Rugby, North Dakota to Winnipeg, Manitoba
Thursday, July 2, 1998 - Day 21 - 71.63 miles - to Rugby, ND.
As we left there were threatening skies which followed us all day. We rode into Grandville for a second breakfast only to find the town had changed it's name to McGillicuty. It seems that this town won a contest. The following is from their local paper.
A Town by Another Name....Would you change your name for a price? Just what would it take to convince you? That was the question posed to the 250-citizen-strong community of Grandville, ND., 25 miles east of Minot. As part of a promotional campaign, Sazarac Corporation, a New Orleans-based liquor maker distributor of the Canadian-made Dr. McGillicuddy's Imported Schnapps, were seeking that special community somewhere in the United States that, after meeting specific criteria, would assume the name McGillicuddy City for a four-year period. The company offered a sum of $100,000 for the name change. The criteria that had to be met in order to enter the contest narrowed the field of contenders considerably. The town had to have a place to lodge visitor, a local bar willing to change it's name to the Shady Eye Saloon, a community project, and at least six months of snow. Grandville met all the requirements, their community project was a new community center and they already had over $180,000 in the kitty. As the contest boiled down to the two finalist both were within North Dakota's borders, the towns of Streeter and Grandville. In March, 1998 it was official! Grandville was the winner.
It was still dry but threatening as we pulled into Rugby, ND., the geographic center of North America. There where two RV campgrounds, both had the same owner, and they had policy of charging by-the-tent, instead of by the site. By now we had learned not to accept this kind of policy. We rode to city hall to see if we could use their city park. The answer was no, it seems that the owner of the two campgrounds was also a big wheel in town and could / would cause trouble if we were allowed to use the city park. As we were getting ready to swallow our pride and go back to the campground, someone came up and said we should try the Eagle Auxiliary Service Club. They have camping behind their building. We rode over and I went in to asked if we could camp behind their building. The answer was a very fast YES and best of all there would be no charge.
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We set up our tents, there were six of us (David, Scott and the girls, Jason and I) and rode off to the swimmer pool for a shower, also at no charge. David and I took a shower while the others went swimming. After our shower we rode to Dairy Queen for a snack. On the way we met Dave, Julia and Mike. Dave and Julia would also camp this night with us while Mike wanted to ride on and he did. By now the talk, at the pool and DQ, was of a very strong thunder storm heading towards Rugby, it was already passing through Minot. Off to the west we could see it coming. When it hit is was not as bad as forecasted as the main force of this storm went south of us. We sat it out in DQ, not a bad place to spend some time. That evening we all went to the Rugby Fair.
Friday, July 3, 1998 - Day 22 - 73.5 miles - to Devil's Lake, ND.
We woke up to heavy clouds but the day turned out ok, except for a head wind which made the day seem much longer. This was our first, serious, head winds of the tour. David gave me his four rules to overcome head winds.
- Calm down
- Gear down
- Slow down
- Drop down ( on the drops)
I would use the first three often during the balance of this tour. We never really got the super strong head that can bring you to a almost dead stop.
We all decided that if would be fun to spend the Fourth of July in a town that had fireworks and this town would be Grand Forks, ND. So we would head for Grand Forks, ND., as a group, instead of breaking up. David and I were going to Grand Forks anyway, since we had planned to head north from there for Winnipeg. The others had planned to head for Fargo as this was the official route. During the days ride Scott and the girls as well as Jason decided to go to Winnipeg with us.
We had to negotiate our way into the State Park as it was full due to it being the Fourth of July weekend as well as having many of the campsites under water from the rising lake level. They let us camp in an open grassy area that was very nice except for the millions of sand flies. They did not bite but sure were a pain. David and I rode back into town for a all-you-can-eat Chinese dinner, again we got our money's worth. My fortune read "You Are Making History This Very Moment."
Saturday, July 4, 1998 - Day 23 - 104.0 miles - to Grand Forks, ND.
Today was clear but the head winds continued as we headed for what we hoped would be a good fireworks display in Grand Forks, ND. We rode to Lakota for breakfast. For some reason, we kept forgetting this name. We ended up calling it, and any other town whose name escaped us, "Yocum."
Despite the head winds, the group and specially the girls decided it was a worthwhile goal for this day, to cover 104 miles to see the fireworks. There was only one campground, south of town, and much to our surprise they had room. It did not take long to find out why. The manager insisted on $18.50 per tent and she wanted us to camp in the back 40, an area that was in very bad condition. We abandoned the idea of camping and found a motel (Happy Host) for $13.00 each, including a continental breakfast the next morning.
We all biked downtown for the celebrations and fireworks. We ate at the food booths, rode over and back across the Red River bridges to Minnesota, and looked at the destruction from the ‘97 floods. At dusk, we picked a spot on the grass and among the crowd of spectators. David took a quick spin around the waterfront area to see of he could find any of the others. When he returned and sat next to me, a little boy of about 3 came over to us with a blanket and said "for the bikers." David looked around and saw the people about 20 feet away looking, smiling and nodding at us. David jokingly asked me if I had told everyone about our trip, I had. As the tour went on I could tell that David became more unhappy with me for talking to almost everyone that I came across. For me this was a most enjoyable part of the tour. I can understand that he had heard my line many many times, but it was new to the person I was talking to. Everyone wanted, so it seemed, to want to hear about our tour. It might also have been that I could approach people much easier that David could. Of course this is also why I was sent in to do the negotiating for all our campsites.
The fireworks over the Red River was wonderful and well worth the effort. He had set a place to meet after the fireworks, incase we got separated, so we all could ride back together. David and I had the only head and taillights. Arriving safely at the motel we all, except Jason, turned in for the night. Jason came in sometime later, who knows when as I was out like a light. Later that night it rained very hard and we were doubly glad we hadn't camped.
Sunday, July 5, 1998 - Day 24 - 37.21 miles - to Warren, MN.
At this point of our tour David and I had planned to head north to Winnipeg for the Folk Music Festival. I did not know what to expect but it sounded like fun and would be a nice break. David did tell me that there are about 100 musical performers from around the world but mostly from the USA and Canada. He also said I could expect to see 15,000 to 20,000 attendees. With Jason, Scott and the girls deciding to go with us, it should be even more fun. Unfortunately, this detour took us away from the other riders, Dave, Julia and Mike whom we assume proceeded east.
We woke up to rain and sat it out until it let up. We left at 11:15 AM. Minnesota is David's home state and he hoped for a nice impression. Unfortunately, we were greeted with a rain storm and the worst mosquitos of the tour with nowhere else coming a close second. Soon after we left Grand Forks the rain started again and attempts to shelter from it, in the trees, were frustrated by the mosquitos and the rain's persistence. Jason had stopped at a bike shop so was behind us. David ducked for cover while Scott and the Girls and I rode on in the rain.
Scott and the Girls and I stopped in a small town, Alvarado, and tried to find cover. Everything in town was closed, it was Sunday, so we sat it out under an awning in front of a restaurant. How we wished it was open. It's funny how a steady downpour can just spoil the day. While under the shelter we all changed into dry cloths. Since we could not stay here, I looked in the phone book it see if there was a motel in the next town which was 12 miles away. There was and they had rooms. There was no sign of David and Jason, so we rode on. We got very wet, again, as we plowed into wind and driving rain to Warren, MN. In Warren, we from shelter in front of a market were we could keep an eye open for David and Jason. A car pulled up and told us that they were coming down the road. For the second day in a row we decided, after only 37 miles, to motel it. Jason was concerned about cost and went to a nearby and very wet campground. We spread out all the wet stuff and went for dinner. As small as this town was it did have a DQ, so the day looked a little brighter. As I fell asleep I wonder what tomorrow would bring.
Monday, July 6, 1998 - Day 25 - 58.24 miles - to Lake Bronson State Park, MN.
Well, this day was a great improvement with some tail winds, and while it was cloudy there was no rain. We had an easy schedule as the distance to the festival site NE of Winnipeg was 2.5 riding days from Grand Forks and we had five days to do it. We camped at Lake Bronson State Park on the lake. David and I rode to the nearest store and bought everything that was need to make smores. We all enjoyed a cool and breezy evening around the campfire eating smores. Life does not get much better than this.
Tuesday, July 7, 1998 - Day 26 - 60.5 miles - to Ste. Malo Provincial Park, Canada.
During the night it rained and for those who got up the mosquitos were fierce. Again I sleep through it. Once you opened your tent it would fill with mosquitos and you would spend most of the night swatting the intruders and staining the tent walls with your own blood. It was not a pretty sight.
When it was time to get up we all moved very fast as the mosquitos were on full attack. I think it was about the fastest we every broke camp. The riding was good as we knew that it would be another easy day. There was no rain. We camped at Ste. Malo Provincial Park, Canada with far less mosquitos than the day before. During the evening big thunder clouds formed but it did not rain.
Wednesday, July 8, 1998 - Day 27 - 60.28 miles - to Winnipeg, Canada.
Today we would try and camp as close to Winnipeg as we could so that we could visit the city. We woke to a very heavy fog. My rear-view-mirror is attached to my sunglasses and due to the heavy fog my sunglasses got so wet I had to take them off. I sure missed the mirror. The road we took into Winnipeg was highway 59. It has no shoulder and heavy traffic, avoid it if you can. The first RV campground we stopped at had no room so we went on. The next one was the last one that was close to town. I negotiated a good price and they let us camp on a nice grassy area.
After setting up camp we all rode into Winnipeg for a look around. David and I visited "A Taste of Winnipeg." Next we rode to the "Forks" area of the revitalized river front. There, we met up with the others. The "Forks" has lots of shops and food booths. We all snacked and people watched for several hours. Then we had an exciting dash through traffic to find the Home Made Music store for festival tickets, for Scott and the girls. I was last in this line of these six crazy riders, dashing through town, and just could not go down a one-way street the wrong way so I got up on the sidewalk. Somehow we all arrived safe and sound. Next they wanted to visit Chinatown which was another mad dash. There was not much to Chinatown, well to tell the truth there was nothing to Chinatown. Back at our camp Scott and the girls treated us all to ice cream sundaes.
Summary This was our shortest week so far as we rode 465.36 miles for an average of 66.48 miles per day. The two things that I will remember the most about this week were the fireworks and the day we got wet. While getting wet was no fun the camaraderie that it brought was great.