There were three sections to today's ride. Firstly we cycled to Fargo - about 25 miles over flat country with the wind still behind us but with reduced wind speed. On this stage we met Sue who was doing a section of the Northern Tier route and doing it very thoroughly. She had been up to the headwaters of the Mississippi and also was doing the literary trails we have been doing too. Some sections she had done twice as part of her route taking in all the options on this section of the Northern Tier. She looked very strong. I asked if she liked the Rockies best - but she said she was not so keen on the hills - she is from Ohio where it's, as we remembered, a fairly undulating landscape - though she doesn't live on the Northern Tier route. We waved goodbye and then I had a puncture.... I ran over a large stone. Guy said he saw it but thought I kept a lookout. Well yes, but any meeting sends me into a reflective, even a bit dreamy, mode. We did eventually reach the edge of Moorhead, which is in Minnesota and only avoids being joined to Fargo in North Dakota by the Red River dividing them. This second section of the day was mostly suburban - American cities have a lot of suburban sprawl, often quite attractive, shady, surrounded by trees, lawned (and mown, oh dear yes), sometimes with flower beds out front. But no hedges. There was lots of green space.
We went past a replica of a Norwegian stave church - Hopperstad Stave Church replica. The area had many Scandinavian migrants 150 years ago and their descendants are proud of their roots, huzzay. Eventually after much slow map reading we got to Fargo and even the town centre. Rather impressive with a super bike shop (yet another inner tube, sigh) - and a large Wells Fargo bank which must have something to do with Fargo. Some nice looking pubs as well. A city centre with life. We cycled out to the edge of the city and did the third section of today's ride - to Kindred, a small town about 25 further miles on. We shopped at Hornbachers groceries (as usual I slightly upset the bagging person by asking to not have a plastic bag - and there's no obvious way of recycling them around here). Jets were doing formation flying over Fargo - neat tight diamond shapes of four jet planes. And a loop the loop too... The sky looked a bit threatening - modest thunder was predicted. The roads are in a grid pattern so we went something like 10 miles south then 8 miles west and then 7 miles south, with the southbound bits being onto the relatively light south wind. It rained briefly once. Pythagoras theorem could work out how many miles would have been saved by a direct road... At Kindred we are now camped in the city park, as usual we were too late for the swimming pool. But a 6pm finish is not bad. Peanut Butter Porter was again drunk, with salad and very seedy wholemeal bread, plus chilli beans. It's a varied diet. We are currently just here.