July 21, 2010 92 miles Mayville, ND

Today was a delightful day of cycling. In spite of the distance, which originally was to be 108 miles, the day seemed to fly by. It certainly helped that the temp stayed around 77 and there was good cloud cover all day. We did the distance in just over 6 hrs., so we were moving and grooving. Cheryl, our SAG driver for the day, was parked at every 20 miles, breaking up the day in doable intervals. Several went on and completed 100 miles because of the good conditions. This part of southern North Dakota is pure farmland - wheat fields, corn that's as tall as the 4th of July, and luscious soybeans. ??

Mayville has huge grain elevators. One of the original, large grain landowners donated money in 1900 for a library that is still open today - 21 hrs./wk. It's never been open more than that. The stacks are semi-closed, the books are checked out with a check-out card (remember those?), and rarely are fines charged (2 cents a day). According to Margaret, the librarian, "Who wants to fool with adding it up!" She was just delightful. Margaret gave me a gift that I will treasure always. She wouldn't let me take her pic, but I did get a few pics of the library.

On the way into town, Jona and I stopped at the Rainbow Gardens. Located at a wooded campground, the gardens were started by a local citizen and are maintained by volunteers. There's an English Garden, a White Garden, an Herb Garden, and a Children's Garden. All the areas are filled with beautiful specimens of gorgeous flowers and herbs. There's also a wonderful assortment of sculptures. We thoroughly enjoyed our time there.

Linda cooked her final trailer dinner - Morocan Chicken served over couscous w/green peas and fresh cilantro, five bean salad, green salad and watermelon. It was all delicious!