'Well at least we can't get hit by a Tsunami...'

Cancer donations here

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I have recently come to realize that its actually really difficult to keep this blog up to date…

Additionally (but equally unrelated), I’ve had a lot of people ask me if I’m married or had kids, or what I did (like career wise), which is kinda weird… maybe a shower, haircut, and shave would be a prudent investment.

So! Where to begin…

After taking two days to weather the weather (pun intended) I set off on what was the most perfect day of biking ever known to man, beast, or wizard: It was sunny, warm, the road had a nice shoulder, and I had a tailwind. I saw a rest stop and what should have been the easier left turn I’ve ever done (Derrick Zoolander would agree) was complicated slightly by the gravel on the road. I barely even started the turn when I went down (if you’ve ever seen a wakeboarder catch a front edge, it was kinda like that). I hit the ground going I think about 30km/h, bounced once, and then skidded until I was in the middle of the entranceway facing back the way I came. Some very nice but confused people stopped and gave me some napkins and helped me up while Daffyd came over. I subsequently decided to repaint the sink of the rest stop red, and after that was done I made the very wise choice to drive the rest of the way into Devil’s Lake, where Doctor Daffyd Cook got everything bandaged up.

The next day we went to see a very nice physio (who didn’t even charge for the appointment!!!) and said I had no major muscle damage (even though my hip stabilizers so painful I could barely walk), and recommended (yes as strange as it seems) a rolling pin to massage my legs. That day (even though it wasn’t sunny) had a blistering fast tail wind. So I decided I’d give biking a try. I started on the east side of Devil’s Lake (the exact place I fell back at the rest stop, which was about 15k out) and I biked a little outside the city to the west before I had to give up from pain. Every pedal stroke, and every bump was painful, not to mention my left arm and leg where I fell were on fire. I sat in the car and rested; weary from the 650k I had done from Duluth. At that point I was so very close to giving up the day (and probably the trip), on account of the recent injuries, weather, and the chest cold that still had not improved. But for whatever reason I decided to give it one last shot, so I took another 2 extra strength Tylenol (taken 8 already that day), and got back in the saddle. The first 5k showed little improvement in the road or pain conditions, until I tried riding in aero position (arms on front handle bars). There was something about that riding position that alleviated a lot of the pain, and I was able to position my arm so that the wound wasn’t in contact with the bike. After that, the highway smoothed out (so I didn’t have to contend with pain from bumps), and I guess the Tylenol kicked in, along with a boat load of adrenaline and a tailwind, because I ended up going ~43km/h for close to an hour. The tailwind eventually turned in to a crossing headwind, and the last 30k were like watching Harper talk (really long and painful). But I made it 120k to Rugby!

That night we watched the most beautiful lightning storm off in the distance, it was far enough away that we didn’t get any rain (but we did get 100mph wind that night, and slightly less strong wind for the next 2 days). There was lightning about twice a second, and every time it just set the sky on fire with white light.

The next day we were informed that there was major flooding in the area (particularly the highway I was going to use), and the other highways out of the city (that weren’t flooded) were not bike safe at all. So we made the choice to circumnavigate the flooded roads using the car to go on the highways that I couldn’t bike. The area where we drove through had lots of people who had lost their land, houses, and livestock, and many of the roads we drove on were surrounded by water, others had impromptu dirt roads build just to cross flooded fields. I swear it sometimes feels like I’m in the middle of some kind of apocalypse: sickness running rampant (between Daffyd and I), bloody injuries, tornados, destructive 100mph wind, lightning and rain storms, entire country sides and half of cities flooded. I think the movie 2012 got it wrong; it was suppose to be 2011.

The last thing that happened in the last 3 days (because this trip was obviously too uneventful) was that my back wheel (the wheel that we had issues repairing before the trip started) started not rotating properly. AKA I can feel and hear grinding when I turn the axel, and its stopping far too soon when I push it. Unfortunately we’re going to have to find a solution for that at some point, but finding a good bike store when you’re in the middle of nowhere is kind of like finding an ugly trombone player: there just aren’t any.

As of now we’re in the half flooded city of Minot. When we got here we asked the lady at the tourist info booth where the good campsites or interesting spots were, and she just looked at us and said, “its all under water… but you could try Walmart.”

So here I am, stealing internet off Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar in the parking lot of Walmart, about to eat a ready-cooked chicken for dinner, and will try to convince the local bar to switch from baseball to put the hockey game on (which I think will be more difficult than all the tribulations of this ride combined…)

Time for pics!

Below: Riding into Rugby (the geographical center of North America), with a look of pure bliss when I finally saw that sign...

Me and my bandaged left arm, so I didn't start bleeding everywhere :) I guess it wouldn't have mattered, my bike and jersey were red anyways :P

Flooded highways...

Ummm excuse me sir, but it seems you left the tap on.

If you don't like blood don't scroll further!!


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My sad elbow :( Trust me it was a long and painful process to individually pick all the tiny rocks out of that hole... Oddly enough, the gash I have on my knee now is in the exact same place I have a scar from when I first learned to ride a bike (strangely coincidental indeed)

I didn't put a picture of my black and blue hip up, thought it would be too scandalous and I'd like to keep this blog PG 13 :)