Back in Chicago (Don't worry, I'm not quitting)

For those of you who know me well, it will come as no surprise to you that in the midst of my cross-country bike trip, I am taking a mini road trip. In the past I've been known for crazy traveling feets-waking up in Boston at 4am to make a 9am meeting in Burlington; leaving Burlington at 4am to make a 9am class at Brandeis; flying from the West coast to the East coast for one day for a wedding; flying into Boston from Israel, just to leave a day and a half later for San Francisco, and then coming back to town to adopt a dog...the list goes on, and I keep telling myself you are getting older, these trips can be exhausting, it's time to slow down and enjoy life. So, I decided to bike cross country, which surprisingly enough, does not feel like a crazy traveling feet. We get up, we eat, we pedal, we sleep. It's not chaotic, or crazy. It's routine. But what was chaotic was when we got into Bismarck on Thursday, and I rented a car on Friday morning (where incidentally the man was SO nice, and gave me a free upgrade so I'd have cruise control, and a great weekend rate), to undo in 14 hours of driving what it had taken us 12 days to do on bikes-leave Chicago. So, with bike gear and bike in car, I backtracked our steps, ate way too much fast food (gross!), rolled out of the car last night at 11:30, crashed on Bern's futon, and am ready to wedding it up. With the awesome tan lines I'm sporting right now, I'm sure to be the most attractive person at the wedding, after the happy couple of course ;) Oh what I won't do for friends. But I tell you, right now I prefer traveling by bike.

So since I last posted in St. Cloud we had 5 really intense days. We did our first 100+ mile day, and then followed that with a 90 mile day, a couple 80 mile days and a 70 mile day to get us into Bismarck. We designated our first night in North Dakota, in the town of Wyndmere, our unofficial half way point, and went to the one open local restaurant to celebrate, where most of the meals seemed to follow the pattern of fried, with a side of fried, and salad consisting of ice berg lettuce and dressing, which incidentally they charged 25 cents for. While everyone has been really friendly in MN and ND, this place was the exception. They didn't seem to know what to do with us. I followed this celebratory dinner up with a pint of Edy's ice cream, explaining to Armin that I have always been able to eat a pint of ice cream, but only now can I do it without guilt. Since then I've really upped my ice cream eating. I haven't done a whole pint again, but if there is Ben and Jerry's Mint Chocolate Cookie, watch out!

Unlike what everyone had told us, North Dakota has not been flat or boring (I think you have to get off of Rt 94 to experience this side of the state). Perhaps it is my childhood love for watching Little House on the Prairie, but I find the rolling hills, and marsh land really beautiful. There has been great wildlife around the marshes, primarily birds, and lots of sunflower fields too. However, towns are few and far between, and when you do hit them they often consist of 90 people (As the agribusiness has become more mechanized, the farms take fewer and fewer people to run them, and so the towns keep shrinking.), and the land is really exposed. This means that any sun, rain, or wind really hits us, and yes, we have gotten all three. That northwest wind has really challenged us in the mornings, but by the afternoon it has turned in our favor a few times. We saw one huge wind farm, with hundreds of turbines in Edgeley (edgeley.com if you want to check it out Patrick), which was really cool, but was a constant reminder as we saw it approaching on the horizon that where there are wind farms there is wind. Sigh.

That has been ND thus far. I think it is fair to say that Armin, Ross, and I were all pretty beat when we rolled into Bismarck on Thursday afternoon. We went straight to the bike shop in town-as Armin was down 6 spokes, and hung out in McDonald's drinking too much mellow yellow as his bike was getting fixed, before "sleeping" on the lawn of our first mega church (neither Armin or I could actually sleep because of the copious amounts of mellow yellow in our system). In the morning we packed up, helped ourself to a very nice hotel continental breakfast (Mom and Dad forgive me, it was only once, and it's part of the adventure. And you know what they say-"it's only an adventure if someone gets a scar, or a free breakfast"...is that how it goes Anthony?), and then you know the rest...driving. I'll be here in Chicago until Monday morning before driving back to Bismarck, where Armin and Ross are so kindly waiting for me and exploring the splendors of the Capitol City. Thank you again. And then I'm happily looking forward to getting back on the road. I haven't had any more thoughts of quitting since that painful day in Wisconsin, and my rashes are all cleared up, but I am fully aware that getting on the bike again will probably hurt for the first couple days.

Finally, thanks to everyone for your posts. I love them, even if I don't respond to them individually. And to everyone who hasn't finished HP7 yet, I apologize for posting a spoiler without warning. I'm going back to change that posts title right now.