Birds Hill Park, Manitoba to Breeze Point, Minnesota
Thursday, July 9, 1998 - Day 28 - 33.34 miles - to Birds Hill Park, Manitoba.
Well it's festival time, and we were all very excited as we rode to Birds Hill Park, NE of Winnipeg. The day was great but the road at times was not very good. It was a easy ride and we reached the park at 10:00 AM. The early arrival meant we had the first choice of campsites. We found one that had lots of room as there were others who were driving up from Minneapolis, David's family and friend's.
For the next four days and nights it was music with a little morning biking around the park and the traditional 30-mile ride to the nearby town of Selkirk, for breakfast. After the tents were set up we went exploring the park, it's bike paths, beaches and stores. Then it was back to camp and the arrival of David's wife , Dana, her two daughters Theresa and Elizabeth, along with others. We help them set up their tents, made dinner (home cooking sure tasted good), and went to the festival site for the first night's concerts. The music site was some 6 miles for camp. This was a BIG park.
The music areas are all uncovered outside grassy areas. There are six mini stages for the day time and one very large area called the "main-stage." for the evening. Everyone sits on traps on the ground or on Kangaroo chairs, the "official" chair of the festival.
This opening night had 6 acts, the only one that I had heard of was Los Lobos. Now don't let the fact the I only knew only one of the opening acts stop you from attending the festival as I have never big in the music world. The last act finished and we were headed back to camp at 2 AM.
Friday, July 10, 1998 - Day 29 - 4.96 miles - around Birds Hill Park, Manitoba.
Today is when I really got an idea of what this festival is all about. With all 6 stages going at the same time, I just wonder around looking and listening to each one. I do like comedy and found several, "The Arrogant Worms" and "Trout Fishing in America." The day was on the hot side with very little wind, It was a very interesting day.
The main stage started at 7:00 PM and we all gathered on the traps just to the right of the stage. Both Scott and I like to have a shower after a day of hard riding or after a day in the hot sun. So at 8:00 PM we borrowed David's van and went for a shower. At 8:20 PM the skies open up and dumped a vast amount of water on Birds Hill Park. As Scott and I stepped out of the shower building and saw the downpour we waited until it stopped. On our drive back to music area, clean and dry, we debated if we should just head out of town. We knew the reception would be kind of cold. Everyone looked like drown rats, even with getting under the trap. The place was like a mud hole. Just after everyone got settled another shower came, not near as bad as the first one. We left for camp early, 12:00 AM, as did many.
Saturday, July 11, 1998 - Day 30 - 37.14 miles - to Selkirk and back, Manitoba.
David and I got up early and rode to Selkirk for breakfast. It was good to be back on the bike again. After breakfast we rode through town on the main street when lots of people were gathering for a parade. We waved at everyone.
By now I kind of knew my way around the festival. So this morning, I went to see Heather Bishop who has toured across Canada as well as to Australia and Great Britain, blending insight, poignancy and humor. As she started her performance she introduced a man in the audience and said that she was on a bike ride with him from Winnipeg to the state of Georgia. That was interesting to me. I went to another performance in the afternoon and after she finished I went up to her a asked her about the bike ride. She admitted that she really just drove a support van. Then we talked about our tour and she asked my age. She could not believe that a 62 year old was riding across the USA. We had a nice chat.
It was another late night. I was more tired than if we were riding 100 miles per day. On the postcards that I sent home I summarized this festival as "I'm back in Woodstock of the 60's but without the drugs and alcohol."
Sunday, July 12, 1998 - Day 31 - 00.00 miles - at Birds Hill Park, Manitoba
We woke up to rain but it did not last long and it soon turn hot and humid. My second stop of the day was again to hear Heather Bishop. As she opened her performance she said, "I called my Mother last night and told her that I had met this wonderful man." My mother said "you met a man." Heather said "not that kind of man." The audience broke out into laughter as she is an open lesbian. She went on to tell them about our tour and then sang one of her songs about "you are never to old." She, as well as the audience, did not know that I was in the crowd.
Well this was the final evening and the closing act was Ani DiFranco from the USA. She was a big hit with the younger audience. I felt a little bad for all the other performers as Ani DiFranco did not participate in any other daytime performances as did so many of them. I guess she was the biggest star!!! During the evening there was a monstrous thunder and lighting storm off to the west. It did not reach us.
There was something for everyone at this festival with, the main stage, 5 daytime stages, 1 kids stage, kids activity area, hand-made village, CD sales and food, All in all, I would recommend that anyone who wants to have a packed full weekend of a wide variety of music should attend this festival. It was great fun, but not very restful.
Monday, July 13, 1998 - Day 32 - 72.91 miles - from Grand Forks, ND to Oklee, MN.
Again we woke up to showers and did not last long. It was time to break up the party and riding team. Scott, the girls, and Jason were going to head ESE along the northern edge of Minnesota to Wisconsin, Upper Michigan and points east. David and I were to go south to SSE, through Minneapolis and on to Iowa for our second imbedded event, the last half of Iowa's RAGBRAI ride. We wouldn't again see the others. David kept in touch with his wife, Dana, and Scott called her to see if a New England hookup with us was possible. It turned out it wasn't, but David structured the last days of our tour trying to meet up with them.
Dana and daughters gave David and me a lift to Grand Forks, ND saving us two days. That way, we could resume our west-to-east tour without a geographic break and give us the time in Minneapolis to service the bikes and for me to meet David's family.
Unfortunately, all the packing, breakfast, loading, and driving meant we got back on our bikes at 2:30 PM and trying to make David's friend's house 73 miles away before dark. It was a cloudless and hot day with the temperature reaching into the 90's. For me it was prefect, as I like it hot. We made it, through barely, David had a flat, his first puncture and second tire "problem" of the trip. Earlier in the tour he had a patch work it's self loose. I had no flats in the entire tour. Our destination was Harold and Shirley in Oklee, MN whom David had met 9 years earlier when he was sheltering in that town from a storm on his second annual ride from Minneapolis to Winnipeg. They temporarily suppressed their desire to talk while we showered and Shirley found some food which seemed like ambrosia to two tired and hungry bikers. It was quite a meal. Them we talked and talked. They took very good care of us, thanks.
Tuesday, July 14, 1998 - Day 33 - 72.48 miles - to Itasca State Park, MN.
After Shirley made us a wonderful breakfast we said our goodby's and were ready to hit the road when David noticed his tire was flat again. There was still some glass in the tire from yesterdays flat. Soon we left Oklee with wild-looking skies which opened up and we found shelter under some trees on a farmhouse lawn. As I always did, I was on my way to the front door to speak with who every was home, so they would not be worried if they saw us. The front door opened and the lady of the house invited us in and let us put our bikes in the garage. Soon we were having coffee and cookies, while the storm hit. Life is good. That is how we met Dale and Bonnie. While we were there her husband and son came home and join in the conversion. It turned out that David knew Bonnie's sister Mary who had been married to a biker in the Minneapolis area. Dale and Bonnie also knew Harold and Shirley, It's a small world.
The rain stopped and we continued on to Trail where we sheltered again, this time in a restaurant where we ate lunch. The lighting was awesome. When the rain let up we continued on to Shevlin, a tiny town on good old US 2, the road ridden so many miles back in Montana and North Dakota. We had our second lunch there, but our day's destination was still miles to the Youth Hostel in Itasca State Park, famous for the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, there was a huge stalled storm in that direction, the ones we sat out. We sat under a shelter in the city park and watched the thunder and lightning. I could hear solid thunder for over a hour. We waited and wondered how our friends riding north of us were doing with heavy clouds and thunder also in that direction. With some trepidation, we headed towards Itasca, we were running out of daylight, asking each other "is this a good idea?" The clouds above had the look of a coming tornado. Areas of wet road construction added to that feeling. Again, we pulled it off without getting wet and were rewarded with a fantastic red sunset. Not all the plans for the day worked out. Because of the rain delays, we were too late to ride the park's Wilderness Loop and have dinner at the Douglas Lodge. Just north of Itasca, we crossed the Mississippi River for the first, but not the last time, it was all of about 10 feet across.
Sunset over Itasca State Park
The year-round YH at Itasca is a beautiful restored log building which once served as park HQ. Tom, yes another Tom, the warden (do they still call that?) Knows David from his many rides that way including the annual rides to Winnipeg and responded to our description of what we were doing "don't get many bikes." The AYH program has changed since I first heard of them back in the early ‘70, then you had to arrive under your own power. This night I think we were the only ones staying at this Hostel who arrived under their own power. Tom, give us a privet room since he knew we would be up and on the road early. It was a nice room.
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Wednesday, July 15, 1998 - Day 34 - 96.55 miles - to Breeze Point, MN.
"Does this bike trail really go 50 miles?" We had just left quiet country road 6 and started down the relatively new Paul Bunyan paved bike trail in Hackensack. Mile markers on the trail were counting down to from 50. The sky was blue and it was a great day. Areas south of Itasca are somewhat of a bicyclist dream. The Hwy 71 towards Park Rapids has signs warning turning motorists to yield to bikes. From Park Rapids to Walker is Minnesota's first paved bike trail (The Heartland) which recently got a new and wider surface. Nice paved country roads wind around rolling hills and tree-lined lakes all over this region. Like the Heartland, the Paul Bunyan trail has superb surface which may stay that way since the state recently posted it against metal stud-using snowmobiles.
Leaving the trail at Jenkins we started through a maze of roads and lakes to find a campground where David stopped for lunch on his north-bound Winnipeg trips. The trouble was we were going south. He would tell me later that he was 95 percent sure we were going right, but kept turning around to get a good look at the road "from the other direction." I thought that he was doing his usual checking up on how I was doing. One thing that I must say is that David had a knack for finding the way. I think we went wrong only about 6 miles (3 times 2 miles each) in over 5000 miles or traveling, that's pretty good. We soon saw the RV park and set up our tents right on the lake. The sunset was outstanding.
Summary
This was a very short week but we did spent 4 days at the festival, we rode 317.38 miles. The festival was a lot of fun and well worth the detour. I don't think I will every forget the thunder and lighting storms that we sat out. One reason I wanted to ride coast-to-coast was to see if there was a better America out there, there sure is. The people who opened their house to us were the best.