"Entry for Sunday, 10 August 1997

Neville leaves for Boston.

Last Modified on 9/23/97 at 17:38:11

Day's Narrative: I got up and had breakfast with Neville before he left to continue on to Boston (see photo). As I watched him ride off, I wished I were going with him. I'll miss his company.

Later this morning I took the bicycle to the truck for a checkout. I discovered the rear wheel was rubbing the brake. It wasn't rubbing just a little either. When I spun the wheel it would barely make one revolution. Had I ridden the day before, and perhaps the previous day like this? Probably. No wonder I was so beat! I fiddled with it for an hour or more, and got it so it wouldn't rub, but there was clearly something going on with the brake I didn't understand.

I found the Scheel's bike shop in the Yellow Pages in the nearby Dakota Square shopping mall. Connie and I went over after noon and discovered it was open on Sunday. I took the bike in and left it with Bill Ruziska in the shop. After we had lunch, Bill had it fixed! I asked him how much I owed him and he said there was no charge, it was just a minor adjustment of the brake spring. He showed me how it worked so I can fix it if it happens again. It may have been a minor adjustment to Bill, but it was a major challenge to me.

The remainder of the day was spent rearranging the back of the truck, napping, eating a leisurely lunch and just taking it easy. Tomorrow I'll head for Rugby, about 60 miles (100km), unless I have some great tailwind, in which case I may try for Devil's lake (125 mi, 200km).

[Connie] Thanks to the generosity of yet another person, we are going merrily along. While waiting for the bike, we got into conversation with a young man waiting at the repair department. Another cross-country cyclist, he also had started from Seattle on the same day as we. He had a major breakage on his bike and could only find this one shop in Minot that could fix it for him. Before we left for lunch, they had it fixed and he was free to go on his way. There seems to be a sort of widely spaced caravan of people, with whom we are accidentally connecting, touring the country under pedal power.

After dinner we went for a drive to see Minot. The town has a motto "Why Not, Minot," to aid in pronunciation of the town's name. Today has been a gorgeous day. Not hot, not cold, not windy but sunny and glorious. All I could think was "Why Not, Minot." At that point I remembered the cutting cold winds of yesterday as well as remembering the ferocious winters of my Wyoming childhood. Although MInot seems to be a wonderful place to live, it would not be good, although tempting, to romanticize a place on the basis of one glorious day. I guess I'm too much of a New Mexican to consider moving, but Minot would be tempting. North Dakota is not what I had imagined it to be. I envisioned barren plains and what I call "flat yukkies." It has, so far, been rolling grasslands, green and lush; in short, a beautiful place. The Chamber of Commerce may now hire me on.

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© Ray & Connie Poore, 1997