June 29 - July 4

1377.8 8:30 Heaven or Tioga, one of the two. We left super early this morning 6:30 or so. Made it to Williston a little after 8:00. We checked for a CP [care package] from Amy but alas. Mailed a package home and had coffee and doughnuts at the local drug store. Headed north on 85/2 a well paved road w/ wide shoulders. Semi-clean. Made it to Ray for a late lunch ~2:00 and it was suggested that we stay in Tioga and not Manitou b/ the latter was a real pit. Battled a grueling head wind ~40mph SE head wind had to do the whole thing in 2-3 gear. But was worth it! We went to the Police Stn and asked for a place to

stay. The red carpet began to roll. First, the policeman gave us a tour of the town in his police car. Took us to the Free CG w/ showers and a shack to sleep in. He then showed us all the places to eat including the Legioneers's at which we ate our first big dinner. J had T-Bone and I had the Filet. The caretaker is really neat and talkative as hell which I really enjoy[ed]. Just a super cool town. Tioga is Indian for "Peaceful Valley" and happen[s] to be [a] Scandinavian & Oil Capital of N. Dak. One heck of a neat mon[ument] to those Norski's.

68.8 Quiet last night 140.0 + 8 or so miles. Oddometer went out at Burlington. After all that shit at Tioga, we ended up going for a swim. Hack opened up the pool for us. God, that was nice. There were still a few people there and they were all overly frendly. We started quite early ~6:45 under thick muggy cloud cover. Stanley also had a free campground. We decided to make a run for Berthold for lunch, a mistake on my part for I really did not have enough food to make the trip. I did make it though and lunch was quite a relief. We finally made it to Minot, a horible destination. We rented a room in the YMCA for 6.68

and bought dinner out. We ate at 'Son of Dee Dee' an old run down funky joint but God the food! $2.50 for 4 pieces of chicken, coffee, salad & dessert. Hot Zigs. We were able to leave early. We had a tail wind and did real good time. Ate lunch at Anamoose. I'm getting better at pulling up on the back stroke, the flat lands are great to practice on. The road, 52, is fantastic smooth w/ a good shoulder. The wind's blow either out of the NW or SE. The latter during times of foul weather. We're staying in the park. Oh we hooked up the old oddometer at Velva.

272.7 7-5-78 Not far from Minnesota. J's fixing a spoke. Well where should I start? The night of the 2nd we stayed on Cooperston. Nothing much happened that day. We ate lunch on Glenfield and I thought I had trouble with my rear tire. I put on the spare tube and found out it was faulty (a hole in the stem). That night we stayed in the park. There was a family reunion going on and we eventually were invited over for a game of valley ball and supper. It was good to get over stuffed again. The next morning we got a real early start ~6:00 and headed east; we were looking for a Fourth celebration. When

we got to Finley we were told about a parade & fireworks in Hatton only about 14 miles out of our way. So we went for it.

We rolled into town about noon—just in time for the last 1/2 of the kiddies parade. The town's people gaulked, as usual. Finally a guy about our age came up and asked the standard questions [as] we were on our way to the police stn. He asked his parents if we could pitch a tent in their back yard, we did. It's impossible to write out everything that followed, I just hope to God I remember it the way it

was. We ate dinner & supper there the 3rd & the forth. Joe showed us around. He's a St. John's Math and Philos. major. His father is the Lutheran Minister. On the 3rd we swam, looked at their newly bought house, ate, got interview by the Hatton Free Press; Edna to be precise; went to a Norge Folk Fest.—neat fiddler—and was given a tour of Hatton–Mayville by Edna and Albert. On the Forth we went on the bike-a-thon (Mr. Olson) pledged $5 each. Took a foot tour of Hatton, ate dinner and supper, went to the museum, had an excellent talk w/ Joe, went fishin' & slidin', watched the

fireworks & went to bed. Saying Goodbye to the Olson's was hard. It was such a weird feeling, almost like family.