Bicycling the Lewis & Clark Trail
Williston to New Town, ND

Monday, August 09, 2004
Distance Cycled: 74 miles
Vertically Climbed: 3,170 feet
Average Speed: 12.3 mph

We woke up to black skies this morning. It was not raining; it just was not yet light at 6:00 AM. We were supposed to bicycle to breakfast and return to the motel to finish getting packed so I called the Absher's to inform them that we had better not try riding to breakfast only to find that they had not yet gotten out of bed. A few minutes later they called back and told us they decided to eat the continental breakfast at the motel. By the time we finished breakfast; it was light enough to begin riding our bicycles so we loaded the bikes and began our ride to New Town. When we started, the Weather Channel listed the temperature at 51 degrees and the wind from the north at 10 miles per hour. The wind was from the north and it was cold. After riding for about 5 miles I looked at the temperature on my altimeter and it also said 51 degrees. ½ hour later I again looked at my altimeter and it said 49 degrees. We were climbing hills and it was cold for the middle of August. Going down the hills, Mary Kay froze because the wind chill factor at 25 or 30 miles per hour was very high.

I noticed that a screw was coming loose and I also noticed that one of the couplings that hold the bike together did not look right but I thought that everything would be OK until we reached our motel for the evening. After 30 miles we came to a campground. It was the first place we had seen where it was possible to get out of the strong north wind and possibly get something to eat and drink. The lady that was running the campground went to her home and got a pot of coffee which all the coffee drinkers shared. We talked with her while we all warmed up in the reception area of the campground. After ½ hour we left the warmth of the campground office for the cold north wind of the road. Between this campground and New Town there was not any other place to stop. We arrived in New Town in the early afternoon, stopped at a restaurant and ate a very light hamburger lunch. We then went to the motel, unloaded the bicycle and I tightened the loose screw and checked the coupling that did not look right and found it to be very loose. I dug out my coupling wrench and tightened that coupling a good turn. The other coupling was about a ¼ turn loose. The good news is that I caught the problem before it became a major catastrophe.

Food in New Town is an interesting experience. We found more closed restaurants then we did ones that were open. Everyone said that the best place to eat was one of the local bars, when we arrived; they stated that they did not serve any food. We finally found a Pizza place and ordered Pizza. We then all walked down to the grocery store to buy food for breakfast. The good news our motel has a micro wave in the conference room that will be open tomorrow at 6:00 AM so we bought hot cereal and all plan on eating at the motel in the morning. There is a Casino 5 miles out of town that has good food, too far and cold for us on bicycles.