Day 29, Bismarck to Hazelton, 53ish miles

I woke up early to head out ahead of the wind, and was greeted with this beautiful sunrise from the patio.

As I was quietly gathering my things and packing up, it started to rain. A storm system had popped up overnight (why does it seem like the only thing the forecast ever gets right is headwind?), and it was going to be wet for several hours.

Bummed, but buoyed by my time with Kathy, I decided to brave the relatively light rain and head out anyway. I had a yogurt and woke Kathy (not on purpose!), who fed me more watermelon and coffee. I had half-packed my bike before thinking to give it a once-over. Uh-oh (expletive, actually). Flat tire AGAIN. Clearly I hadn’t found the source of the puncture, and overnight the tire had lost all its air. Frustrated, I settled down in the garage to take another go at finding the culprit. I could see the puncture on the patch, but I still couldn’t locate any wire. After extracting another small piece of glass, I put in a new tire and headed out into the rainy Bismarck rush hour.

Can anyone guess what happened next? Six rainy miles later, I checked my tire and found it losing air again. Reader, what did I do? I called the heroic Kathy, of course. She made herself late for an appointment driving out out to pick me up and drop me at a local bike shop, and I don’t know what kindness I can do in the world that will ever match her, but I aim to do my best.

At the bike shop, the mechanic took the tire off, cleaned it, and told me it looked small enough to maybe be abrasion from some dirt in the tire. I said I was pretty sure it was wire, and he did another thorough inspection and couldn’t find anything, until, leaning over his shoulder like an obnoxious stage mother, I spotted a telltale gleam. “What’s that?”, I asked. He poked and tweezed and pulled out … you guessed it: a piece of wire. We were both pretty sure this was the cause, but I was facing a couple hundred miles with few gas stations, let alone bike shops. After a bit of dithering I decided to buy a new tire and take the old one, which I’d just purchased pre-tour, with me to send home with Andrew when I saw him. Jared installed the new tire, and I was on my way at 12:30, the rain having cleared in the meantime.

What can I tell you? The day was mostly east, with a few southerly stretches, including the last 10 or so miles. As an apprentice disciple of delayed gratification, I strongly prefer to get the hard out of the way first and finish with the easier. I swear that promised stretch of tail- and crosswind as opposed to head- and crosswind, paired with Kathy’s good mojo kept me going the whole day. The new tire did its job (so much for my competence!), the wind was mostly in my face, and I arrived in Hazelton for the evening with the rain, making it to the picnic shelter before my shoes got soaked through. Hazelton has a posh public park with cheap camping, including hot showers and an array of shelters. I hung out in a picnic pavilion eating snacks and waiting for the rain to pass. After a shower and dinner, the rain had stopped enough for me to set up the tent. With my objects all charging in the swank shelter, I settled in for the night and passed out immediately.