July 21, 2010: Mayville to Fargo, ND. 60 miles.

This was another perfect cycling day! How is it that we can ride almost 2,000 miles, through snow, rain, mud, high winds, and terrible traffic and then forget it all when we get to the end!? The last 2 days have been wonderful.

I woke up this morning at 4:30 with a headache. The toilet overflowed around 6 AM and I woke up the on site manager when I called to report it. Breakfast was oatmeal (I didn't eat it). And then we got out on the road in bright sunshine and didn't look back.

I finally got the photo of the Lindas--that is, me (Detroit), Lin, Lynda Lou and little Linda after talking about it for a month.

And we got a photo of CJ and me before we left at 7 AM. Below is Dianne and little Linda, the tallest and the shortest, with each other's bikes, the smallest and largest.

CJ and I started together, caught up to Dianne, Laura, and Marti. We all rode together for a while and then I sort of pulled away from the group.

I stopped for a few photos along the way, rode with Lynda Lou for a while, and then pulled away from her. I was first to arrive at Fargo--and that's a first! I walked in the bike shop with my bike and asked if they could get my bike out today. They said it would go out Friday, since they had a 2-day turnaround on disassembling and shipping bikes. So I got my bike box and went out on the patio to box it up. Then I wheeled the box back in and after a few false starts a nice young man named Jeremy got the shipping plans all in order.

Dianne boxed her own bike too, we had lunch while waiting for the shipping thing to be resolved, and then took a short walk around Fargo. We had not yet been to the hotel so we were wearing our Woman Tour Northern Tier jerseys, and a couple stopped us on the street--they are riding the northern tier and going by train to avoid a few key spots (like the great plains) since they are in the US for only three months. They plan to ride from here to the east coast. Of course I invited them to call me and stay in our guest room if they pass near home.... her name was Linda (I should have taken their photo too!) and his was Hari (not sure of the spelling). It was neat to run into them.

Now we are in our room on the 10th floor of the Radisson. This is a much different view than the ones we've been looking at the past 5 weeks, and a much nicer room too. The farewell dinner is tonight. And I am looking forward to going home tomorrow.