We started our day by waking up at 6. Although I think I was awake before that. The cold made it hard to stay asleep for very long. We all got up and packed up our gear. We headed to a convenience store. I bought food and they ate cereal and powdered milk. I was looking forward to learning lots from Oak and Lily. They used a backpacker sensibility in their travels. I knew I was about to learn lots from them and the thrifty way they traveled. I washed up in the store's bathroom. Oak and Lily chatted to some locals about what was ahead. They warned us of the upcoming reservations, saying they were rough places and that we shouldn't stay in one particular town called Poplar. We all dismissed this as prejudices against the poorer communities on the reservation.
We were on the road by 7:30. This was super great for me, and apparently pretty stellar for Oak and Lily as well.
The ride was hilly, but they were fun hills. The climbs were gracious and the descents enjoyable. We stopped about 20 miles into the ride and ate again. The next portion of the road took us through Williston, ND. We stopped at a grocery store and bought supplies. I enjoyed the socialization even though I was still being quite reserved and shy.
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From Lily's blog |
We rode through construction. We were not limited like the cars waiting in the long lines were. We breezed through waving at the construction workers as they paved the highway.
We stopped every 20 miles or so and ate. I was impressed with myself and my pace. I think I will enjoy riding companions. With each stop came more admonitions not to stay in Poplar. We were all still a bit in disbelief that it could really be that bad.
We caught a really good tailwind as the afternoon pressed towards evening. My pace was near 16 mph, I was guessing Oak's was 17 mph and Lily's over 19 mph. We were approaching 100 miles when we stopped at a very tiny town on one of the reservations. Lily who always was miles ahead of me was offered a place to stay at the local church. She told the person who offered she would have to wait to see what Oak and I wanted to do. Oak was gung ho about moving on. I was too. I wanted to hit that century mark. Poplar was about 20 miles away and at the pace we were going all day, and with that terrific tailwind we didn't want to waste any opportunity to push ahead. We were talking to one local woman who urged us to stay there instead of "stab city", which is apparently what they like to call Poplar. We decided to push ahead anyway.
We rode together, no one pulling too far ahead. We kept great pace. The road was dotted with what seemed like hundreds of crosses. This seemed like a very deadly stretch of highway.
As we pedaled into Poplar together we could see that poverty was an issue. It was more sad to me than scary. We stopped at a sub and burger shop. We ordered food and sat and ate. Oak and Lily asked if there was a place we could camp. Even if Poplar they told us not to stay there. Lucky for us a man overheard the conversation. The man, Tracy, called up a friend who had a shop outside of town where we might be able to set up camp. It was arranged and after eating we followed the directions to Donovan's shop.
The shop was a scrap yard with cars, machinery and even an old bus. We were delighted with the free place to stay. Both Tracy and Donovan stopped by to see how we were doing. They were both so friendly and helpful. They told us that Poplar used to be a nice place but that after 2 am when the place is a different town. It was a sad tale. But our tale for the day was happy.
Lily and I both set up our tents. Oak who just uses a tarp scoped out the machinery. He settled on sleeping in the cab of the truck.
We settled in and slept soundly after our epic 114 mile day. I was proud of myself. And new friends made me happy.