Day 23!

Hi everyone! Thanks for all your encouraging comments and for taking time to say hi. It is wonderful inspiration to hear from the people we love while in the middle of nowhere!

I wanted to share a little story that we encountered while in eastern Montana. I picked up the local paper and read about a small reservation community that was having major problems with their water supply. Apparently an employee mixed up similar blue containers and instead of putting in chlorine to treat the water, they poured pesticides in the tank. People started showing up sick and they finally figured it out. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had to come in and shut the system down to clean it. People had to drive 25 miles to haul water each day. They inteviewed one mom who said it wasn't fair and complained about the hassle of hauling water for kid's baths, etc. That really hit home the purpose of this trip. Whenever we talk to somebody about why we're doing this, everyone always agrees that clean water is something we take for granted...until we don't have it. We feel so fortunate to be able to use this adventure to provide this basic necessity to those who don't have it and, by doing so, open up doors for success in other areas (education, jobs, etc). Keep up the good work Thirst Relief!!

As for riding...We left Williston after some great time with the folks at Concordia Lutheran. We made it 50 miles or so towards New Town and the clouds opened up. Got drenched for about 15 minutes and then had a sprinkle the rest of the way. It was a hilly ride and we were very happy to get to town.

There was supposed to be showers in the morning on Monday, but it was just windy and cloudy so we set out at about 7:00 AM. It was great fun for the first 52 miles with a 25-30 mile tailwind! We averaged about 19 mph...until we turned north! We turned north to go to Minot and the crosswind was tossing us all over. Thankfully, there was a wide shoulder and two lanes each way. It rained a bit, but wasn't too bad. Jenny got in touch with the Pastor from Williston and he called a woman he knew in Minot. Mariea very graciously took us in for the night. We heard some hunting stories and saw all the great carpentry work that her husband, Leonard, had done. She fixed us wild pheasant with mushrooms and rice...delicious!

After an early start, we were rolling in to Rugby, ND and got the first flat of the trip. 1,760 miles isn't bad. We ate lunch and I patched the tube. Rugby is the geographic center of North America so we got some pictures by the landmark and headed out. We wanted to do a big day and take advantage of the good weather. We rolled into Minnewaukin at 5:00 PM after 124.77 miles!! It was our biggest day, but we both felt really good. We felt so good, we walked over to the local pub for happy hour : )

We just finished up our 23rd day on the road (22 days of riding). We are in Cooperstown, ND...a nice little town about 80 miles west of Fargo. It was a pretty hot day, but we got most of the miles done in the morning. We took some time to try some new approaches to videoing our trip...I tired to attach the tripod to our handlebars and then we passed the camera back and forth. We are getting pretty good at multi-tasking while riding, but we're sure to do it only on empty country roads. We also took a dance break during the middle of the day to loosen up the legs!

There's a great campsite at the City Park with showers and Jenny is enjoying a pina colada smoothie as I write this. We really enjoy those simple pleasures now more than ever...you can't imagine how great it feels to lie down in the shade after 100 miles of riding in the prairie sun. I hope we continue to treasure these simple joys in life even when we get back into the "normal" working routine.

We plan to be in Fargo tomorrow. We've heard there's a good bike shop in town so I am going to see if we can get the chain cleaned and checked. We'll be a whole three days ahead of schedule if we get to Fargo tomorrow.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Love,
Scott and Jenny