Day 95 - ending at Velva, ND - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

August 17, 2023

Day 95 - ending at Velva, ND

Day 95 - Minot, ND to Velva, ND

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I missed my hoped-for wake up time of 8:00am. I was 58 minutes early. It's just as well, there were things to do. The first thing was to get a cup of coffee from the motel breakfast area. I noticed they didn't have any tables to sit down at, so fixing a huge motel breakfast was not going to be easy. I settled on just having a sweet roll with coffee for now.

Getting the half-loaded bike down the half flight of stairs was a little trickier than taking it up, I found out. All loaded and leaving at 9:59am. My destination today was Velva Campground in Velva, North Dakota. Since I made it farther yesterday than I had originally planned, today's ride would be shorter than planned. I looked at the Google Maps suggested routes for bicycling to Velva from Minot, and picked the most complicated one, it seems, because I was having a hard time following it.

Before I got out of town, I wanted more for breakfast. I had Charlies Main Street Cafe marked on my GPS, and it was close by. I arrived there at 10:34am. I added a caramel roll to my order this morning.

I sort of got lost downtown trying to make it east to a park. Once in the park, I was even more confused. Noon arrived. My two GPS units usually agree, but at noon today they were two miles different. I usually report the lower number, and today that was 0.7 mile.

I finally got through the park and was heading east on a frontage road along highway US-2. I kept having to pull out my phone and check its suggested routing. It had me going south then east stair-step like on country gravel roads. That was OK, because I didn't have too far to go and it was a beautiful day to be in the country.

I was going east on one of these roads when I came upon a bird sitting in the middle of the road. I stopped but the bird didn't fly away. So I kept moving closer thinking any moment it would take off. It finally did, and I was lucky enough to have my phone in position to get a picture.

The ridability of the gravel roads today varied from fairly poor to the very best. After two miles on a particularly poor one, I decided to head east until I got to highway ND-41, which goes straight into Velva. I was at the highway at 4:20pm, with about 7 miles left to go. The earlier-in-the-day gentle southwest wind was a stronger south wind now.

It was an hour before I made it to Velva. I rode through town on the highway, then turned right onto US-52. I wasn't able to get to the campground this way because I was on the wrong side of the railroad tracks. On my way back into town I decided to go ahead and eat first, and did that at Finish Line - Burgers and Brew. They have a big meal on their menu that if you can eat it under an hour, it's free. I didn't order that. But after my meal there, I did ride uptown to Bertie's Ice Cream and Sweets for an 'Aggie Cluster'.

I finally made it to the campground on the west side of town at 7:20pm. I read the self-check in instructions, chose site #20, and paid the $20 tent camping fee. I noticed they have wifi here, so I called their number to get the password. And I've got electricity, so I'm all set to get today's report posted.

I had a fun, easy day today. Tomorrow will be longer miles, so I plan to stay off gravel roads. A heat advisory has been issued for tomorrow, so that will make it a different day also. It certainly feels like it will be cool enough tonight for good sleeping.

Jeff

Spent: $6 (Powerade) + $18.57 plus $4 (breakfast) + $16.73 plus $5 (supper) + $4.25 plus $1.75 (ice cream) + $20 (campsite) = $76.30