Day 5 - Thursday 8-10-06

Strasburg to Bismarck - 78 miles

My stats:
Miles: 84.6
Time in saddle: 6 hours 15 minutes
Average mph: 13.5
Maximum mph: 37.3
Calories burned: 3404

Today's ride was pretty nice, and the hills weren't nearly as bad as most of us feared. I was worried about the long day and didn't take time to take time to take any photos of today's ride for some reason.

I arrived in Linton fairly early but found no sponsored rest stop, so just stopped for a juice at the Cenex station. As I got back on the road felt the great effects of a nice tailwind. I stopped at all the rest stops, a border collie kind of adopted all the bikers at the first rest stop and was rewarded with treats and leftover peanut butter sandwiches and watermelon. I rode with Brian for awhile on the way to the second rest stop. Ate a small lunch with two guys who were excitedly telling all of us at the picnic table all the gory details of getting stung in his ear - and the wasp got stuck in his ear! (I was glad I was not a medic on this tour after hear that story). I met up with Greg again at the Boy Scot rest stop near the Moffit turnoff for those who wanted to take the century option. This stop had a kind of Mexican theme, and one of the scouts started dancing around his sombrero to entertain us all while eating our nachos. And all of a sudden it started raining. Was one of those little short bursts that passes quickly, but we all laughed and teased him about doing a successful rain dance.

I opted not to take the century option since I was going to ride beyond Bismarck and go home to Mandan. It was a quick ride to the south side of Bismarck and met up with Deb just before the long hill at the University of Mary. After an explanation of the route they needed to take to get to the campground at the high school, I hit the road and trails hard through town and back to Mandan. Was so anxious to get home and see Sam & Rowdy, get a good hot shower and sleep in my own bed. But just as I was getting onto Old Red Trail, Al pulled into Ressler Chevrolet and jumped out of his car and tried to run me down and offer me a ride. I wasn't used to seeing him in street clothes and at first wondered who that strange man was flagging down a biker in the light rain that had begun. We chuckled a little and I told him since I was so close to home, I would just continue on.

And boy was I met with some pretty excited dogs! Took quite a long time to calm them down. After some food and a hot bath, I phoned my dog sitter and we talked for a long time. Finally had a chance to check my email, and was relieved to see some from the friend I'd been worried about all week was safe and sound at home. I ate half of a frozen pizza, fell asleep in front of the tv with both dogs in my lap, and then woke up to watch the news, then dragged myself down to my big bed and fell asleep immediately.