North Dakota, your roads and oil suck.

We had a stare down. He won.

The buffalo that held us up

campsite @ TRNP

The ride inside the park was incredible

We got Diane. And we got to TRNP!

AP

AK

Ange2

they were petting the horses for a while

waiting for trucks.

We got Denis at lunch!

hello gravel roads

Ange sandwich with Kels & Sarah

Weeding

Minot: I got my second flat of the trip after 2 minutes of leaving the school in Rugby...I was grumpy the whole 75 miles after that. Then when we were about 15 miles out of town it started down pouring. Finally, when we were .4 miles away from the church we turn a corner and have to climb a wall. That's when I started swearing. Luckily, the church we were staying at in Minot was amazing.

I started taking naps. Apparently my body does need sleep and it showed the past few days. After dinner we finished watching Breaking Away (best movie ever) and I suggested watching American Flyers after. I got 2 minutes into the movie and past out. When I awoke it was 11:54 PM and mostly everyone had gone to the bar. I went back to sleep.

The next morning was great. We had a build day and I woke up super early since I got almost 11 hours of sleep. I enjoyed many cups of coffee and got some work done while everyone else was sleeping and our hosts were making us breakfast. (french toast, scrambled eggs and sausage) mmmm.

The build day was pretty much a bust again. 32 people to build 1 shed. Thanks HFH. Our build days hate us. The leaders rallied and made some phone calls and took half of the group to a nursing home to do some weeding. That was actually really nice.

New Town: This ride was awful. Apparently North Dakota is the Saudi Arabia of the Mid West. Highway 23 (which we were on for 50+ miles) is a 2 lane highway with no shoulder that oil tankers and semis hog. Riders were getting blown off the road & buzzed. We were pretty scared for our lives. No joke. It was mentally and physically draining. I HATE OIL! The funny part is that we were supposed to be on it the following day into Teddy Roosevelt National Park but we decided to re-route. Kelly & Kyle were out driving the new route until 4 AM. Wake up was at 6. There was almost 30 miles on gravel roads. In case you all are not aware, we ride road bikes. Yup, gravel sucks. It sucks so bad I even skidded and fell. And I'd ride a century on it over dealing with Highway 23 ever again. OOF.

TRNP: This was Angela Day. Angela Kowalski and I decided to ride together today and make as many Angela sandwiches as possible. It was amazing. As I mentioned above, we had a 75 mile day and 30 of those miles where on dirt and gravel roads. Those roads are a reminder to stop eating cookies and start doing push ups. My flabby arms were giving me whiplash. ha! The ride was beautiful despite seeing oil rigs everywhere. Once we got closer to the park we started seeing cattle farms again. I never thought I'd be so happy to smell cow poop again. Camping was fantastic. There was a gigantic fire place where we cooked our hobo meals and smores. The temperature drop significantly and it was nice until the morning where we were freezing our butts off. On the van ride out of the park I came up to a bunch of riders stopped at a top of a hill. I pulled up really confused and then finally realized that they were all pointing to a huge buffalo in the road. We all observed a sign coming into the park warning pedestrians that buffalo are extremely dangerous. Right. So after waiting almost a half hour for the buffalo to walk away and stop looking at us so intimidating like, a group of riders road along side the van and trailer while we passed the buffalo. Nice way to start a 95 mile day...