Gig Harbor Washington to Bar Harbor Maine 2001

Even Gridley slept through his alarm this morning, till 6:22. He told me I was really gonna like what I see when I get up. I mumbled something about delayed gratification. He said he was going back to bed and I said that was the best news I'd had all day. Or maybe I just thought it. I felt like I'd been drugged. Mumbling was the best I could do. Getting up, even opening my eyes, was impossible. Maybe I was stuck in rem sleep. I'd been dreaming about a bike mechanic showing me how to use this really cool tool to fix a non-existent bike part.

I dragged out of bed a few hours later and ate some cereal in the gusty cold east wind. I decided that this would be a great day to stay in the tent all day and lobbied pretty hard with anyone I saw. But to no avail. Even if we only make 20-30 miles it'll put us in good position for a bigger town tomorrow night, especially if the wind shifts. We're off the Adventure Cycling route for the remainder of North Dakota so we're not sure what we'll find on the road.

Gridley and I rode from the park into town about noon. I had breakfast. He had coffee and took off. The kids came into the restaurant as I was paying my bill. The wind had shifted to southeast, the way we were headed. The temperature was pretty comfortable, in the mid 60's, and the sun was shining warmly. So it wasn't an entirely miserable day, just a mean headwind.

The highlight of my day came while riding down the shoulder of a real highway. The birds in the right-of-way had been entertaining me, and I noticed that a milepost had some brown blotches on it. When I got closer I realized it was a chipmunk. He had tucked his head and forelegs over the top of the sign and curled his tail around the sign. I don't know whether he was getting his back massaged by the wind, or if he had had enough and was offering himself to the hawks.

We'd agreed to meet in Underwood, 26 miles away. I got there at about 4:30 and looked around for Gridley. There weren't any messages on my voice mail, our high tech method of keeping in touch. I could only find one open business, a gas station, and they hadn't seen him.

I was still tired and unwilling to continue into the headwind an unknown distance to the next campground. The people in the gas station said there wasn't any camping in town so I checked into the only motel. Gridley called a few minutes later. Apparently he was waiting in another open business that looked like an abandoned warehouse to me. He hunted down the kids and sent them my way while he found a city park to camp in.

I'm not sure what's going on, but I'm hoping that another good, long, night's sleep and a change in the wind will put the fun back in this trip.