It stormed last night but I was snug in the cabin. A bit after 6:00 AM I stop for a quick breakfast at the Towner Cenex and place a phone call back to Christine in Issaquah. She and the boys will be taking the train back to Minnesota, so this is our last chance to talk until I'll see her at my folks' house in a few days. I assure her that my trip is going well and that I'll keep calling my parents to keep them apprised of my progress.

At 7:45 AM, I stop at the monument at the geographic center of North America in Rugby, North Dakota. It's sunny now and warming up so I peel off my arm and leg warmers and put on a layer of sunblock. I call my folks, drink an ice tea and 8:10 AM I'm back on the road.

Last night's storm not only cleared the air, it switched the wind around. I'm enjoying a nice tailwind now and rolling through some very pretty country. Small lakes dot the roadside and I see salamanders, frogs and extremely fat garter snakes soaking up the morning sun.

By 9:50 AM, it's quite warm and I pull of the highway in the town of Leeds to find a market. As I'm eating outside the store I strike up a conversation with a local fellow who asks about my trip. When I tell him I'm headed back to Cloquet to attend my parents 50th wedding anniversary he tells me that he and his wife will be celebrating their 50th anniversary the next weekend as well. I wish him and his wife a happy anniversary and he tells me to deliver the same message to my folks.

It's nearly 100 degrees when I stop at noon at the Dairy Queen in Devil's Lake. I linger for a while in the air-conditioned restaurant before heading back out into the heat.

The sun is really baking me now and despite repeated applications of sunblock, my arms are getting pretty red. I experiment with using the sleeves from my jacket/vest as sun covers but it's too warm to wear the sleeves for long.

With the tailwind, I'm rolling at a very good pace but since I'm going with the wind, it feels like virtual still air. I stop at rest areas and Cenex stations when I come upon them both to get some more liquid in me and also to take a break from the heat.

At 4:12 PM, I take a break in the only patch of shade I've seen for miles, the Niagara Cemetery. This is a beautiful spot on a small hill rising above the prairie and the trees block the sun. The ten minutes I spend here are very peaceful and I can understand the original settlers of Niagara chose this spot for their final rest. But for me this is just a temporary stop and I roll on.

I keep pushing, unwilling to let any of the tailwind go to waste. North Dakota has offered me terrific riding with beautiful roads and ideal small towns for camping. But I know I can make it to Minnesota today and I roll on through the heat. I stop briefly at a rest area in Larimore and a Stamart in Grand Forks and at 7:30 PM I cross the Red River and roll into Minnesota.

It's amazing but literally as I'm crossing into Minnesota, the roads deteriorate. There is construction on the Red River bridge and the Minnesota roads aren't nearly as smooth as the ones in North Dakota. I roll by a stock yard and the scent is almost overpowering. Minnesota might have a lot too offer in terms of scenery and quality of life, but it sure doesn't present it's best features to a traveler heading east on Hwy 2.

I take a detour off Hwy 2 briefly to check out East Grand Forks, Minnesota and determine that it really has nothing to offer a bike tourist, so I continue rolling eastward. It's still very hot and muggy at 8:30 PM when I stop at the Fisher's Landing Rest Area. Minnesota does have very nice rest areas but a sign here clearly forbids camping. I get a Minnesota map here and the information center at the rest area tells me that there is a campground at the Crookston City Park. Crookston is 14 miles to the east, so I head back out on the road.

Again tonight I see a large thunderhead forming in the east but this one doesn't look like it contains as much moisture as some of the previous storms I'd encountered. In the evening light the cloud looms like some kind of nuclear mushroom and I stop to take a photograph.

Another Evening Thunderhead 40.49 KB

I stop briefly at the town of Fisher's Landing shortly before 9:00 PM. There's a Cenex station here so I fuel up. I check out the town but it doesn't have a park so I press on to Crookston.

It's dark but still very hot when I pull into Crookston. By the light of my bike and helmet lights I follow the signs to the city park. The camping is right by the river and I turn onto the road leading into the park.

I find it odd that there's a barricade across the road here and I think "Huh, they must have the campground closed for renovation or something." But it's very late and I'm tired and I'll be gone in the morning so I roll my bike around the barricade and down the small hill to the campground.

My first indication that something is wrong is that Eddy stops dead in his tracks. I put my foot down to steady the bike and I feel my shoe slip into something much less firm than the ground I'd been expecting. I look around, my helmet lamp sweeping an arc of light around me. The campground isn't closed for renovation and it isn't a campground by the river any more. It's a campground in the river and I'm ankle deep in mud. The mud has also rolled up and completely clogged Eddy's brakes.

In the instant that this information is seeping it's way into my tired brain, my body heat and carbon-dioxide rich breath informs the local population of mosquitoes that dinner has arrived. I'm engulfed in an enormous cloud of humming, hypodermic-nosed insatiable micro-vampires. I swat wildly, grab Eddy and drag him up the hill.

The mosquitoes follow me. There's a church on the hill above the river but no breeze to save me. I know I can't go any further and I pitch my camp behind the church as quickly as is humanly possible. I pull the bug repellent out of my bags and slather it on but it doesn't even make the voracious beasts pause in their relentless attack. I pull the bug bivy out and drape it over me and as a last resort I pull on my raingear to thwart some of the bugs. But it's still over eighty degrees and I'm sweating and itching and swatting and cursing. I lean Eddy against the back wall of the church and string the lean-to up against his frame. I settle into the bivy and swat the approximately 473 mosquitoes that snuck in under the netting before I fitfully go to sleep. My last thought before I lose consciousness is that if I die in my sleep, I'll probably wake up in heaven because I've already been to Crookston.

Forward to June 25, 2002 -- Crookston MN to Grand Rapids MN

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