Fargo for the Fourth!

Happy Fourth of July!... yesterday. We have taken not one but two days to rest here in lovely Fargo, North Dakota in celebration of Independence day.  We're staying with Jen's friends Dani and Greg who have been incredibly generous and so much fun to spend time with.  We arrived here on the evening of the third to a dinner of home made chicken tacos and showers and comfy places to sleep all around. On the fourth we spent a lazy morning eating doughnuts and drinking coffee, then went to a movie and celebrated our nation's independence with Italian food and a fire works to follow.  Today was errand running, mid-day ice cream eating, lazing around the house, and feasting at The Pizza Ranch.  We also all (yes, all 6 of us) went for a run!  Although Jen hasn't even seen Dani in 6 years, we all feel like old friends.  It has truly been such a great time. But we'll be back on the road tomorrow, on our way to the Atlantic. 

Since our last update we have been speeding through North Dakota at a pace that is surprising, even to us.  Last week we did our second and third century (100 mile) days back to back.  The terrain is much flatter and easier to travel, especially when you have a van full of food waiting for you halfway through the day.  Since Parshall where Autumn last updated, we've stayed in the (very) small towns of Towner, Warwick, and Hope.  While in Towner, we met the father-son team of Peter and Jim who are cycling from Seattle to Minnesota, then Jim will continue on to New Hampshire.  They joined us for spaghetti and then cooked us some amazing oatmeal the next morning.  Whenever we do something we feel especially proud of (such as riding 100 miles in a day), really wonderful people like Peter and Jim come along and humble us with their tales of ABSOLUTELY no rest days since Seattle and 100+ days more often than not.  They have our utmost respect and well wishes.  There were so many mosquitos in Warwick that we opted to spend the evening eating pizza in the bar/ restaurant/ liquor store where we met some friendly locals, one of whom handed us fifty dollars for the Steps for Stanley fund as he walked out.  ...So great to encounter such generosity and enthusiasm for the cause in unexpected ways.  Hope was a friendly little town where we were allowed to use the bathrooms and showers at the local pool after it had closed for the night.  They were freeeeeeezing cold, but it was still a treat.

North Dakota was stunningly beautiful (and VERY windy) in the west, flat and uneventful in the middle, and has ended with the biggest city we have seen thus far in our travels.  It has salt marshes (who knew!?!?) as well as the geographical center of North America (that would be Rugby).  Looking back, we crossed the entire state in five days, yikes! Tomorrow we will cross the Red River into Moorhead, Minnesota.  

Thanks for the continued interest and support!