Day 19: Welcome to Minnesota

Today we had an early start. We were out of the hotel and on the road by 7:00 am. We stopped at a halfway point for lunch in the small town of Page, population 200. We were under the impression that Fargo was another 40 miles putting us at 80 miles in for our lunch stop. Fargo ended up being 60 miles more, but we made it into town around 2:30. First thing we did was find a bike shop. We both had new chains put on our bikes due to the weight and the stress of the load, the chains ware quicker than usual. I also had fenders put on my bike to help stop the rain water from spraying all over me. So after a longer stop than we were planning we continued on and were able to cross over the border into Minnesota. The days continue to fly by. It seems I am either eating, sleeping or biking. Although I am soaking in the scenery throughout the day I have not put a huge focus on spending time getting to know each town. To be honest they all start to seem pretty similar, small town U.S.A. I just checked on the weather for tomorrow and I am a little scared. Winds 20-30 mph out of the south- south east. That is the exact direction we are heading so looks like it might be a struggle. We have had cross winds out of the north- north west so I was hoping for some good tailwinds tomorrow but you can never count on mother nature to be consistent. Well I'll forget about that until morning. For now it's time to eat and sleep.

P.S. the computer is not letting me load the pictures so keep an eye out for new pictures in the following days.

Miles Biked Today: 100
Miles Biked Total:1655

Day 18: Battles Waged

This morning we woke up to a very hard downpour but by the time we were done packing up our stuff the rain had stopped. We left town planning a lunch break around Cooperstown but as soon as we left town the battle against the wind began! During the entire ride there was sustained 20 mph winds with gusts up to 30 mph. It was a very mentally and physically draining day. We managed to make it into a small town half way to Cooperstown.We found some nice benches outside of the community center but then noticed the door was open so decided to go inside to get out of the wind. Eventully a lady came and was very nice to us. She gave us homemade cookies and homemade "moon" pie. That ended up being quite a nice rest stop. We then continued on to Cooperstown. The wind continued blowing hard. John and I traded off leading every 2 miles to block the wind. About 5 miles out of Cooperstown I heard a sound like a stick going into my wheel. I looked back and everything appeared to be fine but later noticed a spoke had broken. Because of the wind it was a very slow and hard ride into Cooperstown. We decided the amount of effort was not worth the effort continuing on for extra mileage. We found a hotel and decided to catch up on laundry and clean our bikes. We plan on crossing into Minnesota tomorrow.

Miles Biked Today: 50
Miles Biked Total: 1555