Sunday at a glance
Miles	61.1
Mph	16.0
Max Speed	31.2
Route	Ft. Stevenson State Park to Velva via Ruso.
Wind	15-20 mph from the northwest, a tailwind, and then a headwind.
Temperature	mid 60s to mid 70s
Elapsed Time	4:21:27
Clock Time	7:00 - 11:30

I think I heard the first alarm go off at 4am this morning. I don't understand the need for people to get up that early on CANDISC, nor does Dad, so we still had a couple more hours of sleep ahead of us. We didn't quite make it two more hours, as all of camp seemed to be up. We were on the road by 7, with comfortable riding conditions, and clouds to the east and south. "It wasn't supposed to rain until maybe this afternoon," was the report. That was looking a bit optimistic.

I started out the ride with a little glitch: I couldn't zero out the bike computer from its last trip. That had occurred two months ago, which happened to be the second trip with this computer. In other words, I forgot the correct sequence of button pushing over that time period! I did have the manual along, but it was in my bag, on the truck. Oh well... The stoker computer was functional and became the primary.

The ride to the first rest stop was, well, pretty; North Dakota at some of its finest. They'd had rain and pastures and fields and wetlands looked good. I was hoping to catch a field of flax in bloom but was out of luck today. Dad said it was a bit late in the season for that, but there's always been at least a straggler field or two on CANDISC in full blue/lavender glory. The other "must experience event this week" was hearing western meadowlarks singing. There was one on a fence post early on singing his heart out, and that was the last one of the week!

We were biking along and near the north shore of Lake Audubon. Signs appeared enroute as we neared the first rest stop: Free caramel rolls! Well then, this rest stop was already a good candidate in my mind for the "best rest stop" vote at the end of the ride! But alas, there must have been an inside joke with that, as the rolls weren't free. But they were delicious anyway!

The rest stop was just after a little causeway across part of the lake. The road was also heading south at that point instead of east, right toward the dark clouds. While we were at the stop, lightning in the south brought back an erie reminder of getting caught on CANDISC in a severe thunderstorm in '05, outside the southwestern town of Mott. Our best guess was that it was heading northeast. That meant that even though we'd be turning east again shortly, we could be in trouble.

Fortunately, that was about as dramatic as it got. The clouds stayed to the south, looking impressive, but we were happy to turn north and away from them a short hour later. What we lost in the excitement about "Is a storm coming?", we gained in monotony with a headwind. Good ol' North Dakota. We just kept pedalling until we got to Velva. A couple of rest stops along the way included "nuns," and the Velva highschool cheerleaders.

We pulled into the Velva city park at 11:30. Sixty-one miles and three rest stops and thirty miles of headwind in four and a half hours--not a bad first day ride at all. We were pretty hungry, so after getting the tent set up, we hunted down "tacos in a bag" at the main gathering area in the park. They went down pretty easily. Showers followed, along with "hanging out," a major activity on CANDISC.

There were several activities planned by our Velva hosts for the afternoon, and we did head out on a bus to tour the wind farm just north of town. There wasn't much to actually tour, but a fellow from Acciona Energia, the creator of the windfarm, met us out there and gave us a presentation and answered many questions.

In short, there are eighteen windmills, with rotor diameters of 47 meters (154 ft), three blades of 23 m (75.5 ft), sitting on 65 m (213 ft) towers. They operate within a range of 9 to 56 mph winds, shutting down on their own if those limits are exceeded. Each produces 660 kW, and the eighteen combined can power 4000-6000 homes in the area.

Another interesting tidbit about the windmills is that a power cable hangs from the generator to the floor. If a windmill kept chasing the wind, for example, in a clockwise direction only, that cable would wind up and eventually break. To prevent this, the windmill is limited to 360 degrees of rotation, or one full circle. If, let's say, from a point of reference it has turned 350 degrees, and the wind switches so it wants to rotate 20 degrees more, it can't, as that would put its rotation at 370 degrees, or more than one full circle. Instead, it shuts down the blades, and rotates the other direction 340 degrees to a relative position of 10 degrees, and lets the blades start spinning again. If you see a field of windmills with an occasional one not spinning, chances are it has shut itself down and is rotating. Stick around a few short minutes and it should start up again once it reaches the new optimium orientation.

Back at the ranch..er..city park, an egg toss had gotten going, but we didn't jump in to test our skills. They were still at it when Mom, Brian, Melissa, and Krista showed up from Minot. We watched the final competition and then got a ride on Velva's old firetruck to the corral grounds for the steak fondue supper. Afterward, several kids and their horses put on a show for us in the corral with various games--some timed and some just for fun.

We walked back to the city park, encountering a triple bike on the way back--a three-seater. It made my tandem look short! The owners were in camp and we visited with them a bit--a father, daughter, and friend trio from Kansas City. In fact, he was the owner of the company that sold the triple! He was hence a goldmine of information for us.

It was almost sunset when we got back to our tent, so the others went back to Minot, and we were on our own for the week.

Best quote heard in camp: "Don't wrestle a chain while wearing a white t-shirt. That shirt had a short life span!"