Category: 2016 Northern Tier: The ride

The rain had already started to gently fall as we headed south on University Drive. The weather forecast had given a 60% chance of rain with the high in the 60’s, and wind clocking 15 from the NW. By the time we hit the small town of Downer, we were soaked. We stopped outside a small convenient store to take a break and get out of the rain. I devoured my banana, while Matt ate is nature valley bar. This was the first day that we would be riding the entire day in the rain, but I didn’t care because the wind was still pushing us from behind. As we stood there, my body temperature started to drop and I began to get chilled, and so that was the signal to jump back on the bike to warm up. As we road along lakes and past corn fields, the PUDs actually aided in keeping us warm. My body created heat on the up-hills that lasted until the next climb. I actually looked forward to the hills, knowing the warmth that would surround me. As we started to get closer to the next town of Cormorant, the road started to deteriorate. The shoulder became small, and the gravel turned into sand. The roads themselves were not in great shape. Every few feet, there would be a long crack that my tires would ride over, pressing my seat further into the sores on my bottom. My bike would jolt and bump with each turn of the pedals and the vibration from the uneven cement and cracks would travel through my soaked gloves. This portion was very uncomfortable to say the least. I could only imagine the ice, snow, salt and rain that each year is dumped on these paved roads. A simple price for living in Northern Minnesota. Around noon we made it into Cormorant and got out of the rain at the local hardware/grocery store. We ate trail mix, apples and drank hot coffee. While walking back to the bathroom, I noticed wet footprints being left from my shoes. Over the bathroom sink, I rang out my socks and poured the water from my shoes. Having to put both the socks and the soaked shoes back on was just part of the mileage today. Not all days can be sunny with a strong tailwind. We left the store and finished our day in Pelican rapids. Aunt Mary and Uncle Jim Newton picked us up and loaded our bikes onto a self-made bike rack that they had built on the flatbed they were pulling behind. They took us back to their amazing home in Otter Tail, where we got to dry out our things, warm up and catch up over Mexican burritos and margaritas.

Northwest winds from 15 gusting up to 25 pushed us along Highway 94. It is not illegal to ride on the interstate through North Dakota and so we took advantage of the wind. I was somewhat nervous about the interstate, primarily due to the heavy traffic and average car speeds of 80 mph. But the interstate was amazing. A 7 foot wide shoulder allowed us to not even feel the 100’s of semis and other vehicles fly by us. For most of the way the rubble strip was directly in the center of the shoulder, but left just enough room for our bikes to track on the right side of it. There were a handful of overpasses that we were able to stop and take a break. The wind gusts under the bridges were so strong that at one point, the wind knocked my bike over. I didn’t care, because it was coming from the west and that was all that mattered.

About midday, a cop pulled in front of us with its lights on. We stopped behind it and a police officer got out. He walked up to us and said he got a call from a trucker who thought they might have hit me. He just wanted to make sure we were okay. I had explained that we are forced to ride on the right side of the rubble strip and that the trucks aren’t even close to us on the road. I also told him, that all the truck drivers we’ve experienced have been very courteous and give us plenty of room. They by far are our favorite roadside companions, because they slow down and move over. Matt explained that it could have been another group, since every day we see cyclists out crossing the country. The cop was glad we were okay but took our licenses to make sure we weren’t outlaws. After about 15 minutes the cop returned. I had already busted out a snack and was in the middle of stuffing my face full of trail mix. The cop apologized for the wait, and then went into a story about how when he ran Matt’s license, all sorts of “bells and whistles” went off. He said the algorithm they use assigns each letter in your name a number and so your name has a total. They then look at the first letter of the first name and last letter of the last name and so apparently Matt’s name code matches another guy who has a warrant out. Once the cop heard the “bells and whistles” he dug a little deeper and was able to verify that code from the guy with the warrant was not Matt Keene. Thank God he dug deeper. From the time the cop mentioned “warrant for your arrest” my brain immediately played a scenario in my head that they would cuff him, put him in the car and leave me with the bikes. I also thought about our “mooning the cog” back in 2007 while hiking Mount Washington and the Appalachian Trail and wondering if we were still in the system somehow.  I have also been deeply saddened and enraged by all of the shootings that continue to happen throughout the country, and the historical shootings over the past week. I can only imagine that our white privilege sprinkled small amounts of doubt in the officer, thus causing him to “look deeper” and realize that the warrant wasn’t for Matt Keene. I started to suggest to the officer that maybe this coding system wasn’t the most reliable and he agreed that this happened quite frequently targeting the wrong person, but that it was better to have an over reactive alert system then one that might not identify criminals.  I thanked him for not arresting Matt and for coming out to check on our safety, but a part of me does regret the 30 minutes of lost time and mileage when the wind is this strong and approaching storms are in the distant. A part of me does still wonder how it might have been different if my or Matt’s skin were a slightly darker color.  A part of me does still have concern that an armed trained man can stop me who isn’t armed and has the power and authority to change my life forever, and that every year I pay through my taxes for this system to continue.

Headed out early in the cool morning air. The temperature had dropped to the 60’s and it was extremely nice. We stayed on Highway 94 for most of the day, biking under cloudy skies. A storm approached  around 3pm and we waited it out at a gas station. We had been given free six inch subway sub coupons from a subway worker back in Glendive, but hadn’t had any luck with the stores honoring them. However, this gas station finally took them, and so we devoured two subs during the rain storm. We left the gas station around 5:30, after the sky looked somewhat clear. It was still sprinkling, but the wind had died down and the lightening had stopped. We followed a nice bike trail through the town of Bismark and called it a day by 7:30pm.

Even though we didn’t get to sleep until after 1am due to the severe thunderstorm, I was awake by 6am. I knew the wind was going to get stronger as each hour passed coming out of the east and that we were in for another severe storm with 90% chance of rain coming in during the afternoon, so we quickly packed up and headed for coffee at the gas station. As I sat sipping a cup of coffee, a man getting gas asked how we faired during the night. I told him we were in a tent and it was quite scary. He said parts of his fence was torn down and he had a lot of tree limbs come down. We continued to bike on Old Highway 10. The wind was light and the hills felt much easier with a few hours of sleep. We passed through Dickenson where I was able to change over to Map #4! (Small pleasures). Around noon the wind started to blow 15 to 20 from the east and we ended our day in Richardton, a town of 300 people. We knew we would only get a few miles in due to the forecast, but were happy with our 40 miles. We got a room at a small motel to weight out the approaching storm. We must have looked warn out and weathered, because the woman who runs the motel insisted that she take us to the local grocery since everything else was closed because it was Sunday. We took her up on her offer and resupplied. The storm blew in quickly, and the woman said if we heard the tornado siren, to head to her place where we could all get in her basement. Strong winds, hail, and torrential rain was all we got luckily as we watched from inside the room, glad to be safe and dry.