T1 Day 30 (Kayla)

July 6th, 2023


Hazelton ND - Gackle, ND


Wow, day 30! Halfway done with our trip, both in terms of days and mileage. I know I just recently wrote about how cycling across the country is type II fun, but some days are actually just fun, and today was one of those days. After a month on the bike, cycling now feels homey in a way. The bikes have become extensions of us and it just feels natural to be riding. 


The day started off in the usual way, but somehow we managed to pack up and start riding before schedule! We were all confused since this never happens. I even had time to reorganize my bags. After 27 miles of riding with blue skies along fields of corn, soy, and wheat and cow pastures we made it to the town of napoleon. The smell of cow manure in town was a bit off-putting, but we each nevertheless enjoyed a donut or caramel roll and a smoothie or coffee, all of which really hit the spot. We also paid a visit to the grocery store to stock up since we were unsure about the amenities in the towns aheads. 


After an hour or so more of biking and a lot more cows and farmland we stopped by the side of the road for a delicious veggie bagel sandwich lunch. 


The remainder of the day into Gackle was occupied by more podcasts and phone calls with my husband. We continued to follow quiet country roads along farmland speckled with lovely ponds. In addition to all the cows I was surprised to also see a few pelicans! I was also passed by a very large tractor that took up both lanes of the road and probably could have driven right over me!


We had the wonderful surprise of meeting a fellow touring cyclist, Richard, who had started in DC back in may and was making his way west the way we had came. It was lovely to get to hear about his trip and swap info about the road ahead. He also informed us that he had stayed with 3 other cyclists the night before, a father/son duo and a solo guy, both of whom were heading East. Perhaps we’ll catch up with them one of these days! 


Heading into Gackle, the garmin navigated us straight to an ice cream shop, which was serendipitous since we had all been craving ice cream for the past few days and had been unable to find any. I ordered a banana split, which was fantastic and made me feel like I was 8 years old. 


After we were full on ice cream we ended our day at the honeyhub hostel. The hostel is hosted by the Miller family, who graciously converted their basement into a hostel for cyclists, complete with everything 3 stinky tired cyclists could need - beds, laundry, a shower, charging ports, route info, and free honey singer products! The family are beekeepers and their father is a co-founder of honey stinger! It will be the perfect place to rest up for a big day tomorrow!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Team 2 day 28 (Olivia)

We woke up this morning looking forward to finally getting to a town with a population size bigger than 300. Never in my life would I have thought that the city of Bismarck North Dakota would be such a beacon of hope for me. Yet, after biking through mountain passes, rain, and vicious headwinds I couldn’t stop comparing Bismarck to a modern day Paris. When we got to Bismarck it felt like we were suddenly transported back into the modern world. Chain restaurants and stores replaced the little ma and pop gas stations that we had grown accustomed to. It was interesting to feel surrounded by so many people again. After getting an amazing bike tuneup/checkup by a former star biker from Honduras, we did some laundry and headed to our hotel. The hotel room was fabulous and had a view of the indoor pool- we were in heaven. After taking long, hot showers we headed across the street for a delicious Hibachi dinner! To say that we had been looking forward to this dinner for a long time would be an...
Read more

T1 Day 37 (Keelin)

 Day 37: 7/13/2023 Rest day, best day !!! We always seem to have a lot of errands to run on our rest days but today was an especially big errand day because our bikes were getting a real good tune up !!! Liz’s uncle had schedule us to check in with New Moon bike shop at 9:30 am and boy did we have a laundry list of things for them to check out (I am mostly kidding- Liz and I just needed new chains but Kayla’s poor bicycle needed some TLC) . Funny how riding 2,000 miles will do that to a bike. We hung around the bike shop for a while until at 11 am we decided it was necessary to walk to the diner just down the street. After our bicycles got all fixed up at the bicycle hospital we went to do our next errand: laundry. Little did we know we put our laundry in a dryer at the laundromat that ran for 5 minutes before shutting off. Our third errand was getting Kayla new rain paints because hers were literally disintegrated. When we got back we finally got our clothes into a dryer that work...
Read more

T1 Day 52 (Keelin)

 Day 52: 7/28/2023 I will give you guys a fair warning, it’s been a long few days of biking so this is going to be a short and sweet summary of our day!  We started off riding 15 miles with no water since we stealth camped the night before at a provincial park/house museum. First night stealth camping was a success!! Little buggy but the stars were awesome and no people around, perfect conditions. Liz may have been a little spooked by some animal noises and a nightmare dream but she is okay !!! We then rode into a cute town about 15 miles away in the morning called Port Stanley where we got a water and coffee from a coffee shop. We didn’t have enough water to cook our oatmeal at camp so Liz and I set up shop on a bench of the quaint downtown streets to pull out our campstoves and cook (Kayla opted for a bagel sandwich from the cafe). We left Port Stanley and rode to one of the next port towns, Port Burwell, where we ate lunch  at the beach of Lake Eerie!!! Kayla and Liz d...
Read more