11 July 2007

Same start time again! What's with that?

I haven't (AFAIK) been on US 2 east of Glasgow before, but it was more of the same, even after crossing into North Dakota. I wasn't sure about whether or not I was in the Central Time Zone or not, but it doesn't really matter, as I will be once I get into Minnesota. (Turns out I was...) Initially the speed limit dropped to 65, but pretty soon it became a divided highway, and the limit went back up to 70, which meant 75+.


This is the "Geographical Center of North America."
I thought I'd visited a similar monument on a cross-country trip some years ago, but now that I think more on it, it was the "Geographic Center of the US" and, once I'd hiked up the hill to the actual site, noted that it was actually "...of the contiguous states" since Alaska and Hawaii had been added since.

The weather was somewhat cooler than yesterday, with more clouds, some of which looked like they could rain. Had a sprinkle or two, but nothing to change for until later in the day. I could see it coming, so I changed gloves on the fly. Once it hit and I put down my faceshield, I was sorry I hadn't been more careful about keeping it clean--it was pretty buggy. And once I used my little squeegee-on-a-string (courtesy of Dan Toporoski) I realized that some of the rain was on the inside. Could be a problem later in the trip, when I get into more serious weather.

Speaking of serious ... when I laid out the route last night, I decided to skip Crookston, because the only lodging I could find in S&T and MapSource looked like it was connected to a country club, thus probably pricey. So when I stopped for gas there (weather threatening) I was puzzled to see an Americinn, visible from the gas station. But I decided to press on for the motel I'd identified another 45 miles east.

Well, I got about half way there, and it started to rain pretty seriously. [Up until then, I'd see patches of rain ahead, and either the road would bend away, or the wind (which was blowing pretty strongly) would push it south. But this downpour made up for it, although I'd guess it only lasted about 15 minutes.] It was still raining when I got to Fosston, and I started to follow the GPS directions, but they looked totally bogus. So I figured, what the heck, I'll head for the next town--but just as I was leaving, I saw a Super 8 ahead, so I pulled in (still raining) and walked in, fully geared up, dripping. The desk clerk was on the phone, and stayed there for five minutes.

Finally, she hung up and admitted they did have a room, for $70-mumble. I took it. Of course, as soon as I got all the gear off the bike, it stopped raining and the sun came out. So I rode back into town and got $11 worth of groceries.

States: Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota.
552 GPS miles (3071 total), 67.5 moving average, 82.3 max (civilized traffic).
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