Day 11 – Dodging Thunder Storms

Date: Thursday, 21 July 2016

Time on Bike: 6:04:58

Total Travel Time: 9:42:36

Miles Covered Today: 79.19 (now my most covered in one day)

Total Trip Miles: 660.4

Average Speed: 12.9, Maximum Speed: 22.7

From: Milaca, MN

To: Crow Wing State Park, MN

(Uploaded from Fargo, ND on 25 Jul 2016)

Slept in a little this morning. Up at 7 AM. I could see that it rained last night. The sky was still overcast. But Weather.com showed that the storms had already passed us by…

Was a strange place to stay… but it worked out fine! A conference/banquet center in Milaca, MN??? I had a cold breakfast of cereal, English muffins with peanut butter & jelly, Rice Krispies snacks, and pastries with OJ. Can’t go wrong with that!

I headed out in sunny skies. But I could see the sky was getting darker as a line of clouds was rolling in. Apparently headed my way! I made a right off of HW 23 and could see rain & lightning off to my right. How could I avoid all that? I was supposed to take a right on HW 7 and that would have taken me right into the bad weather. I decide to continue west on HW 6 and try to take that right up the road in a clear area of clouds between storms.

It worked! I outfoxed the thunderstorms this morning! Only had a few periods of light rain, but no downpours or lightning over my head!

Bunny & Woz were waiting for me at Ramey Store in Ramey, MN. Bunny had already filled in the owner Arlen all about our trip.

Arlen was very kind. Seems to care about the cyclists. Lets cyclist sleep behind the store. He was a wealth of information. He got out a map of Minnesota & showed us where we were and where we were headed. I showed him our route. He said he has been told that Ramey is about mid-point of the Northern Tier route.

Soon after leaving Ramey I saw a guy on a recumbent & a woman on touring bike traveling together both fully loaded. Only like the third group of cyclists, and they have all be going east. Where are all the cyclist on the Northern Tier route???? And am I going the wrong way???

I usually yell “everything OK?” and then I follow up with “safe travels.” I still do not think they recognize me as also being a Northern Tier cyclist.

The sun came out and it warmed up. I always enjoy figuring out what crops an area produces. I was seeing a lot of chicken houses along HW 26 so I knew chicken production was big business around here.

So looks like Gold'n Plump is the big player in this area.

It was a really long 10 mile haul from Little Rock into Royalton… I couldn’t find any good places to rest/beak, so eventually parked in the shade in front of someone’s house. After a little food & drink, was ready to finish the leg.

I like to imagine what the animals are thinking when they stop and watch me cycle by. Is it “Wow, really cool. That guy is cycling from Chicago to Seattle.” Or is it “What a schmuck riding a bike on a day like this!”

Bunny & Woz were chilling at the Royalton Library. An excellent stop. AC and free Wi-Fi!!

We used their internet to figure out where we were spending the night. We decided to push on to Baxter, MN.

I saw this small river to my right. I read on my map it was the Mississippi!! Sure is smaller this far north. Seems like I have been traveling with the Mississippi for a while now.

You learn all sorts of things traveling on the highways and byways. I passed Charles Lindberg’s house in Little Falls, MN. I knew he was a local as I had not long before that cycled past the Charles A. Lindbergh State Park.

Met back up with “my team” at The Royal diner in Little Falls, MN. It was hot & muggy again today. Heat index over 105. I was anxious to call it a day, but wanted to push on to the start of the Paul Bunyan State Bike Trail that begins at the Crow Wing State Park, MN.

Went on a brand new section of road leaving Little Falls, MN. Freshly paved. No center line. No lines on the edge. I rode down the middle of my lane enjoying the smooth ride. I THINK THE ONLY ROAD IN ALL OF WISCONSIN & MINNESOTA THAT DID NOT HAVE CRACKS THAT BUMPED ME AROUND!!!!

Went by Fort Ripley. They must do artillery training there as I kept hearing explosions. Or I hope that is what it was...

Cross the Mississippi... again!!

Note the railroad tracks down the middle of the bridge!!!!

Was a long day. Almost 10 hours of travel today. So I did not have any patience at all for the road work being done on Highway 371 between Little Falls & our final destination Crow Wing State Park.

They were painting the center strip, so they put up cones for about 8 miles so people wouldn’t drive on the freshly painted center strip. But that forced people to drive over to the right straddling the rumble strip. And that brought them onto the shoulder where I was cycling. It was nerve racking having the cars zoom by at 60 MPH driving on the shoulder where I was cycling.

I rode as close to the edge as I could, but that is also where all the trash, glass, rocks, and junk is located. I was happy to take my left onto State Park Road and finish my day up!

As I was loading my bike onto the Prius, a woman cyclist stopped and asked if I was starting or finishing up. I told her I was done for the day. She said she had seen a few Black Bears in the area off the trail and just wanted to give me a heads up. I could see by Bunny’s facial expression she was not pleased to hear of the local wildlife!

We drove the 20 miles or so to Baxter by car and checked into our hotel. We had grabbed dinner at Taco Bell before getting to the hotel. That dinner talked back to me all evening long. No more TB for me!

Several truckers were staying at our hotel as well. One had a refrigerator trailer that needed the cooling unit to operate all night long. I am a sensitive sleeper and could hear the motor that powers the compressor rev up and down.

At about 9:45 PM I complained to the kid (aren’t they all kids now!!!!????) manning the desk. She said it would not be on all night. I told her it in fact would… At 10:45 PM I went out and took pictures of the license plate, refrigerator unit, and recorded the noise on my iPhone and went back to the desk.

The kid told me she had gone outside to look and had tried to contact the driver, but was not successful. I asked her what that meant. She said we could change rooms. I said my wife was asleep and we shouldn’t have to move to get some peace and quiet. I asked her to continue to try and contact the driver. The truck could be moved back further from the hotel and that would provide some sound protection from the other trucks.

Of course nothing ever happened. At about 4:30 AM that truck apparently left.

It might have taken 500 miles, but feeling really comfortable on the bike now. My butt & neck don’t hurt nearly as much as they did last week. And I really feel I have increased my aerobic capacity. First week or so, 60 miles per day seemed to be my limit. Over that and I would start to lose it. Now feel a lot stronger!

And Bunny & I seem to have gotten into a really good rhythm this last day or so. Taken a week to tweak our plan. She has been finding really good rest/break stops. This AM she didn’t go as far as we had talked about as she was worried about my cycling through the morning thunder storms. I think it is working out great.

Other pictures from the day.