Bishop Bike Adventure Day 29 July 29, 2010

Tim and Laurie, our hosts for the past two days, provided us transportation from Williston to Minot, North Dakota, knocking out 125 miles of our bike trip. Given the oil exploration boom in this area, accommodations are very difficult to come by and the route is overrun by fast moving oil industry equipment and vehicles. We experienced some of this upon entering the State two days ago and, based upon the advice of Tim and Laurie, decided to accept their offer to transport us out of the oil producing area. As a result, Laurie took us to Minot today.

After having a lunch with Laurie, we ventured 60 miles east to Rugby, where the next available accommodations were. The travel was a bit more difficult than expected due to an atypical wind direction, out of the south, and some construction that made a portion of the trip on a heavily traveled road burdensome. Nevertheless, we arrived in Rugby late in the day to heavily overcast skies. Thundershowers occurred after we arrived at the motel.

As you can see from the accompanying photo, Rugby claims to be the geographic center of North America, which suggests that we are about halfway through our trip. However, based upon mileage readings, we are not yet halfway, but we are indeed approaching it.