The first 100 days

Bismarck, North Dakota Monday-Tuesday, July 26-27, 2021

Yesterday marked exactly 100 days on this ride. Presidents are often evaluated on how they did in their first hundred days, and I did some evaluating too.

4461 miles, so averaging 44.6 miles per day, even including all of the zero days and other diversions. Some challenging moments, but nothing catastrophic. I still feel perfectly healthy, I’ve lost over 30 pounds, and my BP was so low when last checked, 100/68, that I cut my BP med (olmesartan) in half. After some early problems with broken spokes and saddle tension bolts, the bike has performed flawlessly. I’ve broken a couple of mirrors, and had to replace my tires, that’s it. Other riders I have encountered have had far worse problems with their bikes, I’m really quite delighted with mine, and hope to be able to describe it in detail in a future post.

But this hot weather has really knocked the stuffing out of me. The climate scientists are calling it a “heat dome” and it’s particularly bad in the Pacific Northwest. Ironic, because by eschewing fossil fuel I’m trying to do my infinitesimal bit to mitigate the very problem that may defeat me.

Well I had these two days to nurse my (psychological) wounds and run some errands. The guy who replaced my screen protector at Verizon cheered me up with his self-deprecating humor. He had returned to his native North Dakota after being away for a while. When I asked him if he was glad to be back, his sheepish smile said it all. He was amused to be reminded of the state slogan, Be Legendary.

I visited the two bike stores in town, and they always lift my spirits. They didn’t have all the supplies I needed, but they were a great source of encouragement and local knowledge. At one of them was an amazing coincidence, I met another retired doctor from Vermont, Paul Jarris, who was biking cross country in the other direction! I mean, what are the chances? It’s like two arrows hitting each other in mid-flight. We chatted so animatedly we decided to get together for dinner. Even though it was hard to hear each other in that noisy brewery, sharing our experiences, both on the road and in Vermont, was an elixir for me.

Bismarck is my fourth state capital, and I’ve made a fetish of visiting the capitol building. This one was charming in its goofily incongruous way. I mean, where’s the dome?

I guess it’s the tallest office building in the state, which reminded me that North Dakota has the second tallest structure in the world, a TV mast outside of Fargo. It has to be so tall because the land there is so flat, there’s no hill to put it on.

There is a statue at the base of the capitol and I thought, does North Dakota have somebody famous outside of Lawrence Welk? Well, kinda

Well OK. He was in the state, not the US Supreme Court, but still.

And how can the name of the local convenience store chain not make you chuckle?

All of this, along with calls and messages from family and my weekly therapist call, succeeded in piercing the funk I was in. Not to mention chillin’ (literally) in the air-conditioned Radisson. I plotted and reserved lodging for the next few days, which calls for snagging the highpoint, White Butte, west of here and then dropping south throughout the Black Hills to Denver. That nutso motorcycle rally in Sturgis will be a challenge to avoid. Bikers of a different sort.

Hey, Lewis and Clark had to contend with much worse, and they proceeded on. So can I.

Distance 15 miles, 4,476 total. Time 3 hours with stops. Elevation gain 315 feet

©️ 2021 Scott Luria