Day 26 - Tower City to Fargo 50 miles

Knowing it was going to be a relatively short day into Fargo we took the opportunity for a lie in, finally rolling out of the tent at 0730. Our host, Lindsay, was working until 3pm so there was no rush to get into town. Our gas ran out last night and the emergency solid fuel canister was disappointing to say the least, taking half an hour to boil a kettle. We packed up quickly and wiled away the morning in the local cafe for breakfast instead.

I received another slow puncture which had leaked overnight, and the first order of business was to do a repair. We couldn't find anything in the tyre, so I put the inner tube back in, which is starting to become more repair patch than original rubber. Soon enough the wheel was going flat again, but it was a slow enough puncture to make it to Fargo, topping it up every hour or so.

We stayed off the interstate as we approached the city as it was getting rather busy, and I recalled reading a number of news stories of cyclists riding on the busier sections of interstate getting into some trouble with the highway patrol. Not wanting an international incident, we stayed on the smaller County roads. These varied between gravel and tarmac, and laid out in a perfect North - South, East - West grid. There was not a great deal to see on route, although we passed a large ethanol manufacturing plant which apparently is where all of the corn grown in the region is destined.

We made it to Fargo in time for lunch before meeting Lindsay. We found the North Dakota State University campus and their local student haunt to eat. After a fairly standard student bar meal we had a look around their campus. Like everything in America, it was on a much larger scale to what we are used to in Plymouth and Exeter. It's own busses would run across the site. Despite the size it was surprising to learn the university, with twelve thousand students, is less than half the size of Plymouth, with thirty thousand.

We also found an information stand for their Reserve Officer Training Corps, the equivalent of our own University Officer Training Corps, which gave us an interesting insight into the system they have across the pond.

Time to meet our host! Lindsay immediately came across full of life, introducing to her awesome three legged dog Avi with a personality to match. A cold beer went down nicely, and she soon opened up with a fountain of knowledge of the best and local beers from here to New York.

We left for dinner of tacos which thankfully were kinder on our digestive systems than the Taco Bell we tried a couple of weeks ago. We washed them down with Margaritas before Lindsay took us to the local craft brewery. We spent the evening chatting while tasting the local ales and eating the steady supply of salted popcorn. We introduced them to local British games such as the Gloucester cheese rolling, shin kicking and village football.