Golden Cemetery, ND to Red River State Recreation Area, MN 72.4 miles

I packed up camp, ate breakfast, thanked my hosts in the Golden Cemetery and hit the road. It was a short way into Park River, ND. It had a wonderful bike path through town. On the far edge of town I stopped at a Cenex Gas Station/convenience store. I was hoping to get my water bottles filled and I have had luck filling my insulated water bottle with enough ice that I can keep filling it with water from my other bottles and have cold water all day. I usually buy some salty snack to eat on the bike and to have some standing to ask for ice and water. So this time I picked out a bag of corn nuts and went to the counter. I chatted with the two women behind the counter, bought the corn nuts and got the go ahead to fill my bottles. By the time I was done filling my water bottles, their boss (Gordon) had shown up. He heard about my tour and wanted to ask me some questions. I had a wonderful time talking with him. I thought I recognized his accent and asked him if he was from South Africa. He was and we had a little time to talk a bit about South Africa. Before I left the store I was handed a bag with three donuts in it gratis. They were amazingly kind folks.

The reroute yesterday to beat the wind had me on some gravel roads for a few miles. This one gravel road didn’t have any power lines along it and when it crossed another one with no power lines all there was to see, in all directions were gravel roads, fields and trees in the distance. It reminded me of the legend about Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil to be a master blues guitarist. I wondered what the devil would offer me if he showed up…. An E-bike?

I came through a small community with this tiny post office. I have tried to figure out what the name of the place was but the picture doesn’t give a clue and I looked on google maps but had no luck.

I eventually made it to Grand Forks, ND crossed the Red River and into Minnesota.

I went out for pizza and a beer. While I was coming back to the campground I spied a bike repair station along the greenway and decided it was a good time to clean and lube the drive train of my bike. I should have been more careful while doing this because my bike fell off the bike stand. More on this in tomorrow’s post.