First of all, this post was brought to you by Chuckwagon. When we visited him, he gave us his mobile broadband card to use in case we were in an area without wifi. Here we are in Hope North Dakota, in our tents, in a city park by a pool, with no wifi access......the mobile broadband unit works great! Thanks Chuckwagon! Also, thanks to Roger and Dee for the mobile battery pack that is powering the Wifi, and the Laptop from Mike at work that is posting this. Most trips would just end in me sleeping, but now I can stay up late posting here! Yeah.....kinda.

Our journey to Hope started with trying to find out way out of Fargo. That town just didn't want to let us go....it is a lot bigger town than I had imagined. Also, the hippy colored buffalos all over town were unique. The adventure cycling route through Fargo was excellent however, and gave us a great tour of the town which is quite nice.

The first 20 miles today were the best riding I have ever had. We had a 15mph direct tailwind on a flat straight road, with no hills, perfectly freshly built asphalt, no cars.....simply amazing. We clipped along at just under 20mph easily. When we stopped to eat some apples, the flags were whipping forward! SWEET!

The motel last night was packed with kids, so it was a bit rough getting sleep. We had a new first on this trip.....TJ ran out of gas....even with the tailwind. The lack of sleep seemed to catch up to him. Up until today, he was always asking to go faster, further, longer.........today he was just asking to pitch his tent.

Those of you concerned about Roger should be happy to know that he is eating healthy. Salads every day.

After the tailwind, the wind kinda turned against us when we turned West on a 34 mile stretch of highway without any turns. It wasn't all boring though; we did get to see a turtle, a puppy, and a couple ducks. Good times.

We considered 25 more miles until Cooperstown, but locals say a festival is in town and we worry it might be packed at the campgrounds. The city of hope offered us free camping, free showers, and free swimming......hard to beat. We pitched our tents and hit the town (mostly just showered).

Everyone in Hope is really friendly...reminds me a bit of Iowa. It is amazing how much more cycling friendly Wisconsins Neighbors are. I cannot think of a single road in Wisconsin which was as bike friendly as the hundreds of miles we have seen in Minnesota and North Dakota. Wisconsin could learn a lot from its neighbors. This picture should give us all Hope!

This one will cost me some sleep!

The Hope pool is a perfect stop for bikers. Since the showers only have hot water, it worked out perfectly that I let the girls use up the hot water before I showered. The great people of Hope are even leaving the pool bathrooms and showers unlocked tonight...so we have them if needed. That is so cool. I notice they are raising money to try and repair a problem with their pool; I think I will pitch in 10 bucks tomorrow.

The sky seems to always be more intimidating in these flat areas. It just feels bigger. Big sky country is coming.

We ate at RJs, played on the playground, and went to bed. What a perfect day.

Well, I have to wrap this up. I hear roger already snoring, and I still have not figured out where the darn mosquitos are getting in my tent. Hmmmm.

71 miles (642 total)