Hurricane Theodore and other recent happenings

Hello.

It has been a while. Internet is not as sparse as I thought it would be. We've actually had wireless our last two nights, I've just been a little preoccupied...actually mostly avoiding an update to this thing.

We are well into Montana now, and not too much has happened since my last post. Let's see how well I can do with getting you all up to speed.

Let's start with the now infamous (at least in our little circle) Hurricane Theodore. So there aren't many things we do on this trip that are more dangerous than riding our bikes across the country. There have been a few exceptions however, as some have gone skydiving, some have hammered nails high on a steep roof, and some have challenged each other to a death-defying game of "Assassins" (currently in play, I have yet to be assassinated). But Saturday night in Teddy Roosevelt National Park was a risk none of us were anticipating we'd take.

Saturday was another beautiful ride. More rolling hills, ascending into amazing buttes, descending back into oil wells. The wind was light in the morning, and at our backs on the last 14 miles into the park. In almost literally a moment, without warning, the rolling hills gave way to a long, enjoyable drop into a massive canyon of wind-blown rock formations. These were the North Dakota Badlands, of course. It was amazing, and definitely worth the extra day or two we had to go out of our way to get there. We got to our campsite, set up the tents, had a nice camp stove meal, and a really beautiful night to watch the sunset/drift comfortably off to sleep. There was a slight chance of rain, only about 20%, so we weren't too concerned, but made sure all our bags were under some sort of cover while we slept. I decided not to sleep in a tent, choosing instead to sleep under a tarp that was a lot less crowded and more open to the breeze and the stars. I was comfortable, but didn't get to sleep right away, as the tarp was a little noisy blowing in the breeze. But I got to sleep eventually. Then the wind picked up, and I was woken up by two others sleeping under the tarp, who noticed lightning in the distance. Of course, here the sky is so big that you can see a thunderstorm from miles and miles away, and it's not even necessarily coming toward you, but we prepared to get hit anyway. Four of us put all the bags in the trailer, moved the bikes and other loose items underneath the overhang of the bathroom on our site, and watched as the storm got closer and closer. Then came the rain, and now five of us took shelter in the girls bathroom, overlooking all of the tents. Then the wind picked up, hard and fast. We all watched as the rain poured down, the lightning crash, and the wind nearly blow all the tents, full of people, over. In one tent, I could hear the manic laughter of Kathy, who, while stuck in the storm, found both her and everyone else's present situation absolutely hilarious. I mean, it was pretty funny, the one day we've camped out all trip, and there is a massive thunderstorm teasing us all. Then a huge tree branch fell five feet from the bathrooms, freaking all the dry, safe ones out, prompting us to scream for everyone to get into the bathroom. Within 5 minutes, the girls bathroom had been overtaken by about 20 soaking wet riders, all freezing and filled with adrenaline. And within 10 minutes, all but one of the tents were completely flattened.

Once the rain and wind died down, we split up into the guys and girls bathrooms, and the van, and decided to spend the rest of the night on the floor, on top of whatever dry stuff we could find. Mind you, this is a public bathroom in a national park. Not the most enticing of accommodations. But I had a great spot, a urinal directly to my right, and a clogged, sh*t-filled toilet right behind me. I was sitting up, as I didn't have much room to lay down, but once I found myself drifting off to sleep, leaning into the urinal, I decided it was probably time to find a way to lay down. So I shimmied my legs underneath the partition between the urinal and the sink, hanging my feet over a bag of one of the riders, then lay my head directly under the partition between the urinal and the clogged toilet. This way, closer to the ground, not only would I not risk waking up with my face somewhere I'd rather it not be, but I would get to smell the ground instead of other peoples' pee.

Let's just say I didn't get very much sleep that night, maybe a broken hour or two. It was about 2:30 when the storm hit, we had been up for about an hour beforehand, getting everything out of the rain, and an hour afterward until we all settled back down. In the morning, the scene was both unsettling and absolutely hilarious. The sun was rising over the hills, and tons of debris was strewn about the flattened tents (all but one). One tent was completely submerged in water, another was a few feet from a fallen branch. A park ranger arrived at about 6:15, with the following words: "Did you guys lose a tarp? Because I found this here tarp up in a tree about a mile from here." It was ours, nonetheless.

We got out of there as fast as we could, riding 100 miles (well, 80 for a few of us) to Culbertson, MT, where we were never so thankful to see a church floor and hot food in probably all our lives.

The past few days have been mostly uneventful. Perhaps in the next blog, I will describe the Montana scene to you (think nothing, nothing, and more nothing). Its been interesting, and lots of good food. These people here really know how to eat, and apparently so do I. More to follow, but the cafe I'm in is closing now, so I have to go.