Minot, ND

Sunday September 9th

I departed Williston about 2pm after fixing a blowout on my rear tire. I made a tire boot out of duct tape and I was able to ride. I ate some lunch on the east of Williston then continued. The road is very hilly with short steep hills. I reached Lake Sakakawea of Lewis and Clark fame.
I rode past cornfields, hayfields, sunflower fields, oil derricks, and natural gas pipes. In a few places the gas was burning and made quite a scene at dusk. I was wondering where I was going to sleep as I couldn't find any trees to hide my tent in. All the fields were fenced and had posted signs.

I looked at the map and saw that a river was near. I reached the White Earth River and sure enough there was a 'nice' bank beneath the bridge. I left the bike up beside the bridge under my camouflage fabric. I took the panniers, tent, sleeping bag, and mattress down to the bank. There was a lot of grass growing there and when I placed the tent on the bank it seemed flat. I cooked my meal and got ready for bed. When I got onto my mattress it kind of slid towards the river. I found a nice bit of ground where I was stable and went to sleep.

In the morning I opened my eyes and discovered I had a blue roof on my tent. The roof should have been orange! When I got out of the tent I discovered that the tent had rolled down from where it was originally to a place 6 feet below and I was sleeping on the top of the tent and the floor was now the roof. I had no recollection of ever sliding down the hill.

Monday September 10th

The next morning I was cold! I put on my warmest gear and eventually the shivering stopped. In order to have breakfast I had to filter water from the river. The water was murky and I had to clean the filter often. The water tasted strongly of something. At least there were no giardia in the water! I thought 'well I won't die from the bugs but maybe from the minerals in the water'. My rolled oats and hot chocolate tasted okay.

I noticed the rear tire was bulging again. I found a discarded soda bottle and made another tire boot from the plastic. The edges were sharp so I lined the edges with duct tape. The tire now looked okay when pumped up.

The wind was strong and I had a side wind. It was slow going. I stopped for lunch when I detected a few drops of rain. I got into my rain gear and ate some lunch. I had just completed lunch when Ken & Sue ride up.

We rode to New Town and stopped at the supermarket for food. Ken went to a liquor store for a few beer cans. We rode to a restaurant near the turnoff to Van Hook Campground. We ate some food at the restaurant and rode to the campground. It seemed nice. The water in the bathroom smelled bad. I had enough water from the river to cook dinner and breakfast. It was very cold that night and my feet were frozen!

Tuesday September 11th

I woke up at 4:30am when some dogs and cats started screaming. I heard later that a skunk was nearby. I put on my warm gear and slid back into the sleeping bag. I got up at 7:15am, packed the tent, mattress, and sleeping bag, ate breakfast and paid for my tent site at the camp office. I had to borrow $3 from Sue as they didn't accept credit cards. We departed at 9am. It was ccold! We aimed to be in Minot that evening. It was a 70 miles ride. The wind was North Westerly and was a side wind. It slowed us down quite a bit. The hills weren't as steep as the previous day but still required effort to climb. The scenery was interesting with hay fields, sunflower fields (look like they are genetically modified), lakes, and wind generators.

We reached Minot by 5pm and went to Pat's Motel and Campground. It was a bit run down so we went to Swenson's RV Park and asked for a tent site. The host pointed to a vacant RV site with some grass and said it was ours. When we asked for a price he said we could stay for free. We couldn't resist such an offer. The facilities were very nice with bathrooms, showers, dining room with microwave, fridge, and oven, and a laundry.

Sue saw some wild turkeys in the bush behind the RV Park.

We rode back to route 86 to a supermarket and bought some nice food for dinner. I had grapes, vegeburgers, cucumber relish, soft tortilla shells, and chocolate milk. Mmmmmm....great!

I slept better as it was warmer here.

Wednesday September 12th

Today was a day off. I meditated, bought a new tire, thermal underwear, more food, caught up on emails, charged up the batteries for my camera and the cell phone.

Tomorrow we ride to Towner, ND and stay at the city park.