Another CANDISC had arrived, the sixth since its inception, and in the traditional manner, the starting point was Fort Stevenson State Park three miles south of Garrison, North Dakota. I'd cycled on two others ('95 and '97) so the logistics were getting to be routine: pack up in Shoreview, MN, the day before and take the family on a ten hour trip to my folks in Carpio, ND (25 miles northwest of Minot on US52). We cyclists then rendezvous the evening before the first day of riding at the state park, get oriented, re-acquainted with old friends, maybe have some supper, and then try to get some sleep.

Dad was hurting for vacation time and had to work Sunday, so I was to head down with his gear too (to make sure it got on the truck the next morning), and then he'd start out in the afternoon on his own from the park when he was ready. I got to thinking that there was no reason two cars had to sit at the park during the week, so to drag myself out of the doghouse just a little for starting such an activity as CANDISC on our anniversary, I asked Linda to come down and spend the night with me. As a bonus, I took her out for supper at Janet (sister) and Todd's in Minot, where we left the kids for Mom and Dad to later pick up and take back to Carpio. Confused? :-) I think everyone else was too. But it worked! Except that in the end, we ended up with no cars spending the week at the park. So much for routine logistics!

We got to the park before 8, just in time to get in on a rain shower. Actually, we scrambled to get the tent up before it started raining so that it would be on dry ground for the night. The rain was brief, and left a full double rainbow behind. I skipped the orientation as I hadn't been to one yet (Peter gave me his condensed version of it while we set up the tent back in '95, and in '97 I ended up gabbing with friends and acquaintances while trying to put up my tent and missed it), and we walked around the campground for a while instead.

Once the sun went down, there wasn't much reason to stay up, so we didn't. Unfortunately, our non-CANDISC neighbors were having a good time and weren't ready to call it a day for quite some time. And another set needed their air conditioner running all night, so mixed in with some anticipation and anxiety, the night started out restlessly.