Cooperstown, ND to Piken to Devils Lake, ND - day 22

Total miles biked today was 86 with beautiful sunny skies and NO WIND!

We had a short day planned for today so we slept in until 5:45AM, rolled out, packed up, and headed to the Coachman's Restaurant by 6:15AM. After breakfast we headed for or planned destination of Pekin under great weather conditions, best of all NO WIND! What a gift after the last couple days. It was a great ride, starting out relatively flat for the first 20 miles and then into some rolling hills the next 15 miles. We arrived at the Prairie View Lodge in Pekin where we had made reservations at 9:20AM. With weather conditions being what they were and it being as early as it was we decided to take a chance on the winds remaining calm and canceled our reservation and headed for our intended Tuesday night destination of Devils Lake 50 miles away.

We stopped at Warwick, ND for dinner at a little old bar called Darrel's Place. Once again we were asked the same questions of where we were from and where we were going. Of course, they also looked at us like we were crazy but we enjoyed visiting with everyone. Darrel was tending bar when we got there and then a little gal came to work also. She was very helpful in letting us know that there was a detour ahead. We left Darrel's Place with a smile on our faces and laughter in our hearts. In fact our route was detoured because of the road being under water - I always thought that North Dakota was a dry state and we have seen marshland, ponds, and lakes as we traveled the country side. So we ended up following this gals instructions and taking the detour to Devils Lake. What was quite unique about this old run down bar is that they had a drive up window. You don't usually see a drive up window for a bar. Anyway, John and I each had a cheeseburger and it was very very good.

The North Dakota landscape, so far, has been very flat but even though it is flat it has its own beauty. The wetlands in particular are a good example. If you look close you will see all kinds of water fowl, ducks, cormorants, geese, and pelicans, etc. We are also starting to see some beef cattle grazing in the fields. The last 20 miles of our ride today was in the Devils Lake area where roads were built right through the lakes and our detour was because one of the roads had flooded out. Even North Dakota is very scenic, you just have to slow down to bike speed to enjoy it.

The ride continued to go exceptionally well (even with the detour) and we pulled into Devils Lake, ND with 87 miles on the odometer for the day.

Total mileage as of today is 1,267 miles.