Minnesota

Thunderstorms in MN. Public park. Free. Beach. Pavilion. 4 dollar bottles of wine. Tomorrow tail wind. Going to grand rapids tomorrow to see fireworks. We watched Twilight eclipse last night in East Grand Forks on our 30 mile rest day.

We got obnoxiously drunk beforehand and could barely maintain during the "movie". Our abs got a intense workout from the constant amusement we got from the entire experience. Team Jacob/ Team Bella.

Felling a little spaint but the winds are looking good for us tomorrow. Love and peace to all.

America!!!!!?!!!!!

East Grand Forks, MN 7/2/2010

Happy July! We made it to the North Dakota- Minnesota border through some serious challenges. There wasn't a single easy day in ol' ND so we are all happy to be starting fresh with a new state. The bad head winds and side winds have persisted throughout the week which makes everyday harder than it should be. We biked the 32 miles into Grand Forks this morning battling 20-30 mph winds out of the south. Some of the stronger gusts would actually blow us into the road (safe?). Still, we made it and impressed yet another waitress with our ability to put away pounds of food. We might make today a short one to give ourselves a break from the wind. Will and Dan are watching the Ghana vs. Uruguay World Cup game in a bar somewhere while Aidan, Goody, and I are hitting up the public library. Maybe we will all catch a movie later.

Anyway, that's the update. Tomorrow we start a big push to get to Espanola, Ontario by the 12 of July to meet up with Will's Dad. Lots of miles to cover so maybe a rest day is well needed. Progress is being made! Peace and Love

P.S. Just wanted to share that I crashed front first into a foot deep pool of freshly poured concrete yesterday. My bike's front fork and frame got bent back a bit because of the force so Rhonda looks a little more squished than she used to. Still rides well though so I think it is only a problem of aesthetics. midget bike.

Old news but good news! - Glacier Nat'l Park Update

As far as we were allowed on Going-to-the-Sun Rd.

Biking up going to the Sun.

Diving into 35 degree Avalance Lake

Near the beginning of Going-to-the-Sun Rd.

Sunset at Lake MacDonald

Somehow none of us have yet posted on one of the highlights of the trip, Glacier Nat'l Park. Certainly an incredible experience, especially rolling in on bikes. We got in to Glacier late one night, camped in one of their many campgrounds, woke up the next morning, and did 10 miles on Going-to-the-Sun road, and hung out in the park for a while. We didn't have a whole lot of time to see glacier, but we did go for a small hike up to Avalanche Lake. This was one of the most beautiful places we've been so far on the trip in my opinion. The lake consisted of glacier melt you could see running down three huge waterfalls from the mountains above. The water we were told was 35 degrees or colder, and we all took a dip although couldn't stay in for more than a few seconds.

After walking the trail back to the campsite attempting to identify trees, we tried Going-to-the-Sun road to get over the continental divide even though we knew it was closed due to 10 ft snow drifts. It was a fun, but tough ride, and we got about a mile from the top. We could actually see it in front of us, but we were warned several times by rangers, and signs specifically for hikers/bikers that hefty fines would result from attempting the closed pass, so we descended back down to Lake MacDonald, camped out in the park that night, and did Rt. 2's Maria's pass instead. Although the road was closed, the effort and extra day was completely worth it. The views near the top were incredible. We could see down thousands of feet into the valley below which we had biked through, and all the snow capped peaks and glaciers all around the park.

Minot, ND 6/someday/2010

Eastern Montana is not used to being wetRiding a dinosaur is harder than riding a bike. This pic was taken in Malta, MT where a museum houses the most complete dinosaur remains ever found (even a large percentage of its flesh was preserved).Fixing spokes in the Fort Peck Indian Reservation before we hauled it to Williston, ND

Rx for sore knees: Ice Cream Sandwich

Us Ward boys found our county in North Dakota today. However, instead of being friendly and hospitable it has given us only hills and 25 mph headwinds.

Sorry for the delay lately in detailed blog updates. We have all been working hard the past couple days and there hasn't been much time/access to update. We rolled into Minot, North Dakota (pronounced My Knot, although I like practicing my french pronuncitation and calling it Mee No) around mid day today after battling 25 mph headwinds for 6 hours this morning. It has been some of the hardest riding of the trip and after that much time we have only gone 55 miles. We made up for our struggles with about 30 buffalo wings per rider and a World Cup game. Hopefully with a little rest in this town we can make it another 20 miles down the road to camp tonight.

The past few days have been eventful. From Havre, MT we rode east to Malta and from there to the very beginnings of the Fort Peck Indian reservation. It was all nice flat riding with a tail wind so we were seriously spoiled. The next day we blasted through the reservation with choice stops along the Missouri River. We also visited a modern day Powow on the reservation that everybody we spoke to recommended. It was certainly a unique experience to see the costumes and dances and hear the music of those ancient tribes. However, I think we all left there with some sadness as we more fully understood the tragedy of that proud people's history.

After the Powow and some quick spoke replacements on Aidan's bike we rode into the night and made it to Williston, ND by 3 AM (losing an hour along the way because we entered central time). It felt good to cross another state line. We slept in the next day as was necesarry and hit the hilly North Dakota road to try and make it as far as we could. At no great pace we made it to Stanley, ND a little after dark and convinced the proprietors of an ice cream stand to serve us much needed milk shakes. They were incredibly nice to help us out so we bought a lot of ice cream (not that we wouldn't have anyway). Slept in the open air in a park in Stanley and hit the road early this morning so we could hit up the bike shop here in Minot. The wind was very strong and pulverizing and the going was slower than we all expected. Nonetheless, we made it here and everyone is relaxing/doing errands in thier own way. I hope the wind dies down so the riding tonight is easy going. Fingers crossed. Peace and Love to our followers.

Montana

We say goodbye goodbye to this fine state. We ride tonight