Day 26--Goodbye to the RAGBRAI Group

Thursday 2 July, 2009
Williston, ND 

This morning Rick and Bill and I moved from the hotel to a campsite 4 miles north of town. We stopped at a WalMart along the way to provision ourselves, set up, and then rode back into town to meet Sylvia and to say good-bye to the rest of the group.

I think Sylvia was in a “flight fog.” When I introduced myself and welcomed her to the ride, she looked at me strangely and said nothing. Then she pulled out an article about a trail in Illinois and began selling it to me as though I were the one making the route decisions. I think Kevin has predisposed her to be wary of me. Actually I barely got to meet her as Kevin had her “in hand,” and she was eager to get to the bike shop and get her newly tricked out touring bike.

We splinters are in a quandary re Diane who has not committed to go with either group and is on her cell phone constantly so out of touch with everyone. Finally, after a lot of awkward dithering, we three said our good-byes (though not to Diane who was on her phone) and left for our campsite. We figured that if Diane decided to go with us—which would have caused Rick to go on alone he has such antipathy for her—that she could find her way the four miles to the campsite. I think she remained on her phone on purpose so as not to have to make a decision. Since it is evening now, we assume that she chose to continue on and ride RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Ride Across Iowa) as originally planned.

Kevin, Silvia, Tim, and Diane plan to ride to our originally scheduled campsite today on Lake Sakakawea, 20-some miles south. I later learned from Tim’s blog that this was a tough ride for them because of the headwinds.

While they were riding south, we three were cooking up a spaghetti dinner with goodies purchased at the Williston Walmart.

Preparing the spaghetti meal; dig Rick's bicycle tan

Where's the broccoli?  Rick's liable to succumb to a disease or lose muscle. He usually adds broccoli to every meal 

After dinner we worked out a shortcut route to Hwy 2, Rick doing much of the plotting.

From now on I will have to keep this blog up to date and not rely on Tim's blog or my mailed letters to the club. And guess what? Because of setting up a new camp and our back and forth rides to the campsite, we have again not had a complete rest day! But we feel a great deal of relief and vow to camp and be more leisurely.

Tune in tomorrow to see how the three muskateers make out. . .