Minot, ND

Today, on my ride from New Town to Minot, ND, I encountered my second transamerican cyclist, Margaret, going from Boston to Seattle like the cyclist I encountered a few days ago. Happy cycling to her!

Today's ride was a relatively flat 80 mile ride in azure skies dotted with a few cumulus clouds. The scenery ranged from oil derricks (I was surprised to discover the extent of the oil business in western Montana and eastern North Dakota) to farm lands (both agricultural and wind farms). It really was quite a nice day. The sense of small town America has been driven home: In Parshall (pop 200), where I stopped for lunch, all of the cafes only operate Monday through Friday (though all the bars seemed to be open!). Even Minot (pop 36,000), which features a big mall, seems to have rolled up the carpet at 7pm.

The only negative for the day was a "snake bite" flat (so named because of the pattern of two punctures very close to each other on the tube, resulting from the rim of the wheel grounding out on a bump ... this sort of flat is largely self-inflicted, resulting from underinflated tires and/or taking a sharp bump too quickly), but the tube was quickly repaired and I was back on the road.