North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin

If you've been following the news, you know that North Dakota has had a lot of water.  In fact, Minot, ND, one of the cities along our planned route has had historic floods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Souris_River_flood).  Much of our route through ND was under water.  Because we preferred not to divert resources from and add congestion to the flood-stricken area, we decided to drive across the state.  Even Interstate 94 had sections that were covered in water.

To find a campsite in North Dakota, we relied on the Garmin Nuvi, which we frequently do without incident.  In this case, however, the Garmin took us down 3 miles of road which deteriorated from packed gravel, to mud.  Myna and the Rav-4 took the mud in stride, though there were some nervous moments.  When we arrived at the location that Garmin said was the campsite, we were next to the highway and an overpass in a muddy section of fallow field.  The area was completely dark.  The upside of this was that the night sky was amazing.  I don't think I have ever seen the stars and the milky way in such clear detail.  I forgot to take a picture, but don't think it could really do the vision justice anyway.  We programmed in a nearby town, and wound up camping on the site of a school which had been removed when the towns consolidated educational facilities.

Site of the Eckelson, ND school which served as a campsite for 5 hours.

 The next day, we drove to the edge of North Dakota and rode the last half mile from Whapeton, ND into Minnesota. 

Waiting for the train in Whapeton, ND

Minnesota was pretty flat and windy (crosswind mostly); and planted to corn and soybeans.  At an intersection, a man pulled up and asked if we were riding across the country.  It turns out that his daughter ran across Minnesota to raise money for cancer research.  Here is her blog (http://www.runxmn.blogspot.com/).  

Along route 7 in Minnesota.

Wisconsin was more hilly.  Dawn and Tom joined us for the ride.

John drafting Dawn

Tom - Ex Army Ranger, Owner of Old Bogies bar and a strong rider.

Old Bogie's with the boss "Maggie" in the foreground.

Old Bogies (http://oldbogiesbar.blogspot.com/) is a beautiful wood building that compliments the forest setting.  The people were friendly.  The beers on tap were from the Angry Minnow in Hayward, WI. 

The view from Tom's deck overlooking the Chippewa River

To date, I've ridden 728 miles and the team has ridden a total of 1780 miles.  We are taking a rest day here at Tom's.