Day 26: “Well that turned south quickly”

Hey y’all - last night we stayed in a hotel because we forgot what a real life bed felt like - but like a $45 a night hotel - so while there were surely some quirks - we were just grateful to have a roof over our heads and not be sleeping on the ground. One of those quirks though was that the AC didn’t work (kind of a tease honestly having an AC unit in the room that does run but not well enough for the room to cool down - so I woke up this morning probably more sweaty than any bike ride we’d been on so far. And because of that I’m starting to rethink this whole all naturalé, no deodorant thing… 

Last night Leo and Pat stayed in a different room so we said we were going to leave at 8am and they said they were going to wake up at 10am. So in a totally classic he-said-she-said mixer upper snafu Leo and Pat woke up early expecting to leave with us at 8 and the three of us woke up late expecting to have to wait up for them! Big oops - but we all had the continental breakfast with some totally suspect water and headed out around 9 - not bad! 

Not going to lie - we were pretty beat up from yesterday doing nearly 80 miles into 20mph head winds - and we really considered taking a rest day today (we haven’t had one for 9 days now), but today our fortunes changed and what everyone has been telling us actually came true for the first time all trip - the winds were coming from the west! Tailwind baby! Yeehaaaaaw! So we set out and we’re grovin’ pretty good (if that’s what the youths say these days) when we get a text from Brian… And at this point in the story we are taking bets on what it’s going to be …

…

….

…..

……

…….

Another Flat!!!

This time around it seems that the tire itself had a decently sized gash in it and needed to be replaced… but hey - we haven’t even left Montana yet and there’s no bike shops for at least 30 miles, so we did what any other smarty pants medical/dental students would do and strapped that tire up with some duct tape!

Now - during this, Julia and I weren’t even there, but Julia was reading Brian’s texts to me out loud and I was responding to them while we biked along interstate 94 - can you get a texting a driving ticket on a bike? So unfortunately for Brian we made it to the North Dakota border before he caught back up so we have two different pictures:

Those were the good ones, and because Brian was so far behind changing his tire, Julia and I had 20 minutes of trying to decide what would be the coolest way to pose in front of the sign, and in a shock to no one - none of them were cool… at all…

Here is us trying to look cool doing a piggyback:

Here is us trying to look cool with a serious face:

And here is us trying to look cool by attempting to make the two letter abbreviation on North Dakota:

If you can even call what Julia is doing a ‘D’ it is the wrong way lol

So after we finally got a good picture - see above - we kept riding on until the next turn where we stopped so Brian wouldn’t get lost when he caught up. It was a nice rest stop right off the highway where we immediately dumped our suspicious Montana hotel water and replaced it with the cool refreshing water of the most legendary state in the nation - the water was pretty good in all seriousness, and honestly so was the Highway, AND the rest stops - honestly I think we were just happy to finally be out of Montana after 2 weeks of grueling mountains and “flat” plains. 

So at this point Brian’s back with his duct tape tire and Leo and Pat have bet $10 on whether he would make it the rest of the day without another flat, and I swear that bet was the only thing keeping air in that tire because he actually did make it another 30 miles to Madora where we could get to a bike shop and give some much needed TLC to all our bikes.

Madora was a pretty cool town - while we waited for Brian’s bike to get the tires replaced and new brakes we hit up the cowboy hall of fame which actually was pretty cool:

While Julia and I are looking at this, Brian’s phone is ringing off the chain from the bike shop finding problem after problem - and after hours of work and $250 later his bike was passable again! And for you cyclists out there thinking, “Oh, $250 isn’t that bad…” it really was because I got a tune up for $15… FIFTEEN DOLLARS, this was literally the least expensive bike shop I’ve ever seen! Oh and they had a kitten we got to play with so if you ever need bike service hit up Dakota cyclery!

So after 4 hours or so of us just messing around the town, seeing some cowboy trophies and getting a bike to eat we set off again. Everyone was feeling amazing - we had already done over 35 miles and everything was going SO right. So much so that we threw out our original plan of stopping in Dickinson, and decided to stay with the monks at Assumption Abbey in Richardson - another 25 miles down the rode! So we called the monks and told them to expect us in about 3 hours (we had about 40 miles left to go). But as you all know, once you make a plan, it has to go wrong! 

If you’re still reading at this point you a true homie,  and if you have my number (oh this is Dustin by the way) shoot me a text so I can know who the fake friends are 😉. Joking.. unless.. Honestly, people (Julia’s parents) keep telling me my blogs are funny and it’s pumped up my ego so much that every time I right now I sit here and chuckle to myself… because I just think I’m so funny, just like Callie Love 😜 

Anyway back to the story! Since things can never go according to plan Pat unfortunately got a flat tire, and although we changed it pretty quickly we were still stopped for about a half hour. Then even later on the unthinkable happened… Dustin got hungry (I’m learning I have about 35 miles in me before I have to eat another 2,000 calories). So I decided I was going to stop to eat something quick because I was loosing steam. So I stopped on the side of the road, and as everyone came up behind me, they all stopped too, except Leo… Leo, who was also in a funk as we were now on mile 79 didn’t even notice that we stopped and ran right into the back of Julia’s bike! He flew of the bike and skidded along the ground, luckily he only got a few scrapes and the wind knocked out of him. Nothing like the adrenaline of almost dying to get you through the rest of the ride though am I right?? The bike also ended up with the wheel facing perpendicular to the direction of the handle bars, but we just bent it back and it was good as new. 

While we were gathering our wits about us, I was of course making fun of julia for being in a bad mood after biking 79 miles and still having 18 left - she responded saying she was frustrated and then I responded with so frustrated that you had to take it out on Leo by brake checking him right? So julia started to laugh and if you know anything about julia it’s that if she laughs too hard she will pee, so for good measure I shouted, “PEE YOUR PANTS, PEE YOUR PANTS, PEE YOUR PANTS!” And honestly, she said she didn’t, buuuuuuutttt, I’m pretty sure that wet spot on her bike shorts wasn’t water… 

Just kidding of course, about the wet spot, I don’t know, she may have actually peed, but the world will never know. So we kept on going and finally got to Assumption Abbey as the sun was setting, nearly 12 hours after we left for the morning.. it was the first time all trip I had to take off my sunglasses so I could see - and I still couldn’t even see because all that happened was I could see the bugs flying into my eyes just a little bit brighter… so the monks came out to greet us and Julia’s parents were there to give us some food for the night because there’s nothing really around and we were trying to get there as fast as possible because we were 2 hours late - and I recognize that the only thing I know about monks is what I see on TV and video games, which is probably not accurate at all, but these guys offered beer to Julia’s parents and that’s not something I thought I would ever see in my life. So here we are, settled in for the night - with the monks - after riding 97 miles (not a century because we are too soft) and it is good to be in a bed again.

Catch us tomorrow to see if the tailwinds keep up - Dustin signing off!