Day 38 & 39

day 38

Deciding to wake up early has become the trend lately and trying to "beat the heat" is well worth it. We rolled out of twon around 7 o'clock. No set destitation today, just to ride as far we wanted to .And the headwinds today made us not want to ride anywhere. Luckly Alex was a tall guy, at 6'5 Hank and Kane were very happy to ride behind. Enjoying a draft in a slipstream for the first time on the trip. We rolled into the town Burthhold at around 11:00 am. No food was available at Stanley in the morning so we made our breakfast stop at the gas station. It's kinda ironic how happy bikers get when they see a gas station. (A food and ice cream break.) All agreeing that 15-20 mph headwinds are horriable, and should be avoided intill they turn into tailwinds, we easily convienced everyone to make it a rest day a Burthhold. Setting up at the city park we relaxed for a while, playing hacky sack, cleaning our drive chains, and eating. Later in the evening a car pulled up to the park and rushed over to us to inform us of a tornado warning. Hearing about a thunderstorm but not tornando, we quickly moved all over gear and tents under the park shelter. Thinking back on it now, if there was a tornado, the shelter would not have protected us, only crash down on us. At least we stayed dry. The thunder and lighting was quite amazing. All around bolts would highlight the clouds and ground around us. The further and further east we ride the more spetacular the storms become. At least we had a rest day, because the storm made it really hard to sleep.

day 39
Breakfast at the local gas station has become the norm for us. Microwaving the best looking egg and chesse sandwich, chugging as much coffe possiable, and procrasting the start of the day has became our specialty. We have noticed that we keep the most ridiculous conversations going to savor the last few minutes resting before hitting the road. While doing just that, Alex spotting a tourist riding past town. Instintaly recoginzing him we chased after him. The rider turned around after hearing Alex's shouting, we were shocked to see the that man had only one leg. Not using his prosetic, he instead attached it to his top tube, and rode with just his left leg. Apparently Bill had help Alex back in glacier, and split apart around a couple days after. Bill, being the second one legged biker we have heard of was a awsome cheerful guy. It was amazing to see him mount and dismount his bike, even more amazing to see him ride at a fairly fast pace. Obviously happy to see Alex agian, we planned to meet eachother at Granville, were we would be camping for the night. finally hitting the road we missed our first turn. Not wanting to turn around, we made a small two detour through gravel onto the planned route. The road was a very nice low traffic two lane country road. Finally with the wind at our back agian, Donald, Hank and Beau took off trying to warm up our a little bit too rested legs. Seeing a water tower in the distance we had reached Minot. The whole tripped we have axious to see the flood town. every one had warned us of National Gaurd not letting through town, making bikers take a 40 mile detour, and pure choas through out the town. Just like williston, we saw none of the that. We took the main Highway into town and stopped at a Barnes and Noble to purchase new books. Beau picking up The Alchemist, Donald a Portguese lanugue book, and Hank bought "Guns Germs and Steel", a history book about how diffrent societies fasrter than others. Intranced by our new books we lost track of time and realized we had three hours of daylight to make it to camp. Riding into town right before the sun sunk behind the hills, we reunited with Bob and his Debby who was driving along with him. With no store in Granville, we had dinner at the local bar were we played pool and sang to Katy Perry before heading to sleep.

 

BILL AND HIS WIFE DEBBIE