Mora, Minnesota to Eldora, Iowa
Thursday, July 16, 1998 - Day 35 - 100.2 miles - to Mora, Minnesota.
This day was all quiet country roads through Crow Wing State forest, past many of the 10,000 lakes (I finally stopped counting them) and another crossing of the mighty Mississippi, now about 25 feet across. In Deerwood, we ate breakfast in a "diner" resembling a trolley. I had hoped to eat in many diners but we found only three. While they were interesting they did not live up to my expectations that I formed from watching travel shows on TV. We have a diner in my area, The Blue Moon Diner, which is better than any of these three in respect to food quality and quantity.
More nice roads to Mille Lacs Lake, an inland sea about 60 miles around. Here I started a new game which would stay with us the rest of the trip. After David got his carefully selected treat at the bakery, I would tell the person that David had gotten the best of me the whole tour and if they could find me a "bigger one" just this one time, I would be very happy. They went out of their way to find the biggest one they could and found great delight in doing so. This worked when ever I tried it and once I got an ice cream sundae that was almost more than I could eat. Besides it gave me an opening to tell them about our tour.
Our destination was Mora and we check in with the Chamber Office / Tourist Info office about local campground, here we met Jerry (President of the Chamber). This is what Jerry said, "the closest campground is 6 miles out of town, that's pretty far, why don't you camp in my backyard." When we reached his back yard it turn in to "Why don't you come in and stay up- stairs in the kids bedroom, they gone." We did. We sat in the kitchen, like family, and talked to Jerry and his wife Ronette. This gave me another chance to tell about out tour. They asked many questions and almost seemed like they would like to join us. David could not understand how I never tired of telling people about our travels. Not only do I enjoy talking to people but what made it easy is that they seemed to be very interested in out tour. The day was wonderful with clear blue skies.
Friday, July 17, 1998 - Day 36 - 83.4 miles - to Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Another great day, blue skies with a light wind. Mora to Minneapolis is a straight shot down a main road with a good shoulder (Hwy 65). To make it more interesting, David lead us on a detour through Bunker Hill Park and then took a bike path and route which follows the Mississippi River from the Coon Rapids Dam County Park to downtown Minneapolis. David turned into Hennepin Avenue and rode down the middle of the street. I wasn't sure what he was doing. Even when I saw the painted bike lane lines, I wasn't too sure. How many big cities have a bike lane down the middle of their main street? Any case I followed. The one thing that you had to watch out for where the on coming cars that wanted to turn left in front of you. Safely through town, we took the chain of lakes bike paths and arrived at David's home in SW Minneapolis. There is nothing like riding in a big city after being on back road for so long. It sure helps to have someone with you that knows the city.
While waiting for David's wife to return home from work, we took everything off the bikes and started to clean then. "David, look at this." I am meticulous about my stuff and my new Cannondale had a problem. Cracks were developing in my rear wheel rims. Between every spoke, on the freewheel side of course, the Sun CR 17A rims were starting to split. Every other spoke had a small hairline crack which ran on both sides of the spoke parallel to the rim. I would have to do more than just clean, oil and change rear tires. We had planned on a read tire change, even if the tire did not need it. I could not take a chance with the rear wheel and needed a new one. We would look for a replacement tomorrow. It was lucky that I found the problem in a place where it could be fixed.
We had pizza for dinner. Then we went to a Arrowhead party. The Arrowhead's are a group of David's friends from Minneapolis and they all ride RAGBRAI as a team under this name. Soon it was back to David's house and bed time, a real bed.
Saturday, July 18, 1998 - Day 37 - 29.18 miles - around Minneapolis, St. Paul, MN.
Today was planned as a busman's holiday, we went for a ride around Minneapolis and St. Paul. In St. Paul we left the others and headed for the local Cannondale Dealer, Terry Osell, who was also a friend of David. On a summer Saturday, the busiest of bike shop days, a pair of matching wheels were rebuilt with Mavic MA2 rims. I also increased the spoke gauge from 15 to 14. Because it was a new bike and because I did not trust the front wheel, I paid to have a new and matching front wheel rebuilt at the same time. We were not sure if the rim was defected or if the spokes were over tighten. They did a wonderful job on the wheels and I have never had to have them re- trued. Also a big thanks goes to them for taking the time on a Saturday.
While at Osell's we both bought new riding jerseys. They were very fitting for out coast-to-coast tour as they are "Tour Of America" jersey's. The jersey is design after the America flag and of course were colored, red, white and blue. Our first souvenir.
That evening we had a wonderful dinner with David's family. Dana had asked me, in Winnipeg, what I missed the most in the way of food while on tour. It was fresh cooked vegetables. She asked me what I wanted the most for dinner. I said, without hesitations, corn-on-cob. There it was on the table. How good it tasted. Just for the record we had rain showers in the mid- afternoon.
Sunday, July 19, 1998 - Day 38 - 00.00 miles - Minneapolis, Minnesota.
I decided not to ride today and just sleep in and take it easy. I had items to send home and I thought it would be nice to see "The Mall of America." Dana, Elizabeth and I took care of these items while David went for a ride. All to soon it was time to hit the road again.
Monday, July 20, 1998 - Day 39 - 89.94 miles - to Waterville, Minnesota.
Back on the road again. It was a sunny and warm day and on the humid side. One advantage I found with the humidity is that I did not need to put chapstick on my lips anymore. We wore our new jerseys. Soon we were out of town and looking for a place for lunch.
"You can't have a BLT as it isn't 11 and lunch is not yet being served." You would think a restaurant names Emma Crumbies would see that BLT ingredients are pretty close to "breakfast." We did not get our BLT's but ate a normal type of breakfast. We proceeded into the hot day to continue our ride south. Bicycle routes directly south from the Twin Cities are at best fair with too much development and too many paved roads which turn to dirt. Heading southwest from Minneapolis along the Minnesota River, we had our BLT's in Bella Plaine and then turned south towards Iowa.
It was hot, head windy and the two-day "rest" hadn't been good for us. We were weak and draggy without any desire to push very hard. A pick-up truck approached and seemed to shadow us. David expected trouble until the driver leaned out to warn us about the weather. We had been watching the growing clouds and thunder to our SW and knew that we might soon be needing shelter. We did and found it in the tiny town of St. Thomas, a city park shelter being our port in the storm. The main part of the storm was about 10 miles south of us and had 100 mph winds, so we were told. We took several picnic tables and put them on end to block to wind and rain. We sat there for 2 hours. David thought about the towns name and joked with me. Earlier we come across "Tom's Royal Pizza" (David called it Tom's Tiny Pizza) and also O'Brien's cafe (with a crabby and boffo waitress). Now we sheltered at "St. Thomas." David once bikes to St. David's, in Wales.
It cleared, considerably cooler, and we continued feeling considerably stronger. In Le Center, we saw that the storm had been serious with tree limbs down all over town. We stopped at a cafe, The Chatter Box, for a snack.
We pulled into Lake Sakatah State Park, on another of Minnesota's bike trails. Set up the tents and went for dinner. We found a restaurant that had a bicycle motif. After dinner the owner wanted to take our picture and do an article for the local newspaper, but he did not have his camera with him. We told him that we would return for breakfast. David went to get his 100 miles, while I went for a shower. When I came out from my shower it was dark, and as I was riding back to our camp I saw my first Fireflies. At first I thought that there were kids in the dark forest with flashlights, But soon figured out that they were Fireflies. It was a beautiful sight. Returning to our camp vicious mosquitos drove me into my tent. Soon David returned and was also driven into his tent. It was a very humid night.
Tuesday, July 21, 1998 - Day 40 - 105.1 miles - to Clear Lake, Iowa.
This day was deja vu all over again. Rode, waited out a rainstorm, and then continued on. We entered Iowa, taking the obligatory State-line photo and rode through Fertile to Clear Lake State Park. We did go back to the restaurant where we had dinner the night before and the owner took out picture and asked the usual questions. He said he would sent us a copy of the paper, I am still waiting!!
After a snack, in Emmons, David wanted to take S-10 but we were not sure where it was. David just knew that it had to be about one mile or so east of us. We started down gravel roads to find S-10. One gravel road lead to another, lead to another, but with about one miles there was S-10, how he do that!!!! I named this day "all gravel roads lead to S-10."
At the campground check in, there were others also checking in. I used my "can't go any farther" routine to get them talking, it works every time. Soon, I was filling them in on out tour, while David was filling out paper work. As any bike rider will tell you, most people just can't understand how you can ride 100 miles in a day. After dinner as we were riding back to camp using the bike path near the lake and they saw us, and said "I thought you were tired." I replied "fast recovery." There were more Fireflies around our camp.
Wednesday, July 22, 1998 - Day 41 - 82.96 miles - to Eldora, Iowa.
This was the day that David was waiting for, we would hook up with his friends from Minnesota who were riding RAGBRAI (Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa) and spend the next four days riding with them. I was also looking forward to RAGBRAI as I have heard of this great ride for many years. This was the 26 edition of the ride. I have ridden 6 Cycle Oregon's with .2 000 rides but the thought of somewhere between 14 to 15,000 rides was mind boggling.
The day started cloudy but soon turned to a sunny and warm day. We ate breakfast in a 7- calendar restaurant. According to Blue Highways by W. L. H. Moon, this should be top of the line gourmet. It was OK. Then we rode what seemed like all of Iowa looking for the multitude of riders. As we rode south, David was sure we would have to intercept their route. While searching and riding through towns, people waved, yelled encouragement, or asked if we were lost. At one point we rode by a swimming pool and all the lifeguards and many of the swimmers stood and waved to us. This was great fun. We finally saw the river of bikes and plunged in. After only a few hundred yards, we came to a food stop and stopped. Not two minutes later, David's and now my, Arrowhead friends also stopped there, a highly fortuitous circumstance.
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Along with the regular Arrowheads were two new Arrows or at lease new to David (and of course to me, as were all the Arrows.) Betty and her daughter Cheryl. Betty is 75 years old. David started talking about riding styles with her, he gave her his "low gear and spin" speech which had no impact on Sarah and Lisa (Scott's daughters.) Betty said she would have to try it, David was delighted. David got as much fun out of his speeches as I do out of mine. I also agree with his "low gear and spin" philosophy. Although I still have the high gear on my bike just in case.
"David, you bike fell down." Said one of the Arrowheads. This was a tiny tiny understatement. Our first overnight with the Arrowheads and David was given this message upon returning from some local on-foot errand. My bike was also locked to David's, we both took a quick look at our bikes. Mine appeared to be OK, while David's has big problems. He found his rear derailleur bent in at a funny (not ha ha) angle, and broken. His rear wheel was also seriously out of true. He had ridden 3,100 miles from Seattle to Eldora, IA with no mechanical problems and his bike gets wiped-out while parked! Apparently, one of our Arrows was climbing on the trailer looking for something and slipped, knocking over the bikes and then stepping on David's. David was a tiny bit upset but kept his cool, that is, he didn't immediately kill the guy.
So what is the big deal? Bikes can be fixed, even in the middle of a cross-country tour. I am sure that is what went through the minds of the others. But, David's bike is not standard, almost nothing on it is standard nor easily replaced. His bike has 120mm dropout spacing for a five speed freewheel, a five speed freewheel, SunTour indexing long cage derailleur, and 27-in wheels. David, trued the wheel up the best he could and rode carefully and slowly to the main campground to consult with the shop mechanics presiding there. I went with David as a calming influence. It was already dark and the mechanics looked like they could drop at any minute. David got a commitment from the folks at Bike World of Des Moines to work on the bike the following day and advised him to get there early. Well that is all we could do for the day so it was back to camp and bed.
Summary
This past week we rode 490.78 miles. This was 81.8 miles average per day, with one day off, It was a fun week with David's family and friends. Also Dana fixed me a great home cooked dinner. I was amazed with the size of the Mall of America.