A new personal best! Our 19th day was a breeze, both literally and figuratively. We got started at 6:30 a.m. in order to beat the heat and to get lots of miles in to make up for yesterday. But we had lots of cloud cover all day and finally the wind was headed in approximately our direction. We rode 40 miles before 9 a.m. The terrain has really changed; western North Dakota was dry and very hilly, even though we skirted north of the Badlands. Eastern ND is level, fertile farmland.

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It's strange but there are virtually no mosquitoes here in North Dakota; we've decided that the east to west winds blew them all back to Montana (Saco especially, since they claim to be the mosquito capital of the world). Yesterday and today we felt as though we were in a Hitchcock movie. Birds all but attacked us, swooping and diving as we rode past their nests in the wetlands along the road. We're glad to be wearing helmets. I think I have some sun poisoning-itchy bumps where I burned. Before Dave writes his comments and I'm accused of violence, let me state that I smacked Captain Dave on the rear when he made two quick "U" turns then almost wrecked (with traffic coming), just to get a Mento candy I dropped.

STOKER RHONA'S SUN POISONING SEEMS TO HAVE AFFECTED HER VISUAL PERCEPTION AND MADE HER EMOTIONALLY VOLATILE! TODAY, SHE DROPPED A HANDFUL OF MENTO CANDY. THE RESULTING CLATTER STARTLED ME, CAUSING AN ALMOST IMPERCEPTIBLE SWERVE OF THE BICYCLE. FORTUNATELY, THERE WERE NO MOTOR VEHICLES IN THE SURROUNDING THREE COUNTY AREA. MY SOOTHING VOICE CALMED HER AND SHE RESPONDED WITH A LOVE TAP ON THE BACK.

Today, we had what I would term our only close call thus far. A trucker did not want to share the road; in fact, it seemed like he moved closer to us intentionally. Dave said it wasn't a close call, that it happens all of the time in West Virginia.