2018, Days 9 & 10: Meet Your Maker

Things are starting to look up again as Dad rounds the halfway point of both North Dakota and North America, earning him a resounding ATTABOY! Sunday Rest Day and then a Monday Ride to start out the week. I'd like to say it's all downhill from here, but North Dakota is eerily flat in some places and there may not be many hills to go down. Plus, that would ruin the whole "uphill both ways" legend that Dad is bound to tell in a few years.

From Dad's journal:

5/13/18 Sunday. Here is a little interesting flavor from Minot, ND collected from a menu at The Homesteader, a local restaurant. When the northern railroad was being constructed, one year it got as far as Minot. Then they quit for the year. So as the train would arrive in Minot, the conductor would go down the aisles saying, “Coming to Minot. This is the last outpost on the line. Prepare to meet your Maker.” Not sure if that had reference to the desolate location, or the North Dakota winters. But it’s probably not what they would want to put in the tourist brochures.

5/14/18 Oh, the wind is just relentless. We were able to start early this morning, just a couple of miles from the hotel. There was a gentle breeze blowing. But as the day progressed the wind just kept getting stronger. Even though the terrain was relatively flat, I felt like I was pushing uphill most of the time. We went only 46.5 miles in 4:58 today. We ended up in Towner, ND. After finishing, we drove on 20 miles to Rugby, which is the geographical center of the North American continent. I did not want to stop in the middle of my ride tomorrow. We had lunch there and shopped for some souvenirs.