Williston, ND

It will probably come as a great surprise to everyone that North Dakota is a beautiful state, not at all flat and treeless, not quite full of the friendliest, nicest people. Actually, there aren't a lot of people. Maybe 600,000 I think I was told. Like all other facts, suspect, subject to my memory. But they are friendly. However, they don't stop to help people in trouble on the road.

The road from Minot to Williston is very hilly, about 80 miles of brutal, steep hills with some long flats. My bike started having problems about 40 miles from Williston. We were out in farm country. Very few, very large farms. After one particularly long, steep decline and up-cline the chain on my bike started jumping off the low chainring. I would pedal a little, the chain would jump off and I would fix it. Repeat. Repeat. There was no question of using the middle chainring. It was just too steep. An hour and a half later, I reached the top of the hill where Beverly rescued me. Probably told you about that yesterday.

So here we were in Williston, camping in the town park. It's a lovely spot next to the library and the recreation center. The recreation center has showers and a hot tub and a sauna, all available free for out use. We cleaned up and discovered Mamma Sharon's for dinner. Mamma Sharon's was a real treat for us. They have and all you can eat salad bar and home cooking. They serve way too much food, but we did our best. Pie ala mode for dessert was delicious. Annie, in Fargo, had told us about ND size portions and homemade pie, but this was the first time we experienced it.

Next morning we were off to breakfast. I pedaled a few rotations when I heard this horrrible sound from the rear of my bike. The rear derailleut hanger had snapped and the rear derailleur was twisted beyond recognition. Just then, Bruce arrived in his sag vehicle. That's the car that carries the equipment for people on a bike tour. Bruce is riding cross country with Sophia and John. Ever third day one of them drives and the others ride bikes. The driver is responsible for breaking camp, finding a camp site, buying food, preparing dinner, etc. He is, a Sophia explained, slave for a day. So Bruce drove me to the bicycle shop in town. Out of business! No real surprise. It's been the general story for the whole trip. I called the bike shop in Minot. He didn't have the parts, but could get them over nighted to Minot and then overnight them to me in Williston. But he couldn't get a hanger for the derailleur. Another emergency call to Jason in Rochester at Eastern Mountain Sports. We talked a while, the Jason spent I don't kow how long trying to hunt down a hanger for my Sun recumbent bike. None of his suppliers has one. Sun didn't have any. The Bicycle Man, from whom I bought the bike had one, though they were on order from the manufacturer in Tai Wan. Unfortunately, they were coming from Tai Wan by bicycle and wouldn't be here for a while. The Bicycle Man, Peter, called me later with and alternate temporary solution. Meanwhile, I started looking for a machine shop that could weld the part back to its original shape. Because of the oil boom in ND, Williston has become the welding capital of the world. Apparently drilling requires massive welding. I finally found a shop, a welder who is a real artiste who put it back together almost as good as new. It was hard to tell exactly what new was. It was so contorted. We found a picture on the web and did our best. Now I'm waiting here in Williston for the mail to arrive, care of general delivery. If all goes well, everything I need will be here and I will use my prodigious mechanical ability to rebuild the bike. That is, if fat fingers and bad eyes don't hinder the process.

Back to Bruce, Sophia, and John. They drove me everywhere: 4 machine shops, FedEx, the bicycle shop out of business, the bicycle shop that replaced the one out of business where the guy doesn't know anything about bicycles, the post office. All the time talking, swapping stories of the open road, and always laughing. The trip has been so wonderful. I'm so high on America. I've met so many wonderful people. Even this doesn't get me down. Who am I? Where did I come from? I don't know, but I ike it.

They invited us to dinner. In the sag vehicle are all sorts of wonderful and strange things. Like a Coleman camping stove, plates, knives, forks, spoons, bowls, plates, a myriad of spices, fresh garlic. A recumbent exercycle?!! For dinner we had Taiwanese chicken curry. Food with flavor. I have missed flavor sine we left home. We played Scrabble after dinner. I had bad letters and played a pitiful game after bragging about our family's prowess. Rematch tonight! Friday morning, today, we had real coffee, dark roast. Life is good.

Now, off to study the Big Blue Book of Bicycle Repair. Ciao.