Day 15 – Dalbo, MN to Osceola, WI

Distance 55

Total Distance 850

Kind of an uneventful last day.  We had kind of a cool night and the daytime temperatures were just supposed to barely hit 70 and it did feel cool all day.  Scenery hasn’t changed much over the last few days.  The wind did blow all day from the northeast which was pretty much in my face all day.  I was determined to not let it bother me in that it was my last day.

It did turn out to be a nice day of riding.  The roads were nice with little traffic.  I didn’t take a lunch with me, thinking that I would just stop at some diner.  However, when it came lunch time, the little town I had chosen to eat at didn’t have any restaurants that were open so I ended up having a couple Cliff bars for lunch.  When I did arrive in Osceola, I stopped at the Dairy Queen and had a nice chocolate shake with chicken strips and fries. 

Lyle arrived not too long after I finished eating and we loaded up the bike and took off toward home.  I was planning on going home through South Dakota, but must have set the GPS wrong as it is taking us back pretty close to the route we have come.  It is the closest way to get home and now that we have traveled as far north as we have, we will just continue.

We are in Casselton, North Dakota, it is 10:30 and the wind is blowing hard outside.  It never stops blowing around here.  Crazy.

One thing about ending my ride.  I was riding across the bridge over the Saint Croix River into Wisconsin and I was thinking I have been here before.  I parked the bike on the east side of the bridge to take a picture of the Welcome to Wisconsin sign and remembered parking it there last August as Tim, Nancy and I rode over that same bridge into Wisconsin.  Anyway, I figured I had to hit a particular street in town but was surprised to remember that the road into Wisconsin was the same.

Here are some things about riding in Minnesota:

1.       I probably wouldn’t have said this without all the rumble strips in North Dakota, But Minnesota had very few and when they had them, there was plenty of room for the bike on the right side of the strips.

2.       Lots of small towns and many have one little bar & grill in them.

3.       The wind still blows in Minnesota, but the further east you go, there are more trees to block the wind. (Not as bad as in ND)

4.       Pretty flat.  Not very many hills.

5.       Lots of lakes and they are very pretty.  A lot of wetlands with ducks, geese and pelicans.  I enjoyed seeing these areas.

6.       I enjoyed the 120 miles of trails.  It was pretty nice riding and I enjoyed getting away from the cars.

7.       Overall, I enjoyed Minnesota much more than North Dakota.

Well, this is the end of another great trip.  It will be interesting to see how and when I can finish this cross-continent goal.  I appreciate Lyle in helping me do what I’ve done and my sweet Carey for encouraging me before and during these trips to keep me going. Grateful to our Father in Heaven for creating such a wonderful world and great people that are in it.  It is fun to see the world and meet the people.

Thought this was interesting.  The tree is growing right up in the silo.

2 miles left!!

The Saint Croix River.

 This year

Last August

Day 14 – Holdingford, MN to Dalbo, Mn

Distance 70

Total Distance 795

Was kind of hard to get out of bed this morning.  I must have been pretty tired.  It was a beautiful morning.  Had a light breeze out of the northeast which pretty much continued all day. Started the day riding the trail from Holdingford about 7 miles to Bolus and then it was back on the road.

One thing about riding here in Minnesota.  It does seem like the scenery is pretty much the same thing day after day.  Lakes, fields of crops, cattle and wet lands.  I did see irrigation and pivots today; and potatoes.  First time I saw those things.

Went through some pretty small towns today.  Nothing too exciting.  In fact, I just ate my lunch on the sidewalk of a gas station because there wasn’t anywhere else to get out of the sun.  Just ate the PB&J and chips today.  Pretty boring.

We are staying in Dalbo at the Adventure Cycling bunkhouse.  It is this quite popular place for cyclists riding the Northern Tier Route to stop and spend the night.  It started back in 2005 when a couple cyclists stopped and asked the farmer that lives here if they could spend the night on his lawn because there was nowhere else around to stay.  He let them and called Adventure Cycling to let them know any cyclist could spend the night on his lawn whether they were here or not, so Adventure Cycling put the stop on their maps.  Well in the time since, Donn Olsen has fixed one of his barns to be a bunkhouse for cyclists.  It is really cool.  Has a kitchen, showers, bathroom, place to watch TV & movies and bunks and cots for probably 30 people at a time.  He says that in a season he has 200 to 300 people stay.  He told me that because of the virus, this year has been pretty slow.  He has his fridge stocked with drinks and candy and has food that can be prepared and has prices on the stuff, but cheaper than you can get them in the stores.  Anyway, pretty cool.  He asks you to use a camera and take a photo of yourself and then puts them up on the wall.  I saw Dave (who was our tour leader when I went down the East Coast) and Kathy from when they took a tour around the US back in 2013.

It was a pretty normal day of riding.  As I mentioned the wind blew from the northeast and I pretty much traveled East today, so had a little headwind.  The good part is that it was 8 mph winds or so, so it wasn’t too bad.  Tomorrow I will finish my trip.  It seems that things have gone by pretty fast.  I guess it was just a two week trip when I have taken much longer.  I will just have to enjoy those last few miles!!

Holdingford park about the rail trail Soo Line.

Crossed the might Mississippi today!

Sprinklers and potatoes.  Looks like home.

More lakes and scenery.

The bunkhouse

I don't think I have introduced Lyle to you all.  My trusted driver.

Your's truly.

And some pictures of inside:

Day 13 – Fergus Falls, MN to Holdingford, MN

Distance 102.5

Total Distance 724.7

Well, it turned out to be Century Day. It has been a long time since I rode 100 miles in a day.   It didn’t start out with that plan, but the day went so well I just kept riding.  I was going to have a short riding day tomorrow and there really wasn’t a place to stay in Bolus, the town I was to stop at tomorrow, so I had the idea I would split the 39 miles to Bolus between today and tomorrow’s ride.  I went to a little town called Albany that would have split the difference and there was no place to stay there as well, so I rode the 10 miles to this town.  I have the 7.5 miles to Bolus tomorrow, plus the next day’s ride, so it will be a 60+ mile ride tomorrow.  I do only have two days of riding left, however.

Todays ride was wonderful.  It was bike trail all that 102 miles.  I don’t think I have ever ridden that many miles on a trail in consecutive miles.  The nest closest would be when I rode the Trail of the Coeur d’Alene’s in northern Idaho which is 70 some miles long.  Today’s trail was mostly good, but did have some areas that it was pretty rough.  Bike trails seem to get some pretty big cracks in the pavement and it can be pretty rough.  There were areas that the asphalt was just laid.  In fact, there were signs that the trail was closed due to the construction, but a construction worker just told me where the workers were and to be careful passing them. That particular portion was just so nice.  Just smooth.

The scenery was wonderful.  Many farms as well as wet lands and lakes.  On trails, the foliage seems to grow close to the trail and many times you cant see too far, but it did seem to open up around the lakes and farms and was just pleasant all day long.

The trails took me through a bunch of small towns today.  Dalton, Ashby, Melby, Evansville, Garfield, Alexandria …  It was fun to pull into the towns and take a look at their Main Street.  Most were pretty quiet places. There was one small town that I passed through about noon called Brandon.  I just had to stop and take a look at the town that shares the name of my son and it happened to have a diner and I needed some lunch.  Had a hamburger and fries and then got on my way again.

There were some larger Cities that I passed through as well. The people using the trails greatly increased in those areas, but overall, there were not a lot of people that I saw.  As far as animals, saw rabbit, deer, porcupine, squirrel, snakes and many types of birds.

There is only one restaurant in town, Rudolph’s Redneck Roost.  It is a bar and grill and I ordered a Reuben.  It was fantastic.  Could have been how hungry I was.

Lyle was a good sport through all of today.  I changed plans on him a couple times and he would just say, “You’re the one riding, whatever you want.”

A really great day, but I feel it tonight.

A typical Main Street

Beautiful farms

Newly laid asphalt

This was an interesting place.  Kind of hard to see, but all kinds of old stuff.  It was closed, but would have been fun to see.

Bridge coming into Holdingford.

Day 12 – Fargo, ND to Fergus Falls, Minnesota

Distance 65

Total Distance 623

Everything that Mother Nature threw at me yesterday in the form of rain and wind was paid back to me today.  I had to travel at a southeasterly direction and the wind just blew me all the way to Fergus Falls.  One thing about the wind here.  If it is at your back, you have a smile on your face, if not??  Anyway, it was a day that keeps a cyclist going for another ride.

Leaving Fargo.

Can you see how fast I am going on the flat?  32 (kilometers per hour 😂) Still thats pretty good.

You can see the wind that was helping me.

I’m in Minnesota!! It really is a land of 10,000 lakes.  Actually the number is 11,842.  It is unbelievable.  There were some beautiful farms I passed today as well.  They just covered the hills and with perfectly straight rows of corn, some beets and soybeans.

No road sign coming into Minnesota, but here is the Red River that is the border at Fargo and Minnesota.

I stopped at a little café in Rothsay, MN to get a 2^nd breakfast/lunch.  Two things on the menu looked too good to pass up.  I got the potato bacon soup and some French toast.  I guess it truly was a brunch and it was delicious and gave me what I needed to get through the day.

Mmm, it was good.

This road was the best road I have ridden on all trip.  It was cement and just as smooth as possible.   

We are at Delagoon Park camping.  It is a pretty campground on the shores of one of Minnesota’s lakes.  Had dinner of hamburger helper again.  It was good and I’m hoping Lyle isn’t getting sick of my limited cooking. It seems we have this routine of eating dinner and then watching a movie.  Lyle brough this sack full of movies and it has been fun to watch them  Tonight was the latest Jumanji.

Camp for tonight.

Day 11 – Kathryn, ND to Fargo, ND

Distance 71

Total Distance 557.7

We had thunderstorms and lightning last night and I thought later in the night they ended, but rain came and it stayed.  I slept in a bit and then just delayed about an hour to see if the rain would let up.  It didn’t, so I decided I better get going.  We didn’t have cell coverage or internet, so we couldn’t look at the forecast. It was going to be a long day and it looked like the wind was somewhat at my back, so I took off.  It was a northwesterly wind and I was headed west, so during the morning it did push me along a bit.  It rained pretty steady until about 1:00 and during the day the wind switched to coming from the North and it blew pretty hard. I was on a two way highway, so when the trucks would pass, I pretty much got showered each time.

At 1:00 I started having to head north to Fargo.  The map was a stair step approach to the City and every time I turned north, the wind was terrible.  It was blowing at a sustained 25 mph.  I think with the rain and then the wind, my patience was pretty thin.

I stopped in a little town called Kindred and got the lunch special at a gas station/eating joint.  It was sloppy joes, mac & cheese & chips.  I was thinking the sloppy joes or mac & cheese were the options, but got the whole thing.  Actually it was very good and gave me the energy I so desperately needed.  The last ten miles into Fargo were heading due North.  I really was wanting to call Lyle and have him come get me, but I persevered (I know that surprises you based upon my past behavior ☺).  I got into camp about 4:15 and was spent.

I cleaned up and Lyle and I have been craving tacos lately, so we found the nearest Taco Bell and headed there for dinner. Today is the last day in North Dakota.  Here are some things I’ll remember about North Dakota:

1.       They have rumble strips on every road and most of them are a pin in the neck for cyclists.

2.       This time of year, this state is beautifully green.  Pretty much corn, wheat & soybean farms and grassland with many cattle grazing.

3.       Hilly in the west and flat in the east.

4.       Pretty remote.  You ride and ride all day (and day after day) and things don’t change at all.

5.       The wind blows nonstop here (and hard).  And it blows from all directions.  Hard to count on westerly or easterly winds to ride a certain direction.

6.       It is a long way across.

You can see the water logged fields from all the rain today.  This is it for pictures today.

Day 10 – Gackle, ND to Kathryn, ND

Distance 59

Total Distance 486.70

We had another thunderstorm move over us last night.  It put us on quite the light show. We awoke to a beautiful morning, had breakfast and then drove to Gackle, where I started from on Saturday.  It was only 40 miles away, so didn’t take us long.  The road I had to ride today was fairly flat and perfectly straight.  Not too much navigating was required today.  It was however a nice ride.

In Gackle the map read, “Limited services for the next 78 miles”.  And there really was not much of anything.  It got to about 85 degrees and due to the rain last night, was very humid. As I would ride, the perspiration doesn’t disappear like it does in Idaho.  We must be getting further east. I found a nice lawn to stop and have lunch under a tree.  I was hoping no one would come out of the house asking what I am doing there.  No one did. 

We are camped in the middle of nowhere at a campground called “Little Yellowstone”.  I don’t know why.  It is a nice camp, but nothing like Yellowstone.  We have no phone service or internet so are forced to watch a movie again tonight.

View of the 60 miles of straight road ahead.

The dreaded North Dakota rumble strips.

There are a ton of these marsh lands along the way.

Days 8&9 – Napolean to Gackle, ND and a Rest Day!!

Distance 40.2

Total Distance 427.7

Well, to put it in Lyle’s words, I wimped out. ☺ I knew Friday night that things were not going to be good and they weren’t. The wind was blowing 18 mph from the southeast at 7:00 in the morning.  I got up and got breakfast and all and decided I would give it a try.  I told Lyle when he got things ready and left to make sure he stopped when he passed me to see if I would change my mind on how I would do the day. I was probably about 10 miles down the road when he passed doing my best and getting 5 mph out of the bike.  The wind was getting worst and it wasn’t hard for me to make up my mind. I was supposed to only have a 40 mile day today but the remaining 30 miles at 5 mph was not something that I wanted to even attempt.  Lyle hauled me to Gackle, the City we were to end in and I rode the opposite direction.  I guess that is the benefit of having the motorhome.

We checked out the campground in Gackle and it was not attractive at all and didn’t have any facilities, so we decided that I would just ride back to Napolean and we would spend two more nights there as Sunday was a scheduled day off.  That is what we did and it was a great ride back.  There was a portion of the road on the way back that I had to head South and it was crazy how hard it was to stay on the road.  Especially when a vehicle was passing and I needed to get over.  Heading West, there were times I was already going 25mph and I could still feel the wind at my back pushing me.  I would never have made it going the other direction and Sunday we are supposed to have these winds back again.

We got back to Napolean and had a lazy afternoon.  The campground here is quite full and is right next to the City pool.  I think everyone was here to enjoy the pool and the weekend, but because of the weather, they didn’t open it.  Some pretty disappointed families.  We watched a movie tonight about Teflon.  Lyle brought a bag full of movies, so we will never run out of something to watch.  Ate dinner at the diner again.  I had a small pepperoni pizza.  It was good.

Today is Sunday and I feel a little lost with no riding and not a whole lot to do.  I studied the Sunday School lesson this morning, which was nice, but can only do that for so long as well.

We had quite the storm move over us in the middle of the night.  It was raining, blowing and giving quite the light show.  It didn’t last long, but was fun to watch. There are tree branches all over the place today from the wind.  The wind is not blowing as hard as yesterday, which is good.

Not much to write since we are doing nothing.  I do have a Zoom meeting with my Sunday School class pretty quick, so I need to get ready for that.  My body is enjoying a no bike day and tomorrow winds are supposed to be back from the west.

It has been a lazy day.  I guess that is what it was supposed to be.  There is not much to do in this town, so spent it reading and watching a Survivor episode.  Lyle and I went to the restaurant in town and got us a burger and shake this evening and making preparations for tomorrow.

These threshing machines are the Dinosaurs.  Trip Advisor has this sight as the #1 Napolean attraction. 🙄

They are actually kind of cool.

I always like old houses out in the middle of nowhere.  I just wonder who lived there and what type of a dream they were after.

There are actually a lot of small lakes in this area.  It looks like they can get high enough to cover the road in areas like this.  The asphalt just ends and you cross this dirt roadway.  Look at the waves from the wind.

An unharvested field of corn.  I wonder if it can still be harvested and how long they can do it.

Day 7 – Bismarck, ND to Napolean, ND

Distance 71.5

Total Distance 387.6

A beautiful day today.  Even the locals were saying it was great because of no wind.  I don’t think that happens much across North Dakota.  The scenery was not much different throughout the day. Rode on backroads out through farms and cattle ranches.  It seems that crops haven’t been planted here long.  The corn is 3 inches tall and grain might be six inches.  I did see some planting and spraying going on today.  It looks like they use no till farming around here quite a bit.  The corn was planted in between the rows they planted last year and grain was planted in the corn or grain stubble from last year.  It looked great.  I am sure it takes those GPS guided tractors to do it.

Started the day with oatmeal for breakfast and a PB&J packed for my lunch.  When it gets lunchtime, if I have any other options, it seems I take them.  I went through a town (Hazelton) at lunchtime and they had a Cenex convenience store, so I ordered a sub sandwich there with a chocolate milk.  It was just what I needed.

It was another 70+ mile day.  The 3^rd day in a row and I’m feeling it.  The last 20 miles into Napolean, I was getting a little impatient from being on the bicycle.  I hope rest tonight helps.  It was hard to tell where the wind was coming from today.  It seemed to be moving all over the place.  I guess that is what a no-wind day feels like. The forecast is for 20mph+ winds from the east tomorrow and Sunday.  Sunday I planned a day off the bike but do have 39 miles to go tomorrow, so I am hoping for the best.

Ate dinner at a nice diner downtown.  Had a hamburger steak with a baked potato.  It really hit the spot as well.  This town is very impressive.  I don’t know if I can remember seeing such a clean town.  There isn’t garbage anywhere.  The lawns all look taken care of and it is just nice.  It is small.  There are only about 700 people here, but they look to be very proud of where they live.

I am riding what they call the Northern Tier.  Adventure Cycling Association has maps that will take you from Bar Harbor, Maine to Anacortes, WA.  It is a pretty popular route for people to ride.  Before today, I was surprised that I had not seen one other rider riding in either direction.  I did run into someone today. Mark from Indiana. He is on his way to Glacier National Park and is writing a blog at kickupsomedust.com.

We are in a nice park tonight that is small, but well maintained.  I think it must be run by the City and it is full.  I guess it is the weekend. Well, can’t think of anymore, so see you tomorrow.

View at the beginning of  the day

Mark from Indiana

View from the road.  It is green everywhere.

See the corn growing?

McKenna Lake coming into Napolean.

Downtown Napolean.

Day 6 – Hebron, ND to Bismarck, ND

Distance 71

Total Distance 316

I don’t think that I got much sleep last night. First of all I was worried about getting the RV fixed, second, we had trains going by 50 ft away until about midnight and third, we are in central zone now and I needed to get up at 6:00 local time and get going which is 5:00 time that I am used to. 

Anyway, I did get up at 6:00 with no alarm and got on my way.  It was a little chilly out, but a nice still morning.  I rode about 20 miles down the road before Lyle came by to pick me up and we loaded the bike and headed to Bismarck to see if we could get the RV fixed.  We got to the dealership at 8:15 and they took a look and said that they would be an hour fixing it.  That lifted a great burden and we just looked at the store and RV’s for an hour and things were fixed.  Lyle and I took wagers on how much it would cost and both of us were in the $300 range and it only cost $160, so I was thrilled.  They fixed things to where that stuff wasn’t hanging so low, and that made me feel even better.

While there in Bismarck, we visited McDonalds for breakfast.  The place was open to order and we did so and sat down to eat and were told that we still couldn’t eat in the dining room. That was ok, we just went out and had breakfast on the outside tables. That McGriddle was great. It seems its easy to forget about this pandemic while I’m out here.

We then traveled back to where he picked me up and I continued my journey.  I was thinking that I only had 50 some miles to ride today, but on my spreadsheet I was looking at the map number and not the mileage.  It turned out to be 71 miles today with an average speed of 12.1 mph.  The wind was pretty much out of the southeast at 15 mph all day and that slowed me down.

Had to ride quite a few miles on the interstate again today.  A few days back when I said there was not too much traffic, that is not the case now. The interstate was cement and the traffic was thick and noisy.  It was nice to get off.  I guess on the flip side, the side roads were a lot more hills. I am realizing, just like in most places I have ridden, North Dakota is not flat. ☺

We are staying in a nice, big campground tonight on the south of Bismarck along the banks of the Missouri River.  I was surprised how big the river is this far north.  Had a hamburger helper dinner again tonight.  I hope Lyle is not getting sick of much the same. 

It is quiet, I don’t have anything to get up for (except to ride another 60 miles). I think I should sleep well tonight.

These pictures are out of order, but I'll explain:

Missouri River coming into Bismarck

World's largest Holstein Cow in New Salem.  It is ND dairy country and their mascot.

Just the typical view of ND so far.

Always nice to have a bike path.  Coming into Bismark.

Day 5 – Medora, ND to Hebron, ND

Distance 74.6

Total Distance 245.1

One thing that has been nice so far is the weather predictions have been right on.  Wind blew from the south today at a pretty good clip.  For most of the day it was blowing right into my side.  That slowed things down quite a bit.  I averaged 13.2 mph.

Pretty ho hum as far as the scenery today. I don’t think that I took any pictures that you can enjoy.  The terrain was up and down all day long and it was a lot of miles.  With the wind, I think it did me in somewhat emotionally.  It seems on trips after you have ridden three or four days straight your body starts to say, “What are you doing to me?”.  I think my body is rebelling at the moment.  The wind did shift to come from the Northwest later in the day and that helped me to get the last miles in.

You can see what type of country we are now.  Oil businesses all over the place.

I don't know what this is.  It is on a trailer??

I thought this storm was going to get me this afternoon, but I guess I am too fast. 😉

This was on the road as I entered Taylor.  It would spin with the wind with lawn mowers, bicycles etc on it.  Fun.

Pretty nice church for a town of 700. Richardton, ND.  There is a nuns monastery there.

We had a little accident with the RV tonight.  This city that we are in has no RV park, but they gave us permission to stay at their city park.  We felt that we can just use the RV for water and restroom etc, but as we were pulling through a gutter to park, the back plumbing on the RV hit the road and broke off.  I have been spending the night trying to find a place in Bismarck, ND to get it fixed and the worry is they won't have the right parts.  I guess worst case, we will have to stop using the facilities in the RV. Kind of messed up my night, but it's just a problem that needs fixing.

Got into a little rain this morning.  It didn’t look like it was going to last that long, but is was a cold rain and I think it was just following me down the road.  I finally had to stop and put on my rain jacket.  I was having to ride the freeway at the time and this sweet lady pulled over and asked if I wanted to get out of the rain and ride with her down the road.  I had to turn her down, but I thought that was great.  I remember once I was in Wilmington, North Carolina and it just started pouring.  I was with Bill from Michigan and we had to pull over due to worry over cars behind us being able to see us.  We stood out in that rain for an hour and not one person stopped to see if we needed help.  That is why I think this lady deserves a few gold stars.

Well, I think I am going to get up early and take off riding so I have time to try and get the RV fixed, so good night.