July 11. We left Arthur with a tailwind and everything went well for about half an hour. Then, we turned due west, the wind switched and we were barely able to make 6 mph. By the time we got to Cooperstown we were sunburned, windburned, hot, tired and lucky to get the the last room in town due to their summerfest. Decided we had seen enough of the country for now and felt as though we'd learned a few things about bike touring and camping that will make our next trip a little easier. The next day was able to locate a u haul truck in Valley City, ND about 48 miles from Cooperstown. Got off to a late start, about 11, and headed south toward Valley City to pick up the u haul. With the wind against us once again, we rode 26 miles in about 3 1/2 hours. Stopped and asked a fisherman directions, he said we were about 25 miles away with a lot of big hills to come, which I didn't tell
Kim. When we made the turn, Kim said I hope theres not a lot of hills. We stopped at an intersection to take some aleve and a pick-up truck happened along. I flagged him down, asked if he was going to Valley City, and how much for a ride. He said no charge and we loaded the bikes in the back. He was a very nice guy. He was an outfitter for white tail deer and bird hunts. He had a loaded carbine between the front seats he said he used for coyote. It took us over 1/2 hour in that truck to make the last 18 miles. After seeing all the hills, it would have taken us another 4 or 5 hours of biking. I told the guy I think he saved our marriage. It started raining before we got to the motel and as we unloaded the bikes it really let loose. Found out later a tornado had touched down just a few miles south of us. Someone was watching over us. If anyone wants to go hunting, I have
George's card. Got a 20 ft rental truck, we're on our way home enjoying the ac and the smooth ride.

July 8, day 24. Our traveling buddy, Mike left us early this morning on his return trip home. We stopped for breakfast at the fry n pan and stopped at the bike shop just before it opened. Talked to a man from Minot whose house had flooded. He barely made it out. He was given half an hour warning. Fema has temporarily relocated him to fargo. He said 12,000 houses are flooded. Got lost going out of town and had to climb the same hill twice for no good reason. We finally made it to old route 81 and headed north then west. Made it to arthur, ND about 3:30 or 4. We had lunch at Kellys and the waitress told us we could camp at the city park for free and take a shower at the racquet club. Pretty nice, eh? People have been very nice this trip. We turned over 1,000 miles today.

July 7, day 23. Traveled about 71 miles and made it to fargo, ND last night at about 6. Today we had some r & r / rode around fargo, got a haircut, went to the bike shop and visited the library. Tomorrow morn, 7/8, we will be leaving early, hopefully, and traveling route 200 to bypass Minot, which is flooded, and head to coopersville. I heard we're suppose to have good weather. We will be losing our good, traveling partner, mike, he's heading back to green bay. SO, it's just us two once again.

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Duly 5, day 21. Had a heck of a storm last night. Manager came out and tried to get us to go in the shelter, but mike wouldn't do it. Woke up to nice day, and ate breakfast at ruby's in Ashby, MN. Did laundry and rode the trail down to Fergus falls on delagoon lake. This is the end of the trail. Back on the road tomorrow riding to fargo.

July 4, monday. Day 21. Greetings family and friends. Saturday, we had a headwind and the temp was in the 80's which we were thankful for it made a pleasant ride. Rode 72 miles. Since the state of MN is shut down we had a hard time finding a campground. We ended up staying at royalton sportsman's club on the mississippi, a primitive campground which means no showers. But we were fortunate enough to have loud, rock n roll music all night and early in the morning. Sunday, we got on the soo line trail. It was like heaven being on a trail. We were able to ride, visit, and not have to worry about cars and having no shoulder. We rode 42 miles and camped at Sinclair lewis campground in sauk centre next to sauk lake - beautiful. Got up this morning and had breakfast at the ding dong cafe. Stopped at Alexandria and got our picture taken by the huge statue, Ollie. Rode 52 miles
today and are camping at Ashby resort and campground on christina lake. We didn't have to pay for showers tonight, so that's a plus. There are a lot of families here and they're shooting off firecrackers,which we've been hearing the last few nights. We've been traveling with another bicyclist which we are happy to have his company. He, mike is from green bay, is going as far as fargo, which should take a couple more days, and then turning around. Happy 4th of july.

July 1, day 18. Camped at Hillcrest rv park near center city MN last night. It was very hot yesterday and we didn't get a breeze all night. Woke in the morning to find hundreds of mosquitoes hanging on our tent. They were even starting to spell kins name. We sweated all nignr and had to take anther shower in the morning. We were on the road figuring wed eat in sunrise, but their bar n grill was closed. The ride for ms people were there and we did get some cold water from them. Kim had been leading all day and I was having a hard time keeping up. The heat and no breakfast finally got to me and I had to pull over and put the mat down to rest. As we were leaving I noticed my back wheel was rubbing on the brake. I adjusted the back wheel and it made all the difference in the world. Ate dinner at stuga restaurant in harris, MN. While there, met a recumbent trike rider named mike
ashford from green bay. Rode with him for the rest of the day and pulled into springvale rv park to camp. Only $3 per person for bicyclists because she thinks we're all crazy. Very, very nice people. One cleanest place we've been to so far. The bathrooms r even air conditioned. Put up the tent, took a shower, put our clothes in the washer (laundry room also had ac), ordered a pizza (they had no health food) and then the storm hit. Ate pizza and watched storm. We all had to congregate In the bath and laundry rooms. The electricity went out, high winds, and some trees fell. Needless to say, the washer did not finish its cycle and power will not be restored for 12 hours. People offered to let us sleep in their cottage. And we could also camp up in the recreation room. Wrung out our clothes and the owners mom and dad took our clothes to their house to finish. A gentle rain
falls on the tent and we are cool for the first time in two days.

Today we left st Croix

Today we left st Croix park and after a hat ride, made it to stillwater MN where we're resting for a couple of days.

From lake city we had a pleasant ride into redwing. Stopped in redwing and had our bikes serviced at wheelhouse cycle. Went back across the river into Wisconsin. Then, everything went downhill. We had the wind against us and lots of steep hills. Made it to Prescott where we crossed back into minnesota and managed to make it to st Croix bluffs regional park where we camped. We would have had a good nights sleep, but I lost the air in my air mattress. Today we got

June 26, Sunday. Day 13. Ate breakfast at Perkins with the hotel vouchers. We left winona at about 9:00. Right outside of town we stopped at a county park for a few minutes and while we were there we met a guy riding his bike to twin cities, heading the same way as us. He was an older, hippy type of guy. We kind of played tag with him all day. Stayed on 61 all day. It had wide shoulders and traffic wasn't too bad. Even though the last 14 miles had rolling hills we didn't have to push. We pulled into lake city MN about 4:00. Stopped for pizza at trillions, then went to city park to camp on lake pepsin which is a natural lake on the Mississippi. We have a campsite on the bank where we've been watching the eagles soar. They've been flying right over our heads real low. Looks like rain tonight.

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June 24 & 25. Day 11 & 12. Friday/We did a lot of pushing uphill today. We only made 32 miles. Made it to lansing at around 2:00 which as slow as we had been traveling, we thought it too late to push on the Brownsville. Looked around for a room, tried calling a couple different b&bs but they were all booked. Only place we could find a room was above a tavern. It was not the best room. The bed sagged in the middle, no ac and the rowdy drunks woke us up in the night. We did manage to get an early start because we wanted to get out of there. We decided to take the great river road along the west side of the Mississippi. Crossed into minnesota at new albin. Stopped for a late breakfast in Brownsville at the copper penny. We pushed on to la crescent and got off map route to stay on rte 61 to avoid excessive hills. Pushed onto Winona and ended up getting a motel because of rain.
There goes the budget. Rode 61 miles today.

Day 10. June 23. We had a nice day of rest. Rained again last night and looked like rain when we got up. Todays destination is marquette, ia, which the map says is 30 miles. We started off uphill and we did a lot of pushing before the 17 miles to minona. Spent a lot of time on the shoulder, which wasnt paved, because of all the gravel trucks passing us. Pulled into winona cold, wet, and exhausted and had lunch at jody's bar and grill. Left Winona at 1:45 and had 13 miles to go. Not looking forward to it, but the road turned out to be mostly flat with some hills and we were able to cruise around 15-16 mph and made it to Marquette in less than an hour. Actually, put 38.9 miles on.

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Days 8 & 9. June 21 & 22. Rained again last night. We got off to an early start for us and were on the road by 9:00. There was not a motel or campground between dyersville and elkader, so we needed to make it in one day. Stopped in colesburg for lunch / bartender said there was only one steep hill between colesburg and elkater and smiled when he said it. Every hill we came to we kept saying this must be the one. I did get over 40 mph a couple of times going downhill today. Arrived in elkater about 4:15. Found the city park, next to turkey river, which is very nice. Elkater's a very nice town. It's like being in the 60's again. The people are very friendly. We decided to take Wednesday off and just take care of business, bike maintenance, laundry and rest. the natives told us about absorbine jr which is suppose to repel the buffalo gnats. Hope it works. The gnats just
hatched which is suppose to last about 3 weeks. Next time we take a trip we need to google insect hatches for the area. Next stop should be Marquette, ia.

Day 6, june 19. Woke up to a light mist. Just enough to get our gear wet. Quit by the time we got on the road which was about 9:15. Lots of big hills between oxford jct and cascade. Had to push some today, too pooped to pedal. Met two girls on bikes heading east. Asked how far they had come, they said about 2000 miles. They smiled when I said I-d gone 250. We have a long way to go. in
cascade we met a couple who own a campground
And it had showers. We decided to stay there instead of pushing on in the heat. Set up camp by the river. We're the only ones in the Tent section. I highly recommend it.

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Day 5, june 18. Fulton/comfort inn. Visited with a nice couple who'd lived in the area for 60 years, moved to boise, idaho and were back to visit old friends for the last time. Enjoyed breakfast, grabbed a few supplies and were on our way. Crossed over the mighty Mississippi into clinton, Iowa. We traveled the whole day over rolling hills, mostly up. We stopped at dad's place, a bar and grill for lunch and were on our way. Businesses are far and few between. The towns on our route still have small grocery stores. I haven't seen a walmart yet. We are spending the night at oxford junction city park with reasonable rates-free. I hope nobody comes and runs us off. Traveled 51 miles today, totaling 235 miles.

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June 17, day 4. We lost our riding partner today. His dad picked him up in Atkinson where we enjoyed lunch with bobby and kids. We had to get off the hennepin canal because we couldn't travel over 6mph on the gravel. Decided to go north to fulton, il instead of muscatine Iowa. It seemed like less traffic. Had a good ride until we got lost. we were really tired when we got to the comfort inn in fulton. Tomorrow we will cross into Iowa and, hopefully, we will be on route again.

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Hello its the second evening of our adventure, we are happy to have the company of our oldest grandchild, Lucas for a few more days. Yesterday.we traveled 58 miles to starved rock campground. We were sore, tired, hungry and dirty. We set up camp, ate, took a shower and were in much better spirits. It came up a storm that is only magnified were you're in a tent. Lucas ended up sleeping with us in our 2 man tent because his had collapsed. Day 2. Got up this morning heading for hennipen canal. Whoever says Illinois is flat and. Boring has never been to bureau. We rode and pushed 40 miles, uphill and in the rain. We got to our camp,the sun came out and it was really nice.

First test post for our new blog. We will be leaving Tuesday, June 14th and attempting to blog across the country from our fancy smart phone. My wonderful daughter has set up our blog and is now testing it with a post. Hopefully we have decent phone service while we travel so we can keep everyone up to date!