Fargo

We spent two days hanging out with JP at an awesome hunting lodge in Minnewauken, ND. Minnewauken is on Devil's Lake which, unlike little Marl Lake in Wautoma, is growing larger and larger, flooding lands and threatening to take over roads and towns. The hunting lodge we stayed in was straight out of the 50s, complete with laundry, showers, our own rooms, a hot tub, and this sweet vibrating massage machine. I can't thank JP enough for all his generosity!

As usual, the day after a rest day was tough, and it actually seemed to drag out into two days for me this time. Also, after having a few high mileage days, doing our normal 60-70 miles doesn't seem like enough for some reason. We spent the past two nights in McHenry and Page and had planned on riding through Fargo to a state park a little past Moorehead, MN yesterday. We got to Fargo in the early afternoon and thought it looked cute and decided to check it out before heading on. We checked out a bike store and learned about a bike collective where we could get stickers (we are always in search of stickers for our bikes, and they have proven harder to find than we imagined) so we decided to make a stop there before figuring out where we'd spend the night. We ended up volunteering there for about two and a half hours, stripping down one bike and fixing up two others, and earned our stickers AND a place to stay. Joe and his wife Sara are wonderful amazing hosts and we can't thank them enough!

On our way into town yesterday we were passed by the van from WomenTours - the group who shared their dinner with us in Culbertson, MT. We had surpassed them on some of the days we took advantage of the tailwinds and haven't seen them since New Town, ND. They will be coming into Fargo, their final destination, today, and two of the women were checking out the route. It was great to see them, but they delivered some bad news. They have two groups of cyclists, the ones we met and another group that is traveling a day behind them. The second group lost one of their members as they headed into Minot, ND. A pick-up truck hit her from behind and she was killed. It was very sobering to hear, and the thought of her hasn't left me since.