Fargo to Page, North Dakota - day 20 - June 5th, 2010

Mileage for the day is 63 miles - cloudy and overcast skies with a few sprinkles
We hit the road early as planned leaving the hotel right on time at 5:00AM. It wasn’t quite daylight when we left but it was light enough to read the street signs. Not that it did us any good though. We had a rather difficult time finding our way out of town. Fargo is a rather confusing town to try to figure out where your at as they name the majority of their roads by numbered avenues and numbered streets. That in itself isn’t too bad but they also have the numbered avenues north, numbered avenues south, and numbered avenues north east along with all the same in numbered streets. Very confusing!
When we finally got our bearings daylight was coming on and we made it out of town without any further difficulty. We were warned that rest stops and or restaurants would be few and far between so we were prepared to go a ways before breakfast. Well it turned out to be 43 miles before we found a town with a restaurant that was open. The first place we stopped was in Arthur ND. We pulled into a Cenex station and met the usual old timers sitting around shooting the bull. The best line of this morning was “Are you retarded - I mean retired or what?” The guys said there is a very nice restaurant in town but it doesn’t open on weekends as most people around here head out of town towards the lakes of Minnesota for the weekends.The closest open restaurant was another 6 miles down the road, only 3 miles out of our way , 6 miles round trip, in Hunter ND. I’m glad it was recommended to us as they served the best breakfast we have had so far. Once again the locals were very interested in our ride and fascinated by our bike. A lot of bikers come through the area but they had never seen a bike like ours. After breakfast we got back on route and headed for Page ND arriving about 11:30AM. We beat the headwinds today as planned and arrived in time to meet another young couple who are also biking west from Minneapolis. They are quite heavily loaded as they are carrying camping and cooking gear. We had a nice visit while enjoying a piece of strawberry pie. We are using the bicycle maps that Kathi purchased from Adventure Cycling last summer for my birthday. Not only do they show the routes but they also include information on lodging, restaurants, bike shops, etc. Several days ago Kathi called the phone number that was listed for lodging in Page, North Dakota and spoke with Vicky. She stated that the census taker was in town and was renting the one and only room that they rent out. However, she said that we could stay at her father’s house. She indicated that we could use the upstairs bedroom. She said it wasn’t anything fancy but it would be a roof over our head. Upon arriving in Page I gave Vicky a call and she met us at the grocery store and walked us to her fathers house (a block away). To our surprise it was a big beautiful older home with beautiful wood trim and a real homey atmosphere. She also invited us to have supper with them.

Page is a very small town with a population of about 120 people. John and I took a walk around Page after we showered and went to the Page Memorial park. It is a very clean little town with a grocery store, café, bank, a few other businesses, and even a movie theater. The movie playing this weekend is Robin Hood. Vicky had indicated that the restaurant and movie theater are community owned. John and I can’t believe how they opened up their house to us and told us to make ourselves right at home. Vicky invited us to her home for dinner of pork chops, fried potatoes, broccoli with cheese, and cheese cake with fresh strawberries. We enjoyed this while sitting outside around the fire pit. We had a wonderful visit with Vicky and her father.

Life is good!