Well readers - today I was mere miles away from a full blown Kate Terry breakdown, and it would NOT have been pretty. I generally don't like to blog after a difficult ride, because you all know how much I hate being negative, but I think it's important to share what we accomplished today. Today we rode from Minot, ND to New Town, ND and it was a 73 mile ride. Now, at this point of the trip 73 miles is pretty easy for us. Today that was not the case. We faced super strong headwinds ALL day long and we rode the entire day on Hwy 23. 5 years ago Hwy 23 was a pretty low traveled road but since the discovery of drillable oil there has been a huge incrase of semi traffic. There is also little to no shoulder on this road AND it was pretty hilly (especially for ND), so for cross country cyclists it's a pretty dangerous road. I don't say this to scare anyone (especially my parents!!) and we are all being extra careful, but these conditions plus the extreme wind made for a pretty stressful ride day. Everyone was a little on edge, and I'm embarassed to admit I let the wind get the best of me. Fortunately, the semi trucks were communicating with eachother and knew what Bike&Build is all about so by the end of the day most semis were giving us a lot of room. But even after some 2000 miles of riding, an overloaded semi can still shake me up a bit when it passes at 65 mph on a hill. The last 15 miles were really hard for me, and I DEFINITELY could not have done it without the encouragment and love from Abby, Jess and Leisl - these girls would NOT let me fall behind/ride by myself and were constantly slowing down for me...thank you! I LOVE YOU! :) Much to my enjoyment - as we pulled into New Town we spotted a Tastee Freeze (similar to a DQ but cheaper and maybe even a little more "tastee") right away and treated ourselves to some ice cream and fries. Hours later (and post nap) I'm still more phsycially, mentally and emotionally exhausted than I have been in a long time. I'm glad to be done with today, but I'm really proud that we all finished safely. I know everyone had a hard ride, and we worked through it together. That's what we get for being rockstars and going across the country the wrong way.
Author's Note: I do not have cell reception and haven't had any for a while - so mom and dad, I'll call as soon as I do! It's probably better that I don't...because if I would have called right when I got in today it would have been water works a go go and that's no fun for anyone :)
ANYWHO...hopefully the wind and hills and crazy roads will only get better as we near the Rockys and Montana! Tomorrow we ride to Teddy Roosevelt National Park and we have our first camping experience! I'm really excited and I know we'll have a lot of fun. Tents and smores and stars and Teddy Roosevelt and fire and all other camping delights plus 32 friends...I can't wait :)
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