Day 15 – Construction Blues

eseidman1
Jul 29, 2016
5 min read

Date: Tuesday, 26 July 2016

Time on Bike: 4:42:08

Total Travel Time: 6:17:12

Miles Covered Today: 58.57

Total Trip Miles: 929.5

Average Speed: 12.4, Maximum Speed: 18.3

From: Broadway x 12th Ave. North, Fargo, ND

To: Enderlin, ND

(Uploaded from McDonald’s in Bismarck, ND on 29 Jul 2016)

Woke up extra early this morning (5:30 AM) as wanted to bike thru & get out of the city before things got busy. Also I have noticed the later I am riding in the day, the stronger the winds are.

In any case, the alarm didn’t even go off before I heard rain hitting the hotel window… The sky was grey and my weather App showing a long line of thunderstorms moving thru the area. Guess I won’t be getting out early on my bike this morning!

We eventually headed out , but not before I got some doughnuts!!

Bunny & Woz dropped me off at the intersection of Broadway and 12th Ave where I had finished yesterday, not far from North Dakota State University. Sent Bunny & Woz back to the hotel to wait as I had ~30 miles to go before our first meeting place. Why not chill at “our home away from home”?

And today would be the day I break out my “Don’t Tread on Me” jersey. I bought it many years ago for the American flag. I am not sure if I didn’t see the “Don’t Tread on Me” on the back, or just didn’t know what it meant. Never even worn it. But I figure it would be a good jersey to wear here in The USA Heartlands!

Biked through downtown Fargo. I really liked it! We had seen Fargo only thru the lens of the area where our hotel is off the interstate 29. BTW… not great! The residential neighborhoods that I cycled thru leaving the city reminded me of Ghent in Norfolk, or the Fan in Richmond… except most houses were single story.

Here are a couple pictures from Fargo that show it in a better light than what we saw from the area of our hotel.

And from the signage, Fargo is also a very bike friendly city. In downtown, I liked the signs that let car drivers know that cyclists may use the entire lane! Very cool!!

No lack of “sparrows” on the roads either. Not on the sides, but in the middle of the road!! Don’t ask me why, but the signs on the roads with the bike and two arrows are called sparrows. Anyone know why?

At ~5 miles, I picked up a 5- mile bike path that would take me outside the city. And just as I hit it, the heavens opened up. It was very muggy after this storm.

Bunny called as it was pouring at the hotel as well. I explained I was dry waiting it out at a bus stop!

Good winds this morning!

Had nice, wide tarred shoulders to ride on. Very smooth. I could make good time on them as well.

It was time to take off my rain gear as the sun was coming out. I was probably only 10 miles outside Fargo via I-29 where our hotel is, but it had taken me 1.5 hours to get to this point via the route I had travelled… and by bike!

Finally, a new crop. Sunflowers! I have been looking at cornfields, soybeans, and wheat for weeks it seemed. The flowers on these seem to be unusually small. Maybe they are used for sunflower seed oil production and not harvested as a seed to be eaten.

Guess it was too wet to harvest wheat this morning after the morning rains. All the combines sat idle.

On the road into Kindred (HW 15), I got stuck in a line of cars waiting for a pilot car to take them through road construction. I biked up to the front of the line and spoke to the woman. I had 4 miles of road resurfacing ahead of me. She said I could go ahead on my own, just to be careful. One side of the road was newly asphalted and was still sticky and the other side had tar on it waiting to be resurfaced. And no lines.

I hauled ass over those 4 miles. On a smooth road like that with a bit of a wind at my back, I was doing 18 MPH. But I was glad to get off of it… it was too fast for my legs with another ~30+ miles to go today!

Met Bunny & Woz at the park in Kindred, ND. Was a good rest break.

Headed out west on HW 46. Soon I was in line again for more road construction. This time it was 13 miles. Not resurfacing, but road widening. These elongated dump trucks were unloading dirt off to the side of the road where earthmoving equipment was spreading it out.

The guy handling traffic told me to head out as in any case I would be able to keep up with the pilot vehicle. This was a dusty, dirty, rough 13 miles. Picked my way thru the dirt clogs on the road.

I got to ride anywhere I wanted on the road. No traffic. But I had to take a break during this 13-mile mess. All this road construction had screwed up my cycling rhythm and I wasn’t taking enough breaks.

Finally got to Enderlin, ND where Bunny & Woz had been waiting for a long time. Woz likes to run around things to get his energy out!

That ended up being where I called it quits for the day.

A little short, but the construction work sucked my energy today. So all in all, considering I didn’t get on the bike until 10 AM, the ~60 miles wasn’t too bad I guess.

But every day that I don’t hit my 70-mile average, puts me further back on my schedule. Starting to get a little worried about arriving in Seattle in enough time to get to Menlo Park, CA in time.

And last but not least, real life on the cycling road. My left butt cheek was hurting a little more than usual today. That cheek looked particularly raw. Bunny said it wasn’t an open wound, but was the start of one.

Oh no!!The dreaded saddle sore!

This can stop you from cycling for days. Or weeks. I need to take care of this ASAP or my adventure is over.

Partially my fault as I was cycling through my bike shorts once every 4 to 5 days. But as opposed to my 1984 trip where I had no sag wagon or support, I was not washing my biking shorts every fracking day in the shower with me. You really need to keep things clean. I know this. Just figured the bacteria would dry out after a few days and die. Will be MORE scrupulous about riding in clean shorts every day now!

And… will need some medication to nip my saddle sore problem in the butt! Sorry, couldn’t resist that one!!

More pictures from my day below.

BTW, I probably take anywhere from 50 to 100+ pictures on any given day. The better the day, the more pictures I take. And almost every one from my iPhone 6. I love the metadata in Photo as it brings up a map of where I took the picture. Very cool!