Day 30. Fargo, ND to Grand Forks, ND

87.2 miles
5:20 ST
16.3 avg

Well, this day started off differently than we had thought it would. Ooh, adventure. Not really. It was just rain.

Hmm, when we got up, it was fine. When we were ready to go, it wasn't. But, we rolled out anyway at 7:00 and followed Rick's instructions for getting out of town with the least amount of traffic. 

We hadn't put our jackets on because... well, I'm not sure why. Maybe we were remembering the rains we had ridden in down south; you know, warm rains. Maybe we were thinking it wouldn't last long. Or maybe we weren't thinking at all.

It wasn't too long before we had to stop to put on the jackets. I was COLD. Yep, first time. Soon after, Rick caught up to us on his bike so we just followed him through downtown to where he works.

By the time we made our way out of town - per Rick's instructions again - we were already at 10 miles, and we could see that the rain wasn't stopping anytime soon.

At 18 miles it began to let up and by mile 20 it was done. This was a very welcome sight.

Obviously, we were soaked, but what do you do? You keep on keeping on. At 29 miles we stopped for a short break. At 49 miles we stopped in Hillsboro for a REAL break. Hot soup and sandwich. It was only 10:30 and we had already burned through our breakfast, plus we needed to dry out.

When we were leaving a young lady asked us the usual questions, "How far are you riding? Where are you going?" After we explained our purpose, she handed us $30! It's so cool how God encourages us sometimes.

We had been riding hwy 81 up to Hillsboro but decided to get onto I-29 mainly because it was right there by Subway. Shortly thereafter we came to some construction.

We were able to ride in the blocked-off lane, which was a blessing because the traffic flow was moved over to the right lane and then the shoulder - which had big, bad rumble strips the entire width.

A few miles of that then we were able to jump back to hwy 81 which we rode into Grand Forks. Riding through the Red River Valley, we saw miles and miles of gorgeous farmland.

I can remember my Dad, who was born and raised just south of Grand Forks (In Reynolds, which we rode by.), talking about the rich, black soil here. And he was right. I read later today about the large "bonanza" farms here in the valley in the late 19th century. There were 91of them, each thousands of acres, and there were multitudes of immigrants who worked 15 hours a day on them.

We rolled into the Grand Forks Wal-Mart just before 2:00 and after stocking up (Last Wal-Mart for a bunch of days now.), we rode to our motel. (Rain tonight and tomorrow.)

We are going to take tomorrow off as we've ridden 234 miles in three days. The next several days will be a challenge as we try to figure out how to get to the border and back down towards Jamestown. Not very many towns have accommodations, plus the weather is not particularly promising.

This is what the bike looks like after miles and miles in the rain.

And this is what my legs look like after miles and miles in the rain. Nice, huh?

We had to laugh today when we hit a bump and Silver Streak chucked off the front pack into the road.

I really liked these buildings we passed today.

Thank you, thank you for your continued prayer for us. We know what a commitment it takes on your part for this long. We thank God for each of you.

More tomorrow, 

Pat