Me and Mary Tyler Moore
There were a bunch of these cool sculptures of historic buildings, along 6th ave in Minneapolis
Unexplained sticker on a bike rack at an espresso place along a trail in Minneapolis
I just liked this big sign in Minneapolis. There was one for Gold Medal Flour, too
The house of Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern in the '70's
A Segway parade? in Minneapolis
The end of the wonderful Paul Bunyan Trail, in Baxter, MN
The Mississippi River in Brainerd --- quite a bit bigger than at Lake Itasca!
August 17 -- Baxter, MN
Even with the irritating location, we’ve decided we need a day of rest so are staying here for another night. Kathy and I took off separately on our bikes this morning. I rode about 20 miles, around some scenic parts of town along the river, while she went downtown to the bike shop and in search of a library.
August 18 -- Malmo, MN
50 miles, 860 feet cumulative elevtion gain
60 degrees and rainy - perfect biking weather!
Kathy found us a beautiful route on quiet roads through the countryside. Rolling hills, woods, lots and lots of lakes. It rained pretty much all day, and at one point we had to pull off and seek shelter due to thunder and lightning. The place we happened upon turned out to be an animal boarding and grooming place. We went in and Kathy asked to use the restroom. You’ve seen that sign in stores that says “Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy.”? While Kaithy was in the restroom they gave me a warm towel and a free puppy, a 3-week-old springer spaniel. So cuddly but poor little thing, I was still all wet and it was shivering, so gave it back. Kathy wouldn’t let me keep it, anyway.
Just in time for lunch we came upon a nice resort with a restaurant and a latte place. The rain let up long enough so that we were able to eat outside, on a deck overlooking the lake. (What lake, I have no idea, there are so many around here).
We are staying right on Mille Lac Lake, here pronounced “m’lack”. It’s huge, you can’t see across it. Our lodgings here in Malmo are, ahem, interesting. We had originally planned to camp here at the Castaways Resort, $35 to pitch our tents, but since we were so wet we opted to spend an extra $15 for a cabin instead. The “cabins” are 10X20 metal sheds with 4 bunks, no water at all, propane lights and heat, and a single power strip hanging along the wall. And then we noticed these odd fishing-reel things along the walls, and little trap doors in the floor that you can pull up and see the ground underneath --- they’re ice fishing shanties! What a hoot! They are on sled-like runners, and in the winter they pull them out onto the lake.
The resort is mostly a big trailer park, where it looks like the residents are permanent or at least here for the summer months. There’s a bar and restaurant, where we caused quite a stir when we stepped in, dripping wet, this afternoon. I don’t think they get many bikers here.
August 19th - Cambridge. MN
51 miles, 460 feet cumulative elevation gain
70 and party cloudy -- perfect biking weather
We rode into a headwind / crosswind most of the day, on a state highway with a fair amount of traffic but a good wide shoulder. Kathy’s friend Bill, who has been on a car trip for the last couple of weeks, met us today on his bike, just outside of Ogilvie. I jokingly said to him “I’m headed for the latte place in Ogilvie”, and he said, oh, you’ve heard about it already? Sure enough, just after we crossed the Groundhome river, we pulled into Groundhome coffee shop, converted from an old gas station into the nicest little place you could imagine The guy roasts his own beans (the roaster was still hot), made me the best latte I’ve had since Shelby, MT, and sold me a pound of his best espresso roast.
Fueled up, we headed on to Dalbo, where Bill had left his car. We had originally planned to camp in Dalbo. There’s a bicycle-only camping spot there, noted on the Adventure Cycling map as “bikers may camp in farmer so- and so’s yard, even if family is not home”. Sure enough, they had a sign in the yard “Adventure Cyclist Bunkhouse”. Would have been fun to stay there, but due to forecast of overnight t-storms, we loaded the bikes and gear in the car and Bill drove us on to Cambrigde, where we had hotel reservations.
Looking at the internet tonight, I discovered I can move my flight home up from August 26th to the 23rd, for about $75. So, that’s what I did. Kathy and Bill will drive me to Minneapolis in the morning where I’ll spend the weekend exploring, then on Monday I’m going HOME!!!!!
August 22nd -- Minneapolis, MN
For the past 3 days I’ve been happily ensconced in the Comfort Suites, right in the middle of downtown. This place is a DEAL. I have an apartment-sized suite which could easily sleep 4, with a free FULL breakfast buffet (including made-to-order omelets) included, within easy biking and walking distance of everything, for under $100 per night. The biking is so great here I’m tempted to schedule another vacation here just to ride the trails.
The trails --- they’re everywhere! There must be a couple hundred miles of trails within the metroplex, most of which are divided into 3 lanes -- one for pedestrians and one for each direction for bikes. In many cases the pedestrian path is physically separate from the bike path.
I rode about 35 miles yesterday on a trail along the Mississippi, through the U of M campus (go Golden Gophers!) and down into the outskirts of St. Paul. Today I rode another 30 or so, out west of town, all on trails. I had to see if I could track down the house from the Mary Tyler Moore show (where Mary Richards and Rhoda Morgenstern lived), and sure enough, it’s there and recognizable if somewhat more upscale looking than it was in the 70’s. There’s also a statue of Mary tossing her hat, downtown.
And then there’s the “nice ride” bikes. You insert your credit card and for $5, you get one of these bikes to use for 24 hours. You can drop it off at any of the several stations around the city. I saw plenty of people on them although I didn’t try one myself.
This afternoon I dropped my bike off at the local bike shop to be packed and shipped, thus officially ending my summer bike trip. Now I have nothing to do but relax in the AC. I’ll walk a few blocks in the morning to catch the light rail to the airport, and head for home.
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