Day 24th September 11th
Poor Billy's bike. We were sitting outside a cafe, about to go in and read for a bit when a lovely lady named Yvonne stopped to talk to us. She said shed love to invite us over for the night but she would have to convince her husband. We told her no worries if he said no, but we would love it if he said yes. We went inside and not more than 20 minutes later she came into the cafe and told us that she forgot they had plans for the night and told us it was going to rain and we should get a hotel room and gave us $50! We were astonished. We then spent the night at the super 8 and soaked it up in the hot tub and had a great breakfast. Thank you, Yvonne!
Day 25 Saturday September 12th
We were going to go an easy 40 miles to Culbertson but we ventured out of the way to go to Fort Union trading post. We spent several hours talking with two of the employees there, about fur and tribes and the history of the place. It slowed us down a bit but he was quite funny. 1804, the road we were on turned into gravel so we had to take hwy 5, which was 12 miles of some vicious hills. I saw a big snake and it tried to eat me. It gave me the creeps. We met up withe hwy 2 and got into Montana and went through 13 miles of pain in the ass construction. We ended the day going 70 miles .
Day 26 Saturday September 13th
107miles. My oh my. We got wine to celebrate once we got to Glassgow, in time to ride with a beautiful sunset and lots of lightning(but no rain).
Day 27 Sunday September 14th
I was so sore. We only rode about 45 miles to Saco. The wind was working against us and my muscles were overworked. The mosquitos were so bad in this area, if I was going up a hill they devoured me until I could get my speed up again. We slept about 10 feet from the train tracks which woke us up enough, the ground would shake when we would go by. I put the tent(sorry, Billy) a little too close to the sprinklers so at 2 am when they started we had to move the tent. The night was as rough as the day.
Day 28 Monday September 15th
It was a hot day, we road from Saco to Harlem adn it was 78 miles. We were going to go out to eat in Harlem but all the(the two) resturants closed at 7 and we were a half hour too late.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
Here in Williston, ND
So after hanging out at the library for a while, we decided to go to the campsite, but stopped at a bike shop on the way. It wasn't really a real bike shop so we left after 2 minutes, but the bike rack outside suck and my bike fell over and bent my rim! The first major damage of the whole trip. Now its trued as best as I can get it, but I couldn't quite bang the bend out of it but maybe when we find another bike shop in probably like 700 miles they could help me. O well. So we're taking this day off and heading through Montana on US route 2. We should be heading through Poplar, Glasgow, Havre, Shelby and getting to Glacier Nat. Park in about 6 or 7 days. I guess you're trip was a couple weeks too early mom and dad.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
North Dakota
September 6th Day 19
Today we split up with Dan and Anona, we wer on different schedules and they were moving a little too fast for me. It was fun while it lasted. It was a hot day with a great wind. We stayed in Washburn, which was about 50 miles away. We stayed at Riverside park and Billy and I broke into the ship, the Souix Ferry, we make great pirates. The ship was on land and surrounded by a fence. We had marshmellows by the fire and as I was reading with the setting sun everything felt perfect. Well, until a cop showed up. Ha, it was fine we were just supossed to call the city and let them know we were having a fire(how on earth were we supossed to know that??!!) and he was nice to us.
September 7th Day 20
We rode to Gaarrison, ND today. We got a little lost trying to find Ft. Stevenson, the campground but all was well. We went 50 miles and the sun was shining. The park was really nice, there was a sign for Prarie Dog Town and I was very excited. Unfortunalty we never found any prarie dogs. There was a historic cannon from when the park used to be a Fort and it was made is Wisconsin! wahoo! The sky was clear all day except for when we were cleaning up dinner the sun stayed out and we got drizzled on for maybe ten minutes. We went to bed everything normal. At four am, we didnt know it was four, so sometime in the night we were awoken with heavy rain and tremendous wind. It started to blow our tent over on us. It was terrifing, I thought for sure we were going to wither a) suffocate or b) get blown off the cliff we were on into the river(still Missouri River). Niether happened. We got dressed and picked up the tent and ran to the bathroom, which wasnt that close. We were instantley soaked. We slept the next four hours in the womens bathroom and dryed our tshirts and sleeping bags with the hand dryer...our jeans and my sweatshirt were hopeless.
September 8th Day 21
So we woke up in a bathroom(crappy) and thats just about how the rest of the day went. Billy conned me into waking up only by the temptation of diner breakfast 4 miles away. So we packed up all the wetness and biked to town, dryed our clothes, ate and moved along. We braced ourselves for a late start(about noon instead of nine) and the 80 mile trip ahead. The wind blew hard in our faces, we climbed lots of hills and it rained. If there had been a town maybe we would have stopped but there wasnt anything until about 7 miles east of New Towne. We made it there a little after nine. The last thirteen miles of our trip were on hwy 23, busy and dark. It was cold and scary but we made it to Van Hook park in less than an hour, we rode fast and hard and arriving was quite the reward.
September 9th Day 22
Tpdau we wemt 60 miles, it was almost as hard as yesterday, we had sun but still hills and wind. We had coffee and each ate 700+ calories of coffee cake so we had a great start. We got to the Lewis and Clark State Park a little after eight where we got cola from the campground host, had hot showers and met some of the neighbors. My butt is so sore.
Today we split up with Dan and Anona, we wer on different schedules and they were moving a little too fast for me. It was fun while it lasted. It was a hot day with a great wind. We stayed in Washburn, which was about 50 miles away. We stayed at Riverside park and Billy and I broke into the ship, the Souix Ferry, we make great pirates. The ship was on land and surrounded by a fence. We had marshmellows by the fire and as I was reading with the setting sun everything felt perfect. Well, until a cop showed up. Ha, it was fine we were just supossed to call the city and let them know we were having a fire(how on earth were we supossed to know that??!!) and he was nice to us.
September 7th Day 20
We rode to Gaarrison, ND today. We got a little lost trying to find Ft. Stevenson, the campground but all was well. We went 50 miles and the sun was shining. The park was really nice, there was a sign for Prarie Dog Town and I was very excited. Unfortunalty we never found any prarie dogs. There was a historic cannon from when the park used to be a Fort and it was made is Wisconsin! wahoo! The sky was clear all day except for when we were cleaning up dinner the sun stayed out and we got drizzled on for maybe ten minutes. We went to bed everything normal. At four am, we didnt know it was four, so sometime in the night we were awoken with heavy rain and tremendous wind. It started to blow our tent over on us. It was terrifing, I thought for sure we were going to wither a) suffocate or b) get blown off the cliff we were on into the river(still Missouri River). Niether happened. We got dressed and picked up the tent and ran to the bathroom, which wasnt that close. We were instantley soaked. We slept the next four hours in the womens bathroom and dryed our tshirts and sleeping bags with the hand dryer...our jeans and my sweatshirt were hopeless.
September 8th Day 21
So we woke up in a bathroom(crappy) and thats just about how the rest of the day went. Billy conned me into waking up only by the temptation of diner breakfast 4 miles away. So we packed up all the wetness and biked to town, dryed our clothes, ate and moved along. We braced ourselves for a late start(about noon instead of nine) and the 80 mile trip ahead. The wind blew hard in our faces, we climbed lots of hills and it rained. If there had been a town maybe we would have stopped but there wasnt anything until about 7 miles east of New Towne. We made it there a little after nine. The last thirteen miles of our trip were on hwy 23, busy and dark. It was cold and scary but we made it to Van Hook park in less than an hour, we rode fast and hard and arriving was quite the reward.
September 9th Day 22
Tpdau we wemt 60 miles, it was almost as hard as yesterday, we had sun but still hills and wind. We had coffee and each ate 700+ calories of coffee cake so we had a great start. We got to the Lewis and Clark State Park a little after eight where we got cola from the campground host, had hot showers and met some of the neighbors. My butt is so sore.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
South Dakota and North Dakota
Friday August 28th Day 10
Roday we left Gregs. Due to the intensifing pain in my sprained/twisted ankle we only rode 25 miles. We landed in a tiny town called Arlington. We had mexican food at a small cafe, which seemed to be serving the entire town while we were there. It was more like a cafeteria. The sour cream came in little tubes like in high school, and when i squeezed mine, mold came out. Ew. We decided to splurge and spend $40 on a motel room. It was the pheasant motel, the lady who owned it was the same lady who cooked our food at the cafe!!! We watched three movies and layed in bed all day. It was wonderful. It was a little overdoing it, after the enchiladas we had microwave cheese nuggets, animal crackers and a milkshake. My whole body felt a little awful.
Saturday August 29th Day 11
We traveled about 60 miles today to Huron, SD. We stayed in a park on the outskirts of town, not before posing for a few pictures with the worlds largest pheasant!!! We had some time to kill so we made a big dinner, read and enjoyed being outdoors.
Sunday August 30th Day 12
Today we planned to go 65 miles or so but once we had gone about 50 I saw a sign for a drive in movie theater playing the 6th Harry Potter movie. Billy was easy to convince to stay so we got wine, carry out from a bar because everything else closed at 5pm, some snack foods and popcorn and biked to the drive in movie. We ended up staying only a little longer than half because we didnt plan for how cold in was going to be. It was about 50 degrees, which made sitting outside in the wind watching a movie unbearable. The next drive in we go to ill bring my sleeping bag, lesson learned.
Monday August 31st Day 13
Today was a very hard day. The first and last 25 miles out of about 80 we had wind blowing at us from the sides and the front. I had heard that a semi could knock a bicycle over and I wasnt sure that was true until now. The cross wind was so powerful that even without a semi's burst of wind it was hard to keep your bike from falling over. There were these strange long load dump trucks that kept passing us and showering our backs with gravel, every 5 minutes one would pass and Id have to get off the very narrow shoulder to make way. We finally made it to Pierre, SD, the capital city. While we were setting up our tent alonside the Missouri river we saw what looked like to be another couple bicycle touring. We chatted with them for a bit and made plans to talk in the morning.
Tuesday September 1st Day 14
Today we took our day off in Pierre(everyone here pronounces it Pier...). We did laundry, Wal Mart shopped...I had to get a wall charger and cord for my ipod and when I was at Wal Mart I found each seperatley for 20 bucks each. I was mad but I know I need music. After a while in the iphone section I came along an all in one and it was only 15 dollars!!! That was a reason to celebrate! I was in a fantastic mood, I started spray painting my panniers(the bags that hold our stuff), listening to music, writting postcards with a beautiful view. Soon, Billy and our new companions, Dan and Anona joined me. They were both from Champaign, IL. We talked about our recent visit there and to the bars C Street and Soma. They had left from St Louis and were moving to Portland, Oregon. We plan to ride with them for a week or so. We had a great dinner of burritos, its easier to shop for 4 people when you dont have a refridgerator instead of 2.
Happy Birthday Jamie!
Wednesday September 2nd Day 15
I saw a dead snake today that was like 5 feet long and the girth of my fist. Scared me shitless. We stopped at this old house on the side of the road and explored it. It was leaning over and we found besides rubble, couch springs an old sink and furance. It was a little eerie. I had one of the best showers of my life.
Thursday September 3rd Day 16
Today we had a hard day. It was suposed to be an easy 40 miles and I was excited for the time off. Instead we went 90. The group asked me if this was okay, and I said yes but I dont think I had a choice. I felt quite left out and incapable of biking as hard and fast as Billy, Dan and Anona. But we made it to Pollock, SD and we found a campground and then went to the local watering hole called the SandBar, there we met Doug, Elaine and a few locals. Elaine was 49(she kept reminding us), and drunk. She kept rubbing my arm telling me how young and thin I was and that boy does she give us credit and that I should marry Billy and that he was real good looking. We each had a drink or two and pizza and learned all about farming in South Dakota. It was great, after being called crazy about 100 times we retired.
Friday September 4th Day 17
Today there were so many hills! The kind of hills I would have walked up two weeks ago, but I didnt! Billy and I went 60 miles and Dan and Anona kept on to Bismark which was another 30+ miles away. We saw a dead porcupine. Tomorrow we will take a half day off in Bismark. Oh yea, state three, North Dakota!!!
Saturday September 5th Day 18
We made it to Bismark by 1030 after meeting some of our nice camper neighbors. We ate a diner breakfast that was incredible! This town seems quite nice, hopefully the rest of the day will be great!
Roday we left Gregs. Due to the intensifing pain in my sprained/twisted ankle we only rode 25 miles. We landed in a tiny town called Arlington. We had mexican food at a small cafe, which seemed to be serving the entire town while we were there. It was more like a cafeteria. The sour cream came in little tubes like in high school, and when i squeezed mine, mold came out. Ew. We decided to splurge and spend $40 on a motel room. It was the pheasant motel, the lady who owned it was the same lady who cooked our food at the cafe!!! We watched three movies and layed in bed all day. It was wonderful. It was a little overdoing it, after the enchiladas we had microwave cheese nuggets, animal crackers and a milkshake. My whole body felt a little awful.
Saturday August 29th Day 11
We traveled about 60 miles today to Huron, SD. We stayed in a park on the outskirts of town, not before posing for a few pictures with the worlds largest pheasant!!! We had some time to kill so we made a big dinner, read and enjoyed being outdoors.
Sunday August 30th Day 12
Today we planned to go 65 miles or so but once we had gone about 50 I saw a sign for a drive in movie theater playing the 6th Harry Potter movie. Billy was easy to convince to stay so we got wine, carry out from a bar because everything else closed at 5pm, some snack foods and popcorn and biked to the drive in movie. We ended up staying only a little longer than half because we didnt plan for how cold in was going to be. It was about 50 degrees, which made sitting outside in the wind watching a movie unbearable. The next drive in we go to ill bring my sleeping bag, lesson learned.
Monday August 31st Day 13
Today was a very hard day. The first and last 25 miles out of about 80 we had wind blowing at us from the sides and the front. I had heard that a semi could knock a bicycle over and I wasnt sure that was true until now. The cross wind was so powerful that even without a semi's burst of wind it was hard to keep your bike from falling over. There were these strange long load dump trucks that kept passing us and showering our backs with gravel, every 5 minutes one would pass and Id have to get off the very narrow shoulder to make way. We finally made it to Pierre, SD, the capital city. While we were setting up our tent alonside the Missouri river we saw what looked like to be another couple bicycle touring. We chatted with them for a bit and made plans to talk in the morning.
Tuesday September 1st Day 14
Today we took our day off in Pierre(everyone here pronounces it Pier...). We did laundry, Wal Mart shopped...I had to get a wall charger and cord for my ipod and when I was at Wal Mart I found each seperatley for 20 bucks each. I was mad but I know I need music. After a while in the iphone section I came along an all in one and it was only 15 dollars!!! That was a reason to celebrate! I was in a fantastic mood, I started spray painting my panniers(the bags that hold our stuff), listening to music, writting postcards with a beautiful view. Soon, Billy and our new companions, Dan and Anona joined me. They were both from Champaign, IL. We talked about our recent visit there and to the bars C Street and Soma. They had left from St Louis and were moving to Portland, Oregon. We plan to ride with them for a week or so. We had a great dinner of burritos, its easier to shop for 4 people when you dont have a refridgerator instead of 2.
Happy Birthday Jamie!
Wednesday September 2nd Day 15
I saw a dead snake today that was like 5 feet long and the girth of my fist. Scared me shitless. We stopped at this old house on the side of the road and explored it. It was leaning over and we found besides rubble, couch springs an old sink and furance. It was a little eerie. I had one of the best showers of my life.
Thursday September 3rd Day 16
Today we had a hard day. It was suposed to be an easy 40 miles and I was excited for the time off. Instead we went 90. The group asked me if this was okay, and I said yes but I dont think I had a choice. I felt quite left out and incapable of biking as hard and fast as Billy, Dan and Anona. But we made it to Pollock, SD and we found a campground and then went to the local watering hole called the SandBar, there we met Doug, Elaine and a few locals. Elaine was 49(she kept reminding us), and drunk. She kept rubbing my arm telling me how young and thin I was and that boy does she give us credit and that I should marry Billy and that he was real good looking. We each had a drink or two and pizza and learned all about farming in South Dakota. It was great, after being called crazy about 100 times we retired.
Friday September 4th Day 17
Today there were so many hills! The kind of hills I would have walked up two weeks ago, but I didnt! Billy and I went 60 miles and Dan and Anona kept on to Bismark which was another 30+ miles away. We saw a dead porcupine. Tomorrow we will take a half day off in Bismark. Oh yea, state three, North Dakota!!!
Saturday September 5th Day 18
We made it to Bismark by 1030 after meeting some of our nice camper neighbors. We ate a diner breakfast that was incredible! This town seems quite nice, hopefully the rest of the day will be great!
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Care Packages
If anyone wants to send us a care package, we are well aware that you cant actually mail us things, so feel free to make a donation and let us know what you want us to use it for! Cookies and diner breakfast's are welcome!!!
paypal: email arimarron@yahoo.com
more to come soon!
paypal: email arimarron@yahoo.com
more to come soon!
Friday, August 28, 2009
A Visual Summary
A rough map of our journey so far, we're venturing to Pierre, SD soon and then over to Wyoming!
RECAP: WISCONSIN, MINNESOTA, AND SOUTH DAKOTA
Week One: Day One (August 19th)
We left Madison, Wisconsin around 11am. I was anxious for what was ahead. We traveled 52 miles in about 5 hours. We took a ferry to the town of Merrimac. It ended up raining on us quite a bit, we spent a half hour biking around Devils Lake trying to find the check in and our site and it was quite miserable. Billy’s moustache-less face will take some getting used to.
Week One: Day Two (August 20th)
Hills, hills, hills, wind and of course more rain. At one point it was raining so hard I felt like I would never be dry, ever. We biked about 40 miles and stayed at a walk in campsite.
Week One: Day Three (August 21st)
Much fairer weather today, much less rain. We rode 67 miles and stayed at a small hick campground about 5 miles from the trail we took to La Crosse. They even had a bar onsite! Ha, we didn’t take advantage of it though, Billy was crabby from the rain and it was getting cold so we ate and went to bed.
Week One: Day Four (August 22nd)
Today was Billy and my six month anniversary! Wahoo! It was sunny and not to hot! I saw a turtle in a marsh and we both some deer. We met two German Sheppard dogs and named them Pal II and Pal III they were well behaved. We biked 76 miles and stayed in a town called Pepin, finally a whole day without any rain!
Week One: Day Five (August 23rd)
WE MADE IT TO MINNEAPOLIS!!! Only after eleven hours of riding, almost 90 miles. We got to Ty and Kelly’s’ place around 10pm and hurried to grab some pizza.
Week One: Day Six (August 24th)
Today was our first day off. We went to the Como Zoo and got ice cream and spent time at a small café. We visited Kelly at work, I had a glass of wine, Ty and Billy had beer and we all had dessert.
THANK YOU TY AND KELLY FOR HOSTING US!!!
Week One: Day Seven (August 25th)
The sun came out at a great time today! The ride went well, Billy was about a mile or so ahead of me on the Luce Line trail, and old railway going west out of the twin cities for 60 miles. We got to a small town and the trail split up, I biked around trying to find it and started to panic, thinking Billy and I were separated. He turned around and found me, in tears on a parking bench. He was also worried if I had gotten lost, stolen or hurt. Now we will stay much closer together.
Week Two: Day Eight (August 26th)
We rode 72 miles today to Montevideo, MN. We stayed at a lovely park with sauna style bathrooms! It was early when we got to the camp, today was an easy day for riding. We had a big meal! The last 17 miles of our trip was on a road that was blocked off under construction. We didn’t want to navigate 10 miles around it, so we gave it a try. It was wonderful, It was a brand new paved road with just us on it! Billy chased a butterfly and we were both in high spirits!
Week Two: Day Nine (August 27th)
Today we traveled 82 miles. I saw quite a few dead snakes and it worried me quite a bit. We stayed in Castlewood, SD. STATE NUMBER THREE!!! We stayed at a man named Greg’s house who we met on the website warm showers. He had two adorable daughters Katie and Lyndsay. We camped in their yard, had a beer and took nice indoor showers with fluffy towels!
THANK YOU GREG AND FAMILY!
We left Madison, Wisconsin around 11am. I was anxious for what was ahead. We traveled 52 miles in about 5 hours. We took a ferry to the town of Merrimac. It ended up raining on us quite a bit, we spent a half hour biking around Devils Lake trying to find the check in and our site and it was quite miserable. Billy’s moustache-less face will take some getting used to.
Week One: Day Two (August 20th)
Hills, hills, hills, wind and of course more rain. At one point it was raining so hard I felt like I would never be dry, ever. We biked about 40 miles and stayed at a walk in campsite.
Week One: Day Three (August 21st)
Much fairer weather today, much less rain. We rode 67 miles and stayed at a small hick campground about 5 miles from the trail we took to La Crosse. They even had a bar onsite! Ha, we didn’t take advantage of it though, Billy was crabby from the rain and it was getting cold so we ate and went to bed.
Week One: Day Four (August 22nd)
Today was Billy and my six month anniversary! Wahoo! It was sunny and not to hot! I saw a turtle in a marsh and we both some deer. We met two German Sheppard dogs and named them Pal II and Pal III they were well behaved. We biked 76 miles and stayed in a town called Pepin, finally a whole day without any rain!
Week One: Day Five (August 23rd)
WE MADE IT TO MINNEAPOLIS!!! Only after eleven hours of riding, almost 90 miles. We got to Ty and Kelly’s’ place around 10pm and hurried to grab some pizza.
Week One: Day Six (August 24th)
Today was our first day off. We went to the Como Zoo and got ice cream and spent time at a small café. We visited Kelly at work, I had a glass of wine, Ty and Billy had beer and we all had dessert.
THANK YOU TY AND KELLY FOR HOSTING US!!!
Week One: Day Seven (August 25th)
The sun came out at a great time today! The ride went well, Billy was about a mile or so ahead of me on the Luce Line trail, and old railway going west out of the twin cities for 60 miles. We got to a small town and the trail split up, I biked around trying to find it and started to panic, thinking Billy and I were separated. He turned around and found me, in tears on a parking bench. He was also worried if I had gotten lost, stolen or hurt. Now we will stay much closer together.
Week Two: Day Eight (August 26th)
We rode 72 miles today to Montevideo, MN. We stayed at a lovely park with sauna style bathrooms! It was early when we got to the camp, today was an easy day for riding. We had a big meal! The last 17 miles of our trip was on a road that was blocked off under construction. We didn’t want to navigate 10 miles around it, so we gave it a try. It was wonderful, It was a brand new paved road with just us on it! Billy chased a butterfly and we were both in high spirits!
Week Two: Day Nine (August 27th)
Today we traveled 82 miles. I saw quite a few dead snakes and it worried me quite a bit. We stayed in Castlewood, SD. STATE NUMBER THREE!!! We stayed at a man named Greg’s house who we met on the website warm showers. He had two adorable daughters Katie and Lyndsay. We camped in their yard, had a beer and took nice indoor showers with fluffy towels!
THANK YOU GREG AND FAMILY!
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