Week 6: August 1-7

August 7

Oof! Tough day. We planned to get to The Hen House for their first seating at 7 but woke to not just rain, but lightining and thunder! So we took our time with breakfast, seriously debated trying to change reservations for the next 5 nights, and then decided to go for it when the weather seemed to be improving around 9. Donned all our rain gear!

The first 30 miles were quite nice when the rain let up. We were on a series of urban trails near the Mississippi, and even though the visibility wasn’t great, we enjoyed the ride. Finally we crossed the river and made our way into Wisconsin and onto the “Great River Road” for the remainder of the 76 miles. Mostly good except for a new downpour, nearly 3500 elevation gain, and a persistent headwind which kept our average speed to 11.2. We didn’t get to the house where we were staying until almost 5 PM. Pooped!

This was the first time we tried warmshowers.org which was an odd experience for us. The hosts (a young couple with two boys under 10) were extremely gracious and made a great dinner for us with eggplant parmesan, pasta, and salad. They referred to our room as “the box” but you could also call it a shed with a bed, and we stored our bikes in the garage. We were so grateful not to be camping as the weather was iffy!

August 6

Zero day in Minneapolis. Slept in, breakfast at The Hen House nearby, then walked the sculpture park and toured the Walker Modern Art Museum. Definitely some interesting stuff! We walked downtown to a cool bar to meet Addison (whom we know through Kayla and as a former student of mine!). Nice visit with him before he took us back to last night’s restaurant to retrieve my credit card – doh! Then we found an actual rooftop restaurant since last night’s Crave didn’t have theirs open. Nice relaxing day overall!

August 5

Back to highway today (“Old Highway 75”) but with good to great shoulders and some unexpected long stints on urban trails through various cities. Not as relaxing as the last few days, but great to know we are taking another day off tomorrow to see some sights in the city. Planning a rooftop dinner tonight!

August 4

Another excellent day, primarily on flat, paved trail. The Central Lakes Trail became the Lake Wobegon Trail shortly after we left Alexandria. We rode side by side and listened to a couple episodes of our podcast and then decided on music for the remainder. The weather was overcast and in the low 70’s most of the day – absolutely perfect! 71 miles today (20 more than yesterday) but still relatively easy. We only got a late start because we couldn’t skip breakfast at the B&B (we were the only guests last night) and we were very glad we didn’t! Then we stopped at local store for snacks and the bank for cash and got on the trail after 9. The trail took us through several cute little towns and then all the way into St Cloud which was awesome, and then we just had to navigate a few miles of streets to find the hotel amidst this college town.

August 3

What a lovely day! Didn’t set an alarm today and got up at 6:30. Eased onto the road after 8 and made our way to a park in Fergus Falls where we saw Otto the Otter. Otters are an inside joke for us (Craig always says he sees them) so that was special ha ha. Then we made our way to the Central Lakes Trail for 45 more miles (51 total is all today). We only passed a few other people the whole way and were able to listen to music, stop frequently, and just take our time getting to Alexandria. Tomorrow we will finish that trail and start another!

When we got to Alexandria, we detoured to see “Big Ole” and then stopped for a snack and beer at an outdoor patio before continuing to our B&B. Definitely felt like a vacation day! Looking forward to a good dinner, sleep, and breakfast.

A direct route from La Push to NYC would be around 3,000 miles, so we are well over halfway by that measure. But we are meandering across the country for 4,400 miles (including Cape Cod and Boston after NYC) so we will have to get past Minneapolis to claim that halfway mark. Still, pretty amazing to think we are this far in our journey. Keep sending us good vibes and hope the country vaccinates enough to keep us all safe!

August 2

63 miles from Fargo to Fergus Falls, MN. Hello, Minneosta! We were bummed not to see a “Welcome to Minnesota” sign as we crossed the river, but whatever… We did get to see a little more of Fargo on our way out, including a stop at Bernbaum’s for some awesome bagels that we ate later for lunch. We also saw the world’s largest dilly bar at the Dairy Queen in Moorehead but they weren’t open yet (don’t think I wouldn’t eat ice cream that early in the day!). From there we headed southeast and then south on “Old Highway 52” which became Otter Trail 88 and a few other things. Fairly level day, not too bad traffic/shoulder, reasonable temps, but still pretty smoky. Seems to be getting better the farther we get from Fargo though.

Got into Fergus Falls around 2, had an early dinner, and then a real treat this evening as Tracy Egan (from Fall City) just happened to be close enough to swing by and have a beer in the parking lot with us. She’s living the van life heading across country (again) at a much faster rate than us, her dog, May, long for the ride. She and husband, David, have property in Mazama and she was telling us about the fires that started the week after we came across Cascades Highway 20. Cyclists we had passed heading east to west coast (including Phil today!) had already told us that they were re-routing due to fires, but we had no idea how bad they had gotten. Crazy! Anyway, we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Tracy. Be sure to let us know if you’re anywhere near our route 😉

August 1

Rest day! In Fargo (yah, you betcha!). Slept in until 6:30 (given we went to bed at 10 that’s pretty good!). Then, after good breakfast, mostly lounged all morning. I worked a few hours on hotel reservations and fixing routes accordingly, and then we walked to a sports store that did not have bike gloves and had a late lunch/beer.

Later we UBER’d to a bigger sports store (Scheels), bought gloves and a few other (small) things, then walked back to Johnny Carino’s for a decent pasta dinner. We were bummed that we missed the open hours at Fargo Visitor’s Center where the original woodchipper from the Fargo movie is inside, but luckily they have a replica outside so we took a few fun pictures. First handstand I’ve done in awhile…

Now just watching the USMNT vs Mexico game and then back on the road again tomorrow!