On the way out of Towner, ND, I met three cyclists headed east who had stayed the night in Granville, the next town to the west. There had been some kind of shindig in the park, and they had not only gotten free food, but an evening of playing Mexican Train as well. I will admit to being a bit jealous. I went on to Rugby, ND, which is the geographic center of North America. Woo! It is also where the Adventure Cycling route diverges from my route. Gone are the days of meeting new cyclists daily. I spent way too much time in town looking for the grocery store, making phone calls, making last minute route decisions, and eating a peanut buster parfait. Yum!
I went to a rest stop, where some touring motorcyclist talked my ear off for awhile. I've noticed a certain amount of solidarity amongst the two-wheeled tourers. There's generally a honk or a wave when they pass. Most of the regular motorcyclists don't acknowledge me, however. They're too cool for that, riding along with no helmets. Yup, ND, like MT, has no helmet law, but riding with your noggin exposed seems much more prevalent here than in MT. That's surprising, since I always think of MT as the lawless state full of freedom-loving libertarians. Maybe too many rich out-of-staters have bought property there, and they all wear their helmets... Also, more people smoke the further east I go. And the accent is getting stronger-- I can tell I'm getting closer to MN. But I digress. Like five times. So this guy is yapping away, and I said at least three times that I'd better get on the road, and I put my helmet, mirror and gloves on, but he kept talking. I finally got a little more stern about needing to make my destination before dark, and walked away. I was about to put my backpack on when my phone rang, and I got to talk to someone I had tried to reach earlier in the day. So if that guy had shut it sooner, I would have already been riding and missed the call. I guess everything works out for the best...
I reached Leeds, that town the woman from Towner had told me about, that had a lovely park where more cyclists used to camp before the Adventure Cycling route changed. Those guys have some serious pull. I wasn't ready to quit riding yet for the day, but I wanted to check it out and have some food. Boy am I glad I wanted to keep moving! I haven't seen that much trash on the ground since the last time I went to Mexico. And there were big holes in the walls of the buildings that I assume housed the bathrooms. In all fairness, it looked like someone had dumped a garbage can and strewn the trash around, so maybe it isn't always *that* bad, but I realized that now that I had left the official route, there was no friendly competition between neighboring towns to have the nicest park for the cyclists. I'm on my own now.
I rode on to my destination, Churchs Ferry, which is more of a fly on the map than a town-- too small for phone reception. It being Sunday evening and a bit buggy, I had a hard time finding someone who could tell me where it was okay to camp, but I did eventually, and am now set up in a camping area with no facilities, but there are water taps. I probably could have camped just about anywhere, but I want to be on good terms with the locals. A couple of blocks away there are a couple of sani-cans left over from the town's 125 year celebration recently, and they even have toilet paper in them still, so I opted for that over squatting on my exposed patch of grass. All the comforts of home... It's pretty buggy, so I followed j.'s "live in deet, handy wipe bath before bed" suggestion, which is easier tonight when I have no shower, so I am not faced with the prospect of putting stinky goo on after a nice shower.
Monday, 30 June: I stopped by the post office this morning before I left, and found out that a few years ago the town was in danger of flooding, so FEMA bought out everyone except two people who refused to go. That's why it seems extra empty. And I could have pretty much camped anywhere.
I rode about twenty miles to Devils Lake, because I had this idea of staying by the lake and waiting for the wind to be blowing from the south, because I want to go north. I've decided to head up to another route that will take me more directly to my Uncle's place in northern Minnesota, before 2 heads south too much further and adds more miles to my trip. Today the wind is blowing from the WSW, with an intensity between that of yesterday and the day before, so to stick with the analogy it's... I dunno... Holly Robinson? It is somewhat helpful on the way to Devils Lake, but the road kinda heads south there, so it's a good crosswind, too. You didn't expect this blog to turn into a daily prairie wind report, did you? Tomorrow the wind will be either from the north or the west, depending on your source, but neither will be as helpful to me heading north as today's wind. I could stick around here and see what happens the day after tomorrow, as was my plan, but I don't really like it here. It's not seedy or anything, but everyone seems kinda grumpy and unhelpful. I wish I had just headed north from Churchs Ferry, that would have been an even shorter trip, but now I know...
So I'm kinda heading into the unknown-ish, and I'm not sure if I'll get any cell reception for a few days. Don't fret!
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