No kitchen facilities at the ‘Honey Hut’, so we went out for pizza. Eight pizzas later, it was time for our map meeting but not before celebrating Allen’s 70th Birthday. Ginny, of the ‘Honey Hut’ had baked it for us. THANK YOU GINNY!!!!

David had kitchen duties tonight so he handles the flame . . .

. . .while Allen supplied the lung power . . .

 

. . . and neatly cut it into 15 pieces!!!!

Quiet night in Gackle. Everyone left their bikes unlocked tonight . . . there is no crime in Gackle!!!!

Allison slept on the Honey Hut’s kids trampoline. Things were fine until the mosquitos’ started attaching her. She grabbed her her single person tent, slid into it with her sleeping bag and had a great nights sleep!!!

Part of the ‘latter morning crowd’. We changed the start of breakfast to 7:00am so we didn’t need to use headlamps in order to see when making our breakfasts and lunches!!!

The ‘Honey Hut’ backyard . . .

. . . things were quiet in downtown Gackle on the roll out of town. The C-Store closed at 5:30pm last night . . .when the streets pretty much rolled up for the night!!!!

Today it would be 65 miles of STRAIGHT road . . . follows the section lines for, Yes, . . . 65 MILES!!!!

Just like in WI, the seed manufacturers are getting ready to show off their best products under actual field growing conditions!!!!

. . . it was fun to watch this guy maneuver this boom sprayer around obstacles on the field edges. Quite the driver. With those wings, it looked like if he could have reach lift off speed he would have taken off!!!!

Just outside or Marion, we met Julie and her Dad , Bill, from Ithaca, NY. They started in Maine and are heading for Washington. In a quick 5 minutes we try to pick each others brains on the best restaurants, campsites and mosquito reports!!! WI and MN sound bad . . .there has been a lot of rain and the mosquitos are the size of ‘Blue Birds”!!!

There were no towns on todays route but Marion was just a mile off route, so we took their advice and wheeled ‘Off for a Stretch’ !!!!

We have seem some ponds like this that are so green it looks like you could walk across them. I felted sorry for these little ducklings who were frighten of me and swam out into the thick of it!!!

David, Doc Mike and I were the first three to arrive at the Marion Community Café, the place to be in Marion, pop.127.

. . . David and I had the Salad Special of the day. Yummy . . . haven’t had this many veggies in one setting for weeks. By the time we left, Anne Rod, Corvin and Hugh had joined the table.

On the way out of Marion I spotted this mailbox . . . another Wally. I could be related to him!!!

The only change in elevations we would have today were the two river valleys we crossed. From the People’s River in Mt to the Missouri River in ND they all have a descent to the river bottom and then a climb back out again. The bigger the river the wider the valley. This was the James River that provided welcome from . . .FLAT!!!

. . . and ND DOT has a sense of humor!!!!

. . . some nice pastoral setting along the way today near homesteads but most was corn or soybeans . . . miles and miles of corn and soybeans . . .

Nice mailbox at the Ova’s . . .

. . . Mr Pelican in one of the ponds we passed that had water in it.

One more river valley to drop into, the Sheyenne . . .  looks like a big climb out of it first thing tomorrow morning!!!

We are staying at one of the Sheyenne County Recreation Areas. They just put in new pit toilets last week and there is a water hydrant. No showers but a babbling  brook nearby  that many of us used to take a quick dip!!!

Denise and Hugh are cooking tonight and the closest town is 15 miles away.

Allison arranged with a volunteer, Lori, a fellow cyclist, to come out and get them and take them shopping . . . nice!!! She was the local barber for twenty years and lives out on a ranch. THANK YOU LORI !

Typical results from our nightly shop. The yellow back is full of things that need to be on ice!!!