Abandoned motel near Devil's Lake, ND
Abandoned motel near Devil's Lake, ND
Last Modified on 9/23/97 at 17:42:42
Day's Narrative: I got away at the usual time this morning, just after dawn. According to one person in Devil's Lake, there was supposed to be only one store between Devil's Lake, ND and Grand Forks, ND -- and that was at Lakota 30 miles (50km) away. When I got to Lakota a convenience store clerk came up with two more farther down the road at Michigan, ND and Emerado, ND. There was a gap of 40 miles (60km) between them. When I got to the store in Michigan I bought an extra sandwich to take with me. I found an additional place to stop at the Larimore roadside rest stop where soft drinks were available from a vending machine. That's where I ate the sandwich. This country now looks like the Midwest. I have seen several large corn fields, there are clusters of trees and the yards in front of the houses are well kept -- in contrast to Montana, where it looks like winter even in the summer. A person from California once told me that Midwest was a state of mind, not a geographical region. I suppose one could say that about California too. I met a young cross country bicycler on the open road named "Vic." He was wearing a full frame backpack and riding a fully loaded mountain bike. He left Toronto 30 days ago and was headed for Vancouver, BC. I asked him what he did and he said he mainly bicycled. Vic didn't seem to like to talk very much, so I wished him well and continued on. As I pulled onto the highway after Emerado I pulled out in front of a pickup towing a large mowing machine on a trailer. This machine took up all of the 8 foot (2.5m) shoulder and one lane of the highway. The highway was four lane. As he pulled out and passed me, I fell in behind him to draft and get a free ride. He was only going about 18 mph (30km/h), not nearly as as fast as the combine Neville drafted behind, so it was easy to keep up. He went about 2 miles before turning off into a farm field. For those of you who don't bicycle, I should explain why bicyclers are so concerned about the wind. The wind speed and direction can make a ride very easy and take only 6 hours if it's behind you, or very exhausting and take 10 hours if it's a headwind. Thus the wind can be a deciding factor in the route you take, in the length of the ride and where you spend the night. I never saw Connie on the road today. She must have passed me while I was in one of the convenience stores. She was at the motel when I rode into Grand Forks. It looks like I will ride 80 miles (130km) down US highway 81, parallel to Interstate 29, to Fargo tomorrow. Then we go into Minnesota. [Connie] For once I was able to get into the first motel coming into town and parked the truck right in front of the entrance door of the wing our room was in. Ray found me right away. In both this motel [The Prairie Inn] and Minot's Comfort Inn there was a channel on the TV which was closed circuit coverage of the swimming pool. Here there are 2 channels -- one close-up on the water and another of the whole room. This makes one aware that there are probably closed-circuit TVs all over the place. We did a car tour of Grand Forks looking for a wondrous place for dinner. We ended up at a nearby "Family Restaurant," with boring plain food -- not bad, not great, but filling. During our tour we crossed the bridge into Minnesota and East Grand Forks. Coming back over the bridge, we saw a house right next to the river with big black letters saying, "This used to be Home Sweet Home." It obviously was a victim of the floods of the Spring. The waitress where we ate said the water got to their parking lot --quite a way from the river -- but didn't hurt them. © Ray & Connie Poore, 1997
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