Fun Factor - Falling

Day 129. August 8, 2011, Fun Factor - Falling

Route from Devils Lake to Oakwood Inn and Campground, Rugby, ND

75.2 miles, averaging 11.4 mph

Worst Moment – I’m not sure that there was a best moment.

Best Moment – I got to the Ruby!

I left Ruby a little early for what I thought would be a short fast ride.  North Dakota is generally flat, the road I was taking was Highway 2, and it was only 75 miles.  Oh boy, I didn’t plan on the 25 – 30 mph headwinds, the construction, and the rumble strip shoulder with nothing but rumble strip or mud.

Leaving East Bay Campground, I crossed Devils Lake.  There were about 4 miles of hard packed dirt road heading north out of the campground and across the lake.   They are going to have to do something to keep the causeway and bridge open if the lake keeps rising.  As it was, the waves were coming right up to the road.

One of the best sights of the day was the sunflowers growing along the side of the road along the lake.

Then I turned on Hwy 2 heading west.  The winds started and didn’t stop for another 70 miles.  The shoulder east of the town of Devils Lake, while wide, was covered with mud and not great riding on the Cannondale road bike.

West of the town of Devils Lake, there was about 5 miles of construction where the four lane highway was reduced to two lanes and the shoulder was eliminated completely making me ride in the dirt/mud.  Wish I had a mountain bike.  For much of the rest of the next 30 miles the shoulder was reduced to only a rumble strip – again not fun for the light-weight road bike.  The last part of the route was a great road, but the wind speed seemed to be greater than earlier.  The first half of the ride, I was able to average 12.3 mph.  This dropped to 11.4 mph for the day on the whole.

Farmers Co-op

I arrived at Ruby around 3, tired and with sore legs and sore butt.  I tried calling the bicycle repair place for my touring bike.  The number has been disconnected and there isn’t any place in Rugby that fixes bicycles.  (The town only has about 2500 people.)   The Fun Factor is really low.

All day, I’d been thinking about the necessity of cycling into Yellowstone, and decided that I could still do a perimeter bicycle ride by cycling straight across Montana.  I’m planning on taking a break from bicycling to ride with Neita, in Ruby, from Shelby, MT to Yellowstone and back to Shelby, when I will recommence the perimeter bicycle ride.  This will give us more time in Jackson and me more time to get the Fun Factor back.

If you would like to donate to my ride, my link for the Lance Armstrong Foundation is http://grassroots2011.livestrong.org/billsbigride197.  I really appreciate your support.