Sorry I missed you Ed. I always liked to stop and visit with fellow bike packers and hear their stories. I saw surprisingly few bikepackers headed westbound. Fargo did seem like a neat town.

Hi Conrad,

The increase in daily mileage wasn’t all about fitness. One of the most impactful factors was the desire to get home after over two months on the road. I had never been away from home so long in my life. I surprised myself on day three when I covered 71 miles in some very hilly terrain and had enough energy left over to go on a hike.

Hi Jeff,

I hope your ride works out well. I’m not sure about electric bikes – wouldn’t have worked for me as range isn’t there and charging the batteries would have been a problem in a number of places.

Hi Steve,

Hope your ride is or does work out as well as mine.

Hmm, maybe I got confused by the end of the day about all the towns and schools I passed through in Michigan.

Crosswinds weren’t much worse than on an ordinary ride for me, but my rig was pretty basic.

Hi Ken,

Yes, Undaunted Courage is a fine book and it seemed that Lewis and Clark were everywhere. If you are up for a challenge, take the same gravel path through the Bitterroot Mountains that Lewis and Clark took, but be prepared for a very long ride on gravel with no services. I wasn’t set up for that route, so I stuck to the pavement on that part of the ride. By the way, Stephen Ambrose is from my hometown – my mom was one class behind him in high school. His dad was our family physician.