Thursday, September 1, 2011
73 Moving without pedaling
Throughout the trip we have had checkpoints, certain areas that standout and entice us in different and unique ways. The first being Sandpoint Idaho, followed by, Glacier National Park, Fargo North Dakota and Minneapolis. Reaching the next one today, we will be boarding the S.S Badger to take us across Lake Michigain. The four hour ride turns into 5 hours from the Eastern Time Zone, our final time change. We camped 25 miles away from Minitowoc, a quick hour and half ride brought us to the downtown of the lake city. We stopped at a local pub to pass the two hours in till the ferry left, choosing the first one we found we were surprised to be walking into the oldest house and bar in the whole town. Autographed pictures hung from the wall, all saying there thanks to the Stage Door, and how much they loved it. The Lady serving us was the second owner of the bar, which was built around the 1880's. Talking with her about the history of her building and our trip she turned on the news for us to watch as we enjoyed our Irish style beers. The weather channel instantly grabbed our attention as warnings of the east coast hurricane Irene was being brodcasted. As the news anchor was urging everyone in the area to stay inside and away from the beach, we quietly thought about the different historic events that we have encountered or have happened on this trip, from the Williston oil boom, to the flooding in Minot and now the first time New York City has been evacuated from a Hurricane. At least we have a month for the coastal cities to repair and clean from the aftermath. Realizing that we have to make our boat, we road down the street and to the harbor. A huge boat in the far distance floated towards us as we eagerly waited to board. The constant questions about who we are where we are from and were we are going to a little to repetitive. With the cars unloading from the ferry we watched the works drive the cars out and then sprint back to drive another from the belly of the boat. Finally it was our turn. Stacking our bikes under a stair well, we climbed to the upper deck and waved bye to Wisconsin. Finding a quite room, some of us slept others updated their journals, and some grabbed drinks from the bar. Four hours latter we rode off the boat and entered our 7th state, Michigan. After dinner we headed for a campsite in town, the road turned off into a gravel road leading to a dark creepy forest. Following the trail we gave up and found a nice spot to set up where hopefully no one would harass us.
72
Written by Beau
the sounds of a tractors engine woke us. As we stumbled out of our tents a hayride packed with sugar filled kids and an unenthused Yogie Bear rolled by. While packing up camp we all decided to wait for the water slide to open because we were unable to the day before. In the meantime breakfast sandwiches and bike matenice kept us busy; Hank and Kane switched their tires, evan re-wrapped his handlebars, and Beau adjusted his brakes. Two hours later it finally opened. All five of us were in our shorts and got ready for some childish fun. Little did we know it cost even more money for a wrist band to be able to go down the slide. Fortunately we had to walk up three flights of stairs to get to the top of the water slide. The kind little girl let us each go down the slide once versus having to walking down the stairs. we got our kicks then it was time to hit the road. A few short miles into the ride Donald got yet another flat. And a few more miles another one. We stopped in appleton for lunch. Appleton is a large town about twenty miles east of Fremont. Hank was in dire need of new clips for his shoes, for his current ones were useless. The traffic out of Appleton stop and go, stop and go. No good to keep a steady pace. but the terrain changed quickly into Wisconsin Country roads. We had planned to head all the way to minotowoc but the sun was going down quick and it still another twenty five miles there. Brillion became our nesting point for the evening. In brillion there was no camping so we found spot behind some grass tall enough to hid us and our tents.
the sounds of a tractors engine woke us. As we stumbled out of our tents a hayride packed with sugar filled kids and an unenthused Yogie Bear rolled by. While packing up camp we all decided to wait for the water slide to open because we were unable to the day before. In the meantime breakfast sandwiches and bike matenice kept us busy; Hank and Kane switched their tires, evan re-wrapped his handlebars, and Beau adjusted his brakes. Two hours later it finally opened. All five of us were in our shorts and got ready for some childish fun. Little did we know it cost even more money for a wrist band to be able to go down the slide. Fortunately we had to walk up three flights of stairs to get to the top of the water slide. The kind little girl let us each go down the slide once versus having to walking down the stairs. we got our kicks then it was time to hit the road. A few short miles into the ride Donald got yet another flat. And a few more miles another one. We stopped in appleton for lunch. Appleton is a large town about twenty miles east of Fremont. Hank was in dire need of new clips for his shoes, for his current ones were useless. The traffic out of Appleton stop and go, stop and go. No good to keep a steady pace. but the terrain changed quickly into Wisconsin Country roads. We had planned to head all the way to minotowoc but the sun was going down quick and it still another twenty five miles there. Brillion became our nesting point for the evening. In brillion there was no camping so we found spot behind some grass tall enough to hid us and our tents.
day 70 Ive got the magic in me
Waking yup in Stevens point was not like another day on the trip. We all woke up to a huge lawn mower right next to us, so we all packed up as fast as we could so the next time the lawn mower came around we would be gone. Before we could finish our breakfast Kane had already convinced us that he would pay for a cheap run down motel, so we can have and undeserved rest/laundry day. The motel was a small two bedroom, not a room you would want to fit 5 smelly guys and 5 bikes. After rearranging the motel to fit our bikes and gear, we headed to the local laundromat to was the STANK out of our clothes. As the smell was being washed out of our clothes we all looked for something to eat...Hank and Evan found a wonderful mcDonald's and the rest found another buffet. Hank and Evan returned to the motel rather earlier than Kane beau and Donald... they were taking their time at the buffet, about 2 hours went by before there was no room in their now bloated belly's. So they walked slow, hunched over holding their guts when they walked in they all flopped on the beds and complained about how much they ate. The stank had been washed into one half B.O and one half laundry detergent making for a interesting smell to say the least. After sitting around watching T.V we got the idea t go see a movie, we ended up seeing 30 min or less, with Aziz and Danny McBride. After the "stoner" flick and laugh riot came to a end they made their way to the gas stating to grab a 12 pack to bring back to the small hotel Once all the beer was gone Hank knew there was only one thing left to do. TACO BELL!! this was not the normal run of mill t-bell, it looked just any other taco bell, tasted the same, cashier was the same boring guy hating his job, but it was all of the other customers that made the night for us. About 50 college kids and one long bearded balding man where all playing magic cards. Yes, magic the game, other not so popular game...kinda like Pokemon's distant cousin that was adopted into the family. Anyways we looked around and had a quick ;laugh. we left with our 20 or so burritos and headed back to the motel to devour the poorly made food. After we ate all the taco bell as we possibly could, we passed out into our food coma.
71 yogie huh? yogie what? yogie Bear?
Waking yup in Stevens point was not like another day on the trip. We all woke up to a huge lawn mower right next to us, so we all packed up as fast as we could so the next time the lawn mower came around we would be gone. Before we could finish our breakfast Kane had already convinced us that he would pay for a cheap run down motel, so we can have and undeserved rest/laundry day. The motel was a small two bedroom, not a room you would want to fit 5 smelly guys and 5 bikes. After rearranging the motel to fit our bikes and gear, we headed to the local laundromat to was the STANK out of our clothes. As the smell was being washed out of our clothes we all looked for something to eat...Hank and Evan found a wonderful mcDonald's and the rest found another buffet. Hank and Evan returned to the motel rather earlier than Kane beau and Donald... they were taking their time at the buffet, about 2 hours went by before there was no room in their now bloated belly's. So they walked slow, hunched over holding their guts when they walked in they all flopped on the beds and complained about how much they ate. The stank had been washed into one half B.O and one half laundry detergent making for a interesting smell to say the least. After sitting around watching T.V we got the idea t go see a movie, we ended up seeing 30 min or less, with Aziz and Danny McBride. After the "stoner" flick and laugh riot came to a end they made their way to the gas stating to grab a 12 pack to bring back to the small hotel Once all the beer was gone Hank knew there was only one thing left to do. TACO BELL!! this was not the normal run of mill t-bell, it looked just any other taco bell, tasted the same, cashier was the same boring guy hating his job, but it was all of the other customers that made the night for us. About 50 college kids and one long bearded balding man where all playing magic cards. Yes, magic the game, other not so popular game...kinda like Pokemon's distant cousin that was adopted into the family. Anyways we looked around and had a quick ;laugh. we left with our 20 or so burritos and headed back to the motel to devour the poorly made food. After we ate all the taco bell as we possibly could, we passed out into our food coma.
71 yogie huh? yogie what? yogie Bear?
Once the food coma wore off we packed up our things and kinda cleaned up the motel...not to much though. When we finally stopped sitting around enjoying the last few moments we had to lay on a real bed we left the motel around11am...a pretty slow start since we should be use to waking up/ packing up by 8. 3 blocks later we found our selves in the local bike shop, looking for new cleats for Hank. We left campus cycles with free water bottles and finally hit the road. Our ride consisted with Donald racking up as many flat t;ires as he could possibly get. not literally but he did get four flats within the day. The tail winds made up for the misfortune of flats. With the 25 mph tail winds we made it weyauwega, 30 miles from Stevens point, in good time. As we sat around eating Subway we soon found out that the campsite that we planned to sleep at turned out just be a online camping store. A good 30 minutes passed before we stopped looking at our IPhone and asked a police officer where we could sleep. The closet place was 10 miles southeast in the town of Fremont. The Fremont campsite was like an amusement park mixed with a campsite. The pool had a 20ft water slide and this is the only reason we payed the stupid amount of money to stay there, also the whole campsite had the theme of Yogie Bear and jellystone park. we camped on the corner of Boo Boo drive, and Cindy bear ave. All we could say is that we are not in Oregon anymore. Wisconsin has the fake Jellystone and all we have is the enchanted Forest. 20 hot dogs later it was time for bed in Jellystone, hoping yogie wouldn't come in the dead of night and steal the food in our panniers.
Day 68/ 69
Written by Donald
We started out the morning wearily from falls creek grabbing a classy breakfast at the nearby gas station. Breakfast burritos filled with an almost creamy like egg mush, and sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits. before we tool off a lady drove up to us and asked if we needed anything for our ride, it was the 3rd person to offer us something Falls Creek. Great little town. As were getting closer to the east the weather has held up great, its got a bit cooler as well so were not waking up drenched in sweat. It was a smooth ride along highway 10 and with a short ride of about 30 miles we stopped the day early in a town called Nielsville. After grabbing lunch at Subway we hung out in a grassy area near the parking lot which slowly turned into a 45 min nap from such a long excruciating day. Once we slowly awoke one by one we decided to whine down the evening with a beer at the local bar. After watching football play being analysed from TV highlights, the bartender changed the channel and we were fortunate enough to have it switched to...The Proposal, that's right The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and that one guy who always gets unfitting roles and reminds you of the dude who didn't even know but hated in highschool. But none the less we watched the whole movie happily, which I guess cycling across a country at the point you'll find anything on TV somewhat amusing. Once the credits rolled an advertisement for Bridal Wars came up and we though it was time to leave. For what we thought a nearby campsite ended up being about 15 miles away and with the sun setting we though we would ride around the neighborhoods and try to find something closer, eventually finding a nice park on the side of the road which we luckily had no problems with. The following day we woke to another good day of weather and continued our ride along highway 10. The re-route through Wisconsin which has taken us through the center as opposed to the North has been great. Scenic and bike friendly. Continuing our ride we were also getting into Amish country which is defiantly something new to all of us. We started seeing carriage signs on the side of the roads and a couple of them parked in a big barn. Eventually we saw a large Amish family sitting out in their lawn and as we road by all heads turned and faced towards us. As much of an experience as the culture seemed to us I'm sure riding by they were just as curious. With a nice ride of about 60 miles we ended our day in which happened to be a pretty big college town called Stevens point. Our first stop was dinner at a local diner that had great food for cheap[ and after discussing our plans on where to camp we thought we would give another shot at stealth camping. Riding around we found a huge park with a luxurious playground set and even had a disk golf course right along the lake side. unfortunately we didn't get to play disk gold but we did happen to find the perfectly spot for all of our tents that was surrounded by large bushed and trees staying out of sight. We called it a day and found home for the evening. And after having a beer and stargazing we rested up for the riding to come tomorrow.
We started out the morning wearily from falls creek grabbing a classy breakfast at the nearby gas station. Breakfast burritos filled with an almost creamy like egg mush, and sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits. before we tool off a lady drove up to us and asked if we needed anything for our ride, it was the 3rd person to offer us something Falls Creek. Great little town. As were getting closer to the east the weather has held up great, its got a bit cooler as well so were not waking up drenched in sweat. It was a smooth ride along highway 10 and with a short ride of about 30 miles we stopped the day early in a town called Nielsville. After grabbing lunch at Subway we hung out in a grassy area near the parking lot which slowly turned into a 45 min nap from such a long excruciating day. Once we slowly awoke one by one we decided to whine down the evening with a beer at the local bar. After watching football play being analysed from TV highlights, the bartender changed the channel and we were fortunate enough to have it switched to...The Proposal, that's right The Proposal with Sandra Bullock and that one guy who always gets unfitting roles and reminds you of the dude who didn't even know but hated in highschool. But none the less we watched the whole movie happily, which I guess cycling across a country at the point you'll find anything on TV somewhat amusing. Once the credits rolled an advertisement for Bridal Wars came up and we though it was time to leave. For what we thought a nearby campsite ended up being about 15 miles away and with the sun setting we though we would ride around the neighborhoods and try to find something closer, eventually finding a nice park on the side of the road which we luckily had no problems with. The following day we woke to another good day of weather and continued our ride along highway 10. The re-route through Wisconsin which has taken us through the center as opposed to the North has been great. Scenic and bike friendly. Continuing our ride we were also getting into Amish country which is defiantly something new to all of us. We started seeing carriage signs on the side of the roads and a couple of them parked in a big barn. Eventually we saw a large Amish family sitting out in their lawn and as we road by all heads turned and faced towards us. As much of an experience as the culture seemed to us I'm sure riding by they were just as curious. With a nice ride of about 60 miles we ended our day in which happened to be a pretty big college town called Stevens point. Our first stop was dinner at a local diner that had great food for cheap[ and after discussing our plans on where to camp we thought we would give another shot at stealth camping. Riding around we found a huge park with a luxurious playground set and even had a disk golf course right along the lake side. unfortunately we didn't get to play disk gold but we did happen to find the perfectly spot for all of our tents that was surrounded by large bushed and trees staying out of sight. We called it a day and found home for the evening. And after having a beer and stargazing we rested up for the riding to come tomorrow.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
Day 65/ 66/ 67 Wisconsin State #6
Day 65 Afton to Menominee
Not wanting to get in trouble by the park staff, we rose early and got packed. Looking to out to the East, we gazed upon the trees of Wisconsin across the St. Crouix river. Our sixth state was only 20 miles away. We climbed out of the park and headed to the nearest town, Afton, a small river town. A small cafe called to us, and we made our first stop for food. Large breakfast burritos surrounded the table, for a couple of minutes...Procrastinating once again, we charged our electronics and decided to head the river for a quick look. A nice ride down a bike trail brought us to the St. Croix river. A dark murky brown river that was not at all appealing to swim in separated us from Minnesota to Wisconsin. We headed north, where we would cross the river into "America's Dairy" land. The 10 miles to the bridge followed the river on a bike path and kept us from the heavy traffic, no shoulder, two lane road that we would have to take if the trail was absent. After a couple wrong turns and U-turns we finally crossed the bridge and were on Wisconsin land! The bike path disappeared after a couple of miles and we were soon on country roads. The further east we headed the greener the scenery became, trees spotted the hills in the distance. Hills!! we never thought we would be happy to say that, but the monotone terrain of the North Dakota and Minnesota flats had driven us bored to many times. Finally we were sweating and panting up hills and free to coast down them, a nice change. Today's total climbing is around 4000 feet over a span of around 50 miles. Halfway on the ride we noticed that we may have been attacking the hills a little to hard, as Evan and Beaus knees started to bother them, hindering their speed and comfortability. We finally rolled into Menominee, a McDonald's sat right on the edge of town, without really thinking about it we found ourselves riding into the parking lot and dismounting our bikes. 20 burgers and five large fries later we sat slipping in and out of a food induced coma. Summoning the last of our energy we headed out for the two miles into camp. The city park allowed camping and were happy to see a disk golf course at the park. Throwing our disks intill dark, we said our good nights as we couldn't see where we were aiming.
Day 66
Menominee to Eau Claire.
Breakfast at McDonald's. Another good part of biking is that you can eat pretty much what you want and not have to worry to much about the side effects of poor eating. After fueling up on eggs bread and grease we hit the road with another beautiful sunny day. Our route today was on and off country roads. At some point we had to ride onto busy highways, thankfully there is a wide shoulder without to much debris. Highway 10 was a direct shot into Eau Claire, so we decided to stick with the highway, hoping it would be a little bit faster paced as well. We found another route to town through the back streets in neighborhoods, which led to a bike path and further more lead to a Wallmart. Cheap food is to tempting, we made a stop to stock up on sandwich materials before heading to the campsite for the night. Calling ahead a staff member said that they had a large campsite that would be able to fit all five of us. Secluded in the back of the grounds away from the numerous R.V.s in the regular sites. Amazed by a huge field we set up our tents a good 20 feet away from each other, just cause we had the room. (Maybe to get away from each others smells as well.) After our rounds of long showers we had dinner and talked into the night till we spotted dark luminous clouds overhead. We ran and took shelter in our tents before the rain got us.
Day 67
Eau Claire to Fall creek
When we first Started this trip, the first two hours of the morning would be spent packing up our gear, while Hank sat reading already done. His wilderness program trained him in very quick packing. After two months everyone is putting on their last pannier in around 25 minutes. Packing our sleeping bags, rolling up our air mattresses, re packing our clothes from the night before, rolling out of tent, disassembling them, rolling them up while cleaning and re-loading our bike with our panniers, has become a very efficient morning procedure. Food has become a very good motivator on this trip. We planned to get out Neilsvillewakeup right when the sun rises to be on our bikes before anyone found us sleeping where we weren't allowed.
Not wanting to get in trouble by the park staff, we rose early and got packed. Looking to out to the East, we gazed upon the trees of Wisconsin across the St. Crouix river. Our sixth state was only 20 miles away. We climbed out of the park and headed to the nearest town, Afton, a small river town. A small cafe called to us, and we made our first stop for food. Large breakfast burritos surrounded the table, for a couple of minutes...Procrastinating once again, we charged our electronics and decided to head the river for a quick look. A nice ride down a bike trail brought us to the St. Croix river. A dark murky brown river that was not at all appealing to swim in separated us from Minnesota to Wisconsin. We headed north, where we would cross the river into "America's Dairy" land. The 10 miles to the bridge followed the river on a bike path and kept us from the heavy traffic, no shoulder, two lane road that we would have to take if the trail was absent. After a couple wrong turns and U-turns we finally crossed the bridge and were on Wisconsin land! The bike path disappeared after a couple of miles and we were soon on country roads. The further east we headed the greener the scenery became, trees spotted the hills in the distance. Hills!! we never thought we would be happy to say that, but the monotone terrain of the North Dakota and Minnesota flats had driven us bored to many times. Finally we were sweating and panting up hills and free to coast down them, a nice change. Today's total climbing is around 4000 feet over a span of around 50 miles. Halfway on the ride we noticed that we may have been attacking the hills a little to hard, as Evan and Beaus knees started to bother them, hindering their speed and comfortability. We finally rolled into Menominee, a McDonald's sat right on the edge of town, without really thinking about it we found ourselves riding into the parking lot and dismounting our bikes. 20 burgers and five large fries later we sat slipping in and out of a food induced coma. Summoning the last of our energy we headed out for the two miles into camp. The city park allowed camping and were happy to see a disk golf course at the park. Throwing our disks intill dark, we said our good nights as we couldn't see where we were aiming.
Day 66
Menominee to Eau Claire.
Breakfast at McDonald's. Another good part of biking is that you can eat pretty much what you want and not have to worry to much about the side effects of poor eating. After fueling up on eggs bread and grease we hit the road with another beautiful sunny day. Our route today was on and off country roads. At some point we had to ride onto busy highways, thankfully there is a wide shoulder without to much debris. Highway 10 was a direct shot into Eau Claire, so we decided to stick with the highway, hoping it would be a little bit faster paced as well. We found another route to town through the back streets in neighborhoods, which led to a bike path and further more lead to a Wallmart. Cheap food is to tempting, we made a stop to stock up on sandwich materials before heading to the campsite for the night. Calling ahead a staff member said that they had a large campsite that would be able to fit all five of us. Secluded in the back of the grounds away from the numerous R.V.s in the regular sites. Amazed by a huge field we set up our tents a good 20 feet away from each other, just cause we had the room. (Maybe to get away from each others smells as well.) After our rounds of long showers we had dinner and talked into the night till we spotted dark luminous clouds overhead. We ran and took shelter in our tents before the rain got us.
Day 67
Eau Claire to Fall creek
When we first Started this trip, the first two hours of the morning would be spent packing up our gear, while Hank sat reading already done. His wilderness program trained him in very quick packing. After two months everyone is putting on their last pannier in around 25 minutes. Packing our sleeping bags, rolling up our air mattresses, re packing our clothes from the night before, rolling out of tent, disassembling them, rolling them up while cleaning and re-loading our bike with our panniers, has become a very efficient morning procedure. Food has become a very good motivator on this trip. We planned to get out Neilsvillewakeup right when the sun rises to be on our bikes before anyone found us sleeping where we weren't allowed.
Saturday, August 27, 2011
We have updated the blog for a couple of days after Minneapolis. The rest of the days up to today(8/27), Ludingtion Michigan are written but are awaiting to be posted. They should be online in the next couple of days. Oh yeah, the donate button is up and running once again, so if your wallet can spare it, our very depleted ones will be very happy to purchase us new socks and a run at the Laundromat. Thank you every one for reading our blog, and spreading the word of ptowntopwhat. Comments very much appreciated
Oh Yeah, the donate button is working...
Oh Yeah, the donate button is working...
Day 63/64
More thank to David and Angie for having us and showing us a good time! Come to Portland!!
We left Davids place and rode to downtown Excelsior to a coffee shop, were Hank got on his laptop looking for a place to stay for the night. After sitting there for an while a lovely lady started talking to us about our trip and her travels in Guatemala. Her name was Candy, and after talking to us for a bit, she offered us a place to stay the night at her son's house, just a couple of miles west of where we were. She left the coffee shop and we decided we might as well take her up on her offer. Since it was around four in the afternoon, an d we still haven't found a place for the night.
We gave her a call and met her at a gas station about 2 miles down the road. On the way Donald got a flat, as he patched up his tube, Candy sat in her car talking to Evan about Portland. We found out that back in the 1980's she lived in Beaverton and Gresham, working as a apartment manager. Small world.
We got to her son's house and were introduced to Bradly, her Son and his roommate, Josh. We actually felt pretty lucky because a storm was passing right when we got there, a situation we would usually have to ride through.
We ordered pizza's, watched T.V. and movies, which has become a forgotten luxury. A huge thanks to Candy, Bradly and Josh, for opening your house to us and letting our feet make the whole downstairs smell.
Day 64
Today we are finally going to make a try to get out of Minnesota. We have arranged a Warm Showers in Prescott Wisconsin. A good 60 mile day should warm up our legs from a two week break. The ride was 70% on bike trails, weaving through downtown Minneapolis, through St. Paul and into the long forgotten and surely missed farmlands. We took many breaks, as we slowly let go of the comforts of Minneapolis. Around 7 pm we were around 10 miles from Prescott when we got a call from from our warm showers host, saying that we are a little to late to camp at their house. Finding the closet place to sleep, we pedaled hard to Afton State Park as the sun was slipping away in the horizon. The campground was not to be found. In the pitch black darkness we had a very hard time finding the campsite, the road went up and down, continuing the same pattern, we gave up and camped and the first field we found. Staring at the stars and munching on pop tarts before we went to sleep, we gazed in a bewildered daze at the exploded suns and planets of the past that illuminated our nights sky, engaging our minds to think of subjects past our intellect, how super novas could be the missing link in creating the essential elements in making our planet, how water found on other planets could be the beginning stages of a life form similar to our own, and just how small our world is, but inside of it are numerous journeys that can take many lifetimes to explore. The thoughts reflected to us like a mirror, here we were on a journey of lifetime, exploring our own country in a way that opens natures own treasures to us in a very unique way. We look around and are happy that we are doing this with eachother. Wisconsin, tomorrow we will pedal your lands! We hope.
We left Davids place and rode to downtown Excelsior to a coffee shop, were Hank got on his laptop looking for a place to stay for the night. After sitting there for an while a lovely lady started talking to us about our trip and her travels in Guatemala. Her name was Candy, and after talking to us for a bit, she offered us a place to stay the night at her son's house, just a couple of miles west of where we were. She left the coffee shop and we decided we might as well take her up on her offer. Since it was around four in the afternoon, an d we still haven't found a place for the night.
We gave her a call and met her at a gas station about 2 miles down the road. On the way Donald got a flat, as he patched up his tube, Candy sat in her car talking to Evan about Portland. We found out that back in the 1980's she lived in Beaverton and Gresham, working as a apartment manager. Small world.
We got to her son's house and were introduced to Bradly, her Son and his roommate, Josh. We actually felt pretty lucky because a storm was passing right when we got there, a situation we would usually have to ride through.
We ordered pizza's, watched T.V. and movies, which has become a forgotten luxury. A huge thanks to Candy, Bradly and Josh, for opening your house to us and letting our feet make the whole downstairs smell.
Day 64
Today we are finally going to make a try to get out of Minnesota. We have arranged a Warm Showers in Prescott Wisconsin. A good 60 mile day should warm up our legs from a two week break. The ride was 70% on bike trails, weaving through downtown Minneapolis, through St. Paul and into the long forgotten and surely missed farmlands. We took many breaks, as we slowly let go of the comforts of Minneapolis. Around 7 pm we were around 10 miles from Prescott when we got a call from from our warm showers host, saying that we are a little to late to camp at their house. Finding the closet place to sleep, we pedaled hard to Afton State Park as the sun was slipping away in the horizon. The campground was not to be found. In the pitch black darkness we had a very hard time finding the campsite, the road went up and down, continuing the same pattern, we gave up and camped and the first field we found. Staring at the stars and munching on pop tarts before we went to sleep, we gazed in a bewildered daze at the exploded suns and planets of the past that illuminated our nights sky, engaging our minds to think of subjects past our intellect, how super novas could be the missing link in creating the essential elements in making our planet, how water found on other planets could be the beginning stages of a life form similar to our own, and just how small our world is, but inside of it are numerous journeys that can take many lifetimes to explore. The thoughts reflected to us like a mirror, here we were on a journey of lifetime, exploring our own country in a way that opens natures own treasures to us in a very unique way. We look around and are happy that we are doing this with eachother. Wisconsin, tomorrow we will pedal your lands! We hope.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)