machine went off at 5:10am. I couldn't wake up enough to get my first cup of coffee until 5:30am.When I looked outside, it was raining, so when that first 4 cup pot of Starbuck's was gone, I made another pot....what else could I do?? ;-))We went and ate the continental breakfast. I had Fruit Loops cereal for the first time in decades. I also had a blueberry muffin.We watched The Weather Channel and saw that the rain was just about past us, so we started packing up.It was about 8:30am when we rode east out of Rugby, ND and headed towards Devils Lake.There was supposed to be tailwinds, but the wind was basically calm. That was OK though because we ended up averaging over 16mph without headwinds. That makes it so much easier to get where you're going when the wind is calm. :-))It was a nice, flat ride today. We passed lots of small lakes and a couple of them had a group of pelicans all gathered together. Ducks kept flying off as we passed by too close to some of them.We came to the first services at 35 miles into the ride. I was sitting inside the small store in Churches Ferry when a guy came in. He started talking to us and telling us about the area.I finally remembered to ask about a couple of the field crops that I was unfamiliar with. The crop that stands about 18 inches high and has yellow flowers on the top is canola. The very low growing crop with blue flowers is flax.I thanked him for that information and he left. We finished our sodas and headed out for the last 25 miles to Devils Lake. It was a very easy ride and we were in Devils Lake about 1 1/2 hours later.I was hungry, but Mrs Gorp didn't want to eat at a cafe, so we stopped at a grocery and she went in while I watched the bikes.She came out with just a Coke and said nothing looked good. We went and got a room, then decided to walk back to the grocery and look again.I got a pack of hotdogs, a Marie Callender turkey pot pie and 4 donuts....and they ALL looked good to me. :-))We went back to the room and I made 5 hotdogs in the microwave. I had hotdog buns, a Vidalia onion and even a small container of mustard. That made a great lunch. :-))Mrs Gorp was happy again because there was in house laundry.I walked next door to a K-Mart and bought myself a real coffee mug and it even has a nice handle to hold while I sip my morning brew. It just seemed like the right way to enjoy my Starbuck's each morning. I'm sure eArThworm would agree with me on that one. ;-))I had the Marie Callender's pot pie for dinner. That was good and worked out well because of the microwave in the room.Another great day on the Northern Tier Bicycle Trail. :-))-4-0791 miles today1579 Northern Tier miles5665 total milesThe morning started early. Mrs Gorp got up about 4am and turned on my coffee brewing machine and informed me that we were getting an early start.I said; "OoooooooKaaaaaaaaay". (That was a drawn out OK with my bottom lip sticking out in it's best pouty look.)She went to the lobby and came back to tell me that the continental breakfast was already up and waiting for us.We left the motel at 5:30am after breakfast and packing the bikes.It was light out, but the sun hadn't rose yet. We got to see the sun come up about 2 miles into our ride. I believe that's one of only 2 or 3 times on this whole trip that we've seen the sun rise.The wind was gentle and coming from behind us. It was supposed to pick up to about 15mph later, so we knew we had a nice ride in the making.We were riding along and we could see Devil's Lake to our right. There was a few deer we saw between us and the lake.We were riding along nicely and got to Lakota where we stopped for snacks. I had a breakfast burrito and a Coke.Ethan had left a message on Mrs Gorp's phone to let us know that services were limited going into Grand Forks, so we made sure we had enough stuff to get us the next 70 miles.We talked to a guy that invited us to stay at his place, but he was west of us. He said he usually gets a good number of bicyclists to stay at his cabin each year.He also talked about how there's no need to lock anything up in this area. That's the way it should be everywhere!!We rode on and we did come to one more small store about 10 miles down the road. We already had everything we needed, so we just rolled on by.The ride was nice, we were making good time, but it was also pretty much uneventful.We got close to Grand Forks and I saw a sign that said this was the "Tree Shelter Belt Capitol Of The World".I didn't know what that meant, so I filed it away in the large storage space in the back of my head and rode on. :-))We got to Grand Forks and stopped at a Burger King.It was 11:20am and we had already rode over 90 miles. That's a record for us.Flatlander '09 had emailed me a few times and wanted to get together when we rode through this area.I had never met him, but he's been reading my journal for some time and had signed my guestbook a few times.One of my favorite things about keeping a journal is getting to meet people who I would never even hear of if it wasn't for the journal.The journal brings like minded people together. This trip has now allowed me to meet Poppie, Lee and Rachel Perry and now Flatlander '09 and his family, Wombat, Flicka, Pebbles and BamBam. One person who has signed my guestbook many times, but I didn't get to meet because I had the wrong contact number, was Clark Fork from Montana.Well, I called Flatlander and left a message that we rode into town about 4 hours before I expected to.I got his voice mail and left a message. We heard back pretty quickly and made arrangements to meet for an early dinner.We got in touch with Ethan, who decided to stay in town for the festivities of the 4th. We went to his motel to wait on Flatlander.Mrs Gorp and Ethan went out to play around town while I stayed at the motel and took a nap...after all, I got up way to early this morning. :-))Flatlander, Flicka and Wombat showed up and took us all out to dinner at Blue Moose Grill.I had no idea who I was meeting. It turns out Flatlander is retired Air Force and still has 2 teenaged daughters living at home. He's going to do his thru hike of the AT in between the year's they graduate from High School...which will be an '09 walk for him. :-))Flatlander was pretty sharp. He invited Mrs Gorp, Ethan and me out to dinner and when the bill came, he somehow made sure that his wife got to pay it. :-)) Thanks Wombat!!!We went back to the motel and loaded up our bikes. Flatlander lives in Park River, which is about an hour north of Grand Forks.We checked into a room in Park River, then went over to Flatlander's home.We went for a ride to see where Flatlander worked before he retired from the Air Force. I never knew it, but there where some missile sites in this area during the Cold War which have since been shut down.Flatlander spent some time at some of those before he retired.He drove us out to show us one. It consisited of a building in dis-repair and just waiting to be torn down.I couldn't believe how many deer we saw out in the farm fields near there.Flatlander also explained what that sign meant...you know, the sign I saw earlier today on my way into Grand Forks that I tucked away in the recesses of my storage facility. :-))A tree shelter belt is a line of trees planted to protect the area from the high winds and blowing snow of winter in northern ND. This area has more tree shelter belts that anywhere else in the world.I don't ever remember even seeing a tree shelter belt where I was raised at in Florida. ;-))We came back from the tour of the missile site and spent the evening at Flatlander's home, talking, eating strawberries out of his garden and watching the fireworks. We were able to watch the town fireworks right off the balcony of his back porch.It really turned out to be a great evening...a very nice diversion from our normal routine. I'm just not sure how I managed to stay up so late...especially after getting the day started at 4am.It was after 11pm when Flatlander dropped us off at the motel. I was crawling into my bed and very ready to just go right to sleep, when Mrs Gorp asked me when I planned on showering today.She keeps track of those kinds of things. :-))I got my shower and don't remember anything else after my head hit the pillow.I love days like this when you live every second of the day to the fullest. :-))Thanks to Flatlander and his family for helping to make it one of those days.Another great day on the Northern Tier Bicycle Trail. :-))