Oh what a sleepless night! I need to send in a suggestion that the snorers be confined to a camping spot far away from the rest of us! No offense to anyone, but the competition between two neighboring tents was quite thunderous. Plus, having been among the first to arrive, it also meant I was amongst those riders first to get up. *That* started at 4:30, with alarms going off. I'd planned on sleeping until 6, but instead was just about on the road by then. At least I had a decent chance of getting a nice spot and a warm shower again. :-)

A couple miles out of Burlington, I met up with a fellow from Colorado. I asked what brought him to this ride. A very typical response--a former North Dakotan/some North Dakota connection. And then he threw in another reason: he wanted to cycle in Colorado's Ride the Rockies, also a week long ride covering the same distance. One difference: a mountain pass each day. He said he wanted to see if he could ride 400 miles on the level first.

And then we hit the hill climbing out of the Souris valley, into the wind. I held back with him to the top, but by then a leg muscle was cramping so I had to push on at my own rate. The first stop, Berthold, was in the distance. Those grain elevators are good landmarks. Unfortunately in this part of the country, they're also visible for six to ten miles away. We were pushing a pretty good wind at this point, so it took forever to get there. From there though, we turned north for nine miles to Carpio, where we again picked up US52. I had a tailwind, and cruised along at 20mph. My average speed into Berthold had been 12mph. In addition to picking up US52, I stopped by the house and picked up Dad, who had been given the okay from his doctor the day before to keep exercising.

We were now in the Des Lacs River Valley, riding northwest. And the wind had switched to the west! The forecast had been for a southeast wind all day! I'd put on twenty-five miles already, plus seventy-five the day before, so wasn't quite ready for Dad's fresh chomping at the bit. :-) None the less, I kept up to him fairly well. We blew by the rest stop at Donnybrook (106) and kept going until we turned off 52 to head directly west, into the wind again, and out of the valley.

At that intersection was a strings teacher from Bismarck, psyching himself up for the climb. He joined us, and drafted (tailgated) off me very appreciatively. My low gearing allowed me to stay seated in the saddle, whereas his not-so-low gearing required him to stand up, all the better to catch the headwind. I was able to break the wind for him all the way up the hill (1-2 miles?). Once on top, it was into the wind for many miles to Torie's Treats, a rest stop in the middle of nowhere, except that at this Nowhere we were to turn north and have a side wind.

The lunches vary quite a bit from day to day, along with the facilities. Today's lunch was being served from a trailer, with a tarp stretched over to a pickup as shade. Trees? We'd left those in the valley, and the nearest ones on the prairie were in shelter belts. The specialty on the menu was roast beef sandwiches, served with your choice of barbeque sauce from a squeeze bottle. They sure beat granola bars and fig newtons!

From there, north to Kenmare with a side wind, except there was more head to it than there should have been. It was swinging around, and eventually settled in as a stiff headwind. The day was still young and Bowbells wasn't far off, so we took it in stride. At Kenmare it was back down into the valley, across the Des Lacs River, and back out of the valley. These hills in and out of the valleys vary in length and slope, but I'd say 1-2 miles at 5-8% grades would cover most of them. And today most were into the wind.

The last several miles were grueling. Once we were out of the valley, we saw some more prairie skyscrapers--elevators--several miles to the west. My first hope was that meant Bowbells, but I knew we needed to head north too. Dad said it was the town of Niobe. (*That* certainly isn't Norwegian or German! I just looked it up and it was named by the Dakota and Great Northern Townsite Company for the wife of Amphion, King of Thebes, in Greek mythology. Whatever.) We eventually made it to Bowbells, where a squad of (real!) cheerleaders had us ride over red carpet and pointed us to the city park. There we were greeted by kids handing out free waterbottles, or more importantly, free bottomless waterbottles filled with ice water. The kids hauled ice water around the park all afternoon keeping everyone's bottles filled. We took a liking to Bowbells in a hurry.

Dad was just along for the day, so Mom, Linda, Brian, and Melissa drove up from Carpio to pick him up. They left after 5, at which time I went to the school for a chicken barbeque picnic. I was anxious to get back to camp and keep reading the book I'd started in Burlington, so didn't wait around an hour to get in on Duke the Wonder Dog's act (as seen on Dave Letterman's stupid pet tricks). When I got back to the tent, I was dismayed to find that one of my neighbors from the night before had set up his tent right next to mine. The racket began at the same time: 9:45.