Friday, July 30, 2000

Today we rode 58 miles from Fargo ND to Pelican Rapids MN. One worry was we do not know where we are staying tomorrow night. We phoned several places and could not find a motel room. The problem is that we are traveling through a vacation area during the 4th of July weekend and all the motels are full.

We started today in Fargo and did not check the tires to make sure they were OK. After going 15 miles, I checked the rear tire and found that it was low on air. I tried to put more air into the tire but when I checked the tire 15 or 20 seconds apart, the tire would loose 5 pounds of pressure. I removed the tire and replaced the tube. However, less than ½ mile later the tire was flat again. We removed the tube, patched the hole and reinstalled the tire. The patch did not hold and the tire stayed flat. I removed the tube again and replaced it. This time everything worked and we finally had a fixed rear tire.

The rest of the ride was uneventful except for the fact that the wind was from the southwest. Another problem was that we could not find a restaurant for lunch and we did not have any food with us. The only food we had was one orange, one string cheese, and two candy bars. Our route was east and south. Every time we turned south we faced a head wind. By the time we reached Pelican Rapids we were very tired. The only restaurant close to the motel was an Artic Circle restaurant. Mary Kay had a fish sandwich and I had truly rubber chicken. When you bit into the chicken it felt like you were biting a piece of rubber. On the whole, not a good meal.

Good news Nancy Crabb found us a room in Alexandria MN for tomorrow night. She is going to meet us there and ride with us for a couple of days.