After a day of rest, we embarked on our ride eastward through Bismarck on the wide, clean shoulder of I-94. The weather was more favorable than forecasted in at least one regard: the forecasted high temperature had decreased over the past three days. However, the wind, once again, was hardly in our favor. We left around 6:30am, and the wind had begun to noticeably pick up around 8:00am. No surprises here, as the wind was again out of the south/southeast at 15mph-20mph with gusts here and there. In fact, one gust blew the bicycle toward a big rock that I had just moments before attempted to maneuver around. While I avoided hitting the rock with the front tire of the bicycle, the rear tire was not as lucky. Immediately after hitting it the tube burst, and I was on the shoulder replacing a tube (something I had become pretty good at). About 10 minutes later, I attempted to pedal off, but my left cleat wouldn't clip into the pedal! Not to worry, I had replacement cleats, so I pulled over in the shade of an overpass about one mile further down the road. After a quick swap of old and new cleats, I was riding again. Finally, after 103 miles of riding, I exited the interstate and turned toward the read that led to tonight's campground; which happened to be a loose, washboard-like gravel road. After nearly falling twice over the course of a half mile, I opted to roll the bike the remaining distance to the campground. Thankfully, the campsite sold ice cream. This made for a better end to a long day of windy ridding!
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