Day 16: 78.3 Miles

Friday July 1

Today we were entertained by the people rather than the usual never ending flat plains. First we crossed in to North Dakota, where four unknown bikers were eating our perfectly sliced oranges, munching on our bags of open trail mix, and drinking from our coolers of ice cold water. As we approached, we were suspicious of the new comers but they soon greeted us with smiles that were quickly returned. There were two younger bearded men (one from Seattle and one from New York) who also started in Washington but were ending short of the Atlantic in New York. The other two were also bearded (but with grey hair) and had planned a similar route to our own except for they were going unsupported. We swapped our stories and continued on, only to pass by each other all day long. After our miles were covered, we found ourselves at a Lutheran church in Ray, North Dakota. It was announced that there were no showers to be had but there was a lake nearby, but there was an oil spill a few months earlier so that was off the table. When we thought all hope was lost for cleanliness, a teacher from the local public school stopped at the church and offered to take us to his house, only a few blocks away, via the back of his pickup truck. Arley and his wife opened their home us, letting the girls use his two showers while the minister, who lived across the street, allowed the boys to use his basement shower and tv. In between showers, we discovered the troubles of the oil business in Ray and how it had drastically changed the town in only a year. The school had grown by 64 kids which was a lot for a town of 600 people. Oil wells had sprung up all over the town and with that trailers full of workers surrounded the initial inhabitants, landscapes turned into construction zones, and their quiet roads were filled with large trucks. Arley dropped us off at the church clean and amazed by his stories. Then the minister treated us to dinner at a local diner (it had really good milkshakes, the groups' favorite) even after he and his wife had graciously donated bags of tootsie pops an sunflower seed for our hungry stomachs. To our surprise Arley returned to the church with a school bus (which were left unlocked at the elementary school) to take us to see some of the oil production ourselves. None of us had ever seen anything like it, we were able to experience this business first hand. This event kept us out to 9:00 (which was dangerously close to our bed time), so when we were dropped off, we set up camp on the cushioned rug of the altar and fell asleep knowing that there was only one more day of biking before our rest day.

-Anna Richardson