Sunday, September 1 ,2013

A few days to catch up on.    The animal theme of 4 days ago was still dead frogs.  Only about a hundred instead of hundreds and hundreds.  Still seeing lizards/salamanders.  Seems strange to see either frogs or lizards on the road.

Made it to Valley City.  Stayed in city campground.  It was nice.  Good shade and all.  The thing that struck me was the number of peope who seem to  be living in campgrounds.  It has been an issue from the first day of the trip.  Most city campgrounds have some kind of regulations to discourage people from coming and staying long periods of time.  Something along the lines of 15 consecutive days being the limit.  At Valley City they did the opposite.  They actually had monthy rates posted.  Most of the people I had met earlier were who were living in campgrounds were living in campers,trailers etc.  In Valley City there were those who were also living in tents.

I met one of them.  Very nice guy.  Came home from his job and took a shower.  Ate dinner and then the next morning got up and walked to work.  His wife stayed back at the campground in the tent.

I don't know why people find themselves in this situation.  Economy.  Tight housing market.  Could have been this way for the last several years and I didn't know about it.  It is just something new for me.  Something I didn't know was going on.

Next day very, very foggy.  The ride into Fargo was about 60 miles.  Good ride and I was glad to get to a bigger city, although I had to  ride the last 6 miles into Fargo on the sidewalk.  Busy, busy road.

Had a great time in Fargo.  Stayed with Leo ( cousin of Rich W. of Casper).  Great time talking about  books, movies, politics, religion, etc. etc.  Leo's house was built in the late 1800's.  That was fun.

On to Minnesota.  The landscape changed.  Trees are once again a riding companion.  Lots of green.  lakes and ponds everywhere.  The roadkill of the day were turtles.  Not a bunch, but it catches your eye to see a dead turtle next to the road.

Today was an increible day.  I was riding against the wind at the end of the day yesterday.  The wind shifted and it cooled down.  The whole day was cool and I had a tailwind ALL DAY LONG.  Rode most of the day on rail trails.  No cars, cool and wind at the back.  Couldn't be much better.

Rode with two guys from Boston most of the day.  That has been a lot of fun.  They are both my age and really fun.  Ended up riding 93 miles today.  Tired, but the wind helped a LOT.  Spending the night in Sauk Centre, MN.  Trivia question.  What famous author grew up on Sauk Centre?

Great, Great day.

Til next time