Turtely!

I had been hoping to see an alive turtle on the road for weeks. Today my dream came true.

Donuts and girly a good combination

2000 miles (and more!)

Last night the mom suffered from some terrible allergy symptoms and decided to take a benadryl. It must have worked because 10 hours later this morning I needed to rouse her from a benadryl-induced coma. Truly a great night of sleep!

Uneventful but wonderful ride today. Crossed the 2000 mile mark. We saw many friendly dogs and many cows. The cows are starting to look like the Wisconsin cows (the mom knows her Wisconsin cows), and we thank them all as we roll by because June is dairy month. We also are riding through chicken farm area. The huge enclosed chicken houses smell awful for miles around. It is a wonder how the farmers live right next door.

We arrived early into town and since there was no camping area we stayed at the Super 8. When the mom inquired about a place to do laundry, the woman at the front offered to do it for us using the hotel's washer and dryer. Talk about Midwestern hospitality! Furthermore, the Dairy Queen was right across the street from the hotel. Great day.

On another note, the mom is getting homesick. Since I have been homeless since December, this is a new concept! It is a good thing her sister is joining us in a little over a week. Perhaps that can rally the spirits.

Wheeeeeeeee!

Woke up this morning from the best sleep. Over ten hours. It was glorious. Packed up and headed out. The first 35 miles flew by and before we knew it we were in Long Prairie for a lunch stop. After lunch we left and the next 10 miles were AMAZING. At one point I turned to the mom and said, "sometimes when I ride my bike like this, I just go 'wheeeeeeeee.'". It was just one of those rides. The entire day flew by. The roads were up and down small hills, twisting around corners, and no traffic. Ideal for cycling. Wheeeeee! It surprises me that we never see any other cyclists.

Towards the end of the ride we saw a herd of cows and their babies. I began ringing my bell an rounding them up. We got a true stampede going. Then the cows appeared to begin disappearing. The mom and I looked at each other and wondered aloud, "where are they going?" Upon closer inspection, we saw that there was a tunnel under the road. One cow popped out the other side! Very strange.

We arrived at Charles Lindbergh State Park along the Mississippi River and set up camp. After making dinner, enjoying a campfire, and showers, we are nestled in our satchels listening to a light rain hit our tent.

Tomorrow we will be heading to Milaca and out milage will cross 2000 total miles.

5 lbs of red vines

Today I was tempted to junk all of my food and just strap 5 lbs of red vines on to the back rack of my Surly. It's really hard to find small packages of them and when you need red vines you need red vines. Ok enough of that.
Had a beautiful ride today with rolling hills, curvy roads and lots of lakes. Road through some small touristy towns. Lots of bait shops and boats. The last 10 miles we were back in the prairie with headwinds. At least the roads curved some. Made it to Parkers Prairie and discovered our campground for the night was being inhabited by a naughty black bear. He even made headlines in the local paper. So we called the police to see if we could stay in the city park. Yeah. We can and it is a really nice place. No showers but used the ones at the motel across the road for a small fee. Then went and got ice cream. Noticing the Midwest has ice cream everywhere. Got back to the tent and visited with the police for awhile. Very nice. He wanted to make sure we had everything we needed.
Off to little falls tomorrow. Forecast rain and cool. Sounds better than hot.

64 lakes and counting!

Since we are in the acclaimed land of 10,000 lakes, I thought I would see if I could count them all. We saw 25 lakes yesterday and 39 today for a total of 64 lakes. Only 9,936 to go!

On a separate note we pedaled over the Hudson Bay/Mississippi Drainage Divide. It was not spectacular. As you can see in the picture, it was apparently in the middle of the field. I did not test the line by pouring out some water and seeing which way it flowed.