Day 18 - Bismarck to Jamestown + 30

Hi from Jamestown, ND - the home of the world's largest Buffalo - monument that is.  I sent the guys off this morning from our B&B in Bismarck, finished my coffee, then headed east on I-94.  We had lunch at the Frontier Village in Jamestown, a restored western village where the Buffalo lives :) 
I am enjoying the change in landscape, more green fields, real trees and lakes have started to appear among the gentle rolling hills.
Patty on the road

Notes from Tom:  A few days ago we had the trifecta of bad conditions--heat, headwinds, and hills.  Today we had a perfect storm of GOOD conditions--an early start, a rest day yesterday, nearly flat and straight roads, wide shoulders and mostly friendly rumble strips, cooler temps, and.....a tailwind.  We rode nearly 134 miles.  For the first time in a long time, we saw some large bodies of water.  I also attached a picture of the rumble strips Jerry described yesterday.

Our hosts at the B and B in Bismarck, Don and Lynne, sent us off at 6:30 after feeding us coffee, juice, oatmeal, french toast, fresh fruit, and country ham.  During our stay with them we feasted on their fresh raspberries hand picked by Don from his backyard garden.

Tomorrow we're headed towards Fargo, and looking forward to having dinner with another our Jerry's and my fraternity brothers, Bill Makens.  We're hoping for more good conditions.

Notes from Jerry:  Today was one of those dream days for cycling, just like Tom said.  We took full advantage of it and just cranked down the road.  We ended up suprisingly not that tired.

Patty found a great venue for our second lunch (we needed lunch at about 10 am and called it a snack), so when we hit Jamestown about 12:45 she had scouted out a place called Frontier Village right outside of town.  It was basically a recreation of a wild west settlement made up of real historic buildings taken from a nearby town.  The buildings included an old general store, a one room school house, fire department complete with 1929 American La France fire engine etc.  The real highlight is at the end of town, which is high on a knoll.  In 1952 a local sculptor created a 52 ton concrete buffalo that you can see in the attached picture.  Worlds biggest Buffalo sculpture!