It's amazing the things stokers will do to prevent boredom! I've invented license plate games which are too embarrassing to describe, I can recite the alphabet as quickly backwards as forwards, and I rewrote the lyrics to "This Land is Your Land." 

As we were biking that hilly byway,

 I saw above me the windy skyway;

I saw before me that endless highway,

This land is going to kill us both.

Yesterday a man in a decrepit car inched along the highway with us an serenaded us with a "Bicycle Built for Two" through the passenger side front window! The wind teased us by blowing in our direction for 15 miles then abruptly changed and became a head/cross wind for most of the day. We had another flat tire just outside Minot, where we were going to a bike shop to purchase two new tires. So we spent a boring hour and a half hour in a bike shop (reminded me of my childhood in fabric stores). 

 WE SPENT A QUICK AND FASCINATING HOUR AND A HALF IN A BIKE SHOP WHILE THEY REPLACED THE FRONT DERAILLEUR (REMINDED ME OF MY CHILDHOOD IN TOY STORES).

I've decided there are four categories of pain of the rear end. First is the bone pain, where the actual pelvic bones hurt. Then you have the soft tissue pain, which is self-explanatory. Next there is nerve pain, when you're sitting on a nerve that shoots pain up through your lower back and it extends down to your knee. Finally there is the "sitting-on-a-saddle sore (pimple)" pain, also self-explanatory. Oh, yes, I forgot the regular old pain-in-the a __ which is how you view the captain when you're flying down hill too fast or swerving in and out of traffic! I'm not too happy with today's progress. I see my beach vacation slipping away. I haven't talked to Daughter Kelly since her birthday. There's so much I'd like to share with her but I got her answering machine when I called her.

WE BOUGHT THREE SPECIALIZED ARMADILLO TIRES TO TRY TO END OUR PROBLEMS WITH THE TIRE FAILURES. THE BIKE SHOP OWNER CRAMMED OUR BIKE IN FOR WORK EVEN THOUGH THE SHOP WAS VERY BUSY AND IT WAS LATE IN THE AFTERNOON. BICYCLE PEOPLE CONSISTENTLY BEND OVER BACKWARDS TO HELP US WHENEVER THEY CAN ON THIS TRIP.