Riding Day 37 - Our Other Transportation

So, at some point after I kind of invited myself along on this ride, and after Cindy said she was going to drive along in support of the ride, and after Kathy kind of invited herself to go on this road tip with Cindy, I suggested the possibility of acquiring a motor home for the purpose. In that way we would automatically have a ready-made shelter for the night, we wouldn't have to put up and take down tents every day, and we wouldn't be sleeping on the ground for 10 weeks. That made a lot of eyes light up, but it still took some considerable group process before we decided to take the plunge. None of us have had particularly favorable images of RVs -- or RVers -- and motor homes can actually be the bane of touring cyclists, seriously crowding the bikers off the edges of highways. As luck would have it, about that time, a motor home that exactly met our needs became available, so we decided to go for it, though not without some continuing misgivings.

Let me describe this box. It's a Class C motor home, which means it's built on a cutaway van chassis, in this case a Ford E450 with a monster 7.2 liter Diesel engine. It's 25 feet long, 8 feet wide, and about 12 feet tall, which is not large for this sort of thing, but it still seems pretty huge when you're driving it down the street. It technically sleeps 6, when you convert the dinette into a bed, but realistically, 4 is the max. There is one queen size bed up front, over the cab, and another queen size bed on one side of the rear. Cindy and Rich sleep up front, Kathy and I in the back. There is a full bath, a kitchen with a double sink and a 3-burner stove with oven, a microwave, a refrigerator, central heat and air, lots of lighting, lots of ventilation, and a considerable amount of storage both inside and out. There is a solar panel on the roof to help charge the batteries that run things when we're not plugged in and when the generator is not running.

The routine when the motor home arrives at a campsite that has hookups is to level it if necessary with blocks under the wheels, put down the rear stabilizers, hook up the wastewater line to the sewer pipe in the ground, and connect the electricity and water. This can all be accomplished in about 20 minutes, and usually Kathy and Cindy have it all done by the time Rich and I arrive on our bikes. In the morning they reverse the process. If we are at a primitive campground without hookups, we are equipped with a freshwater tank, wastewater holding tanks, and a generator if we need to use the outlets and/or microwave.

To make a long story longer, this vehicle has proven to be a boon. Rich keeps saying how glad he is that we decided to acquire it, and we're all happy as clams to have this home on wheels for 10 weeks. Of course, there is not much floor space, but we have quickly learned the dance steps we need to do in order to get around each other, and "excuse me" and "sorry" are our most common verbalizations, but we really wouldn't have it any ther way. This trip would be a lot less comfortable without this big white box, especially as our bones get older. (Ginger, of course, has a contrary opinion, which she expressed eloquently in a prior edition of Rich's blog.)

To quickly mention the day's ride, it was another smooth day, 74 miles out of Minnesota into Wisconsin. I have to mention that US 2 for at least 40 miles west from Duluth, has by far the best shoulders for biking that we have encountered on this trip -- almost a full lane to ourselves, and in good condition!

BTW, the next couple of days we may be without internet coverage, so this blog might be down until Sunday.

Riding Day 36 - Sights and Sounds and Smells of Home

We awoke this morning to the sound of steady rain on the roof of the RV. It was light, but persistent, and any rain sounds pretty strong on this roof. By the time we had dressed, breakfasted, and packed for the day the rain had abated somewhat, but was still coming down, so we put on our rain gear and headed down the bike path from our campground toward the town of Walker.

By four miles the rain had stopped, and by four miles after that we decided it meant it, so we shed our rain clothes, which by that time were wetter on the inside than they were on the outside, and proceeded eastward down Highway 200. (Interestingly -- or perhaps not -- Montana 200 becomes North Dakota 200, which becomes Minnesota 200, and we've been following it for 12 days.)

The remainder of the day was uneventful and beautiful, in a low-key way, under mostly overcast skies. Almost the entire day was spent in easy undulations, with pretty thick forest on both sides of the road. Occasionally the trees would part and we would get views of a lake, but we knew that there were far more lakes hiding in the woods. From time to time the road would flatten out and then often the forest would open up to immense brushy areas, almost certainly swampy. At the edge of one of these, a sign announced that Hill City Real Estate was offering 80 acres for sale. The sign didn't say how much of it was swampland.

The whole landscape made me feel right at home. Although I've never been in this part of Minnesota, it's very reminiscent of my growing-up years in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and Wisconsin. The sights and sounds and smells are almost all as I remember them. The woods are mixed hardwoods, softwoods, and conifers, with lots of poplar, birches, maples, pines, spruce, balsam, and a few tamarack. There is far less red cedar than I expected. The roadsides are thick with a variety of clovers, dasies, Queen Anne's lace, black-eyed susans, and other flowers whose names I don't know. Milweed and mullen are thriving, as is poison ivy. There is also a fair amount of fireweed, which is not a plant I remember from childhood, but which I'm happy to see because it so dramatic and colorful, and because it reminds me of Alaska.

We haven't seen too many animals, but the bird songs and calls are ever-present, with the scolding of the blue jays and woodpeckers dominating. Unfortunately, we've seen more dead deer than live ones. And once there was a fresh pile of bear scat right in the shoulder of the road.

After 72 miles of riding we crossed the young Mississippi again and rolled into Jacobson. Of the two nearby campgrounds, both primitive, with no RV hookups, we rejected the closer one because of the swarms of black flies. So we are in Hay Lake Campground in the Savanna State Forest. Getting here entailed four miles of dirt roads, so we loaded the bikes onto the rack on the RV and Cindy drove us in. Tomorrow she'll drive us back to pavement, where we'll head for Wisconsin.

Shortly before arriving in Jacobson we passed milepost 190 on Hwy 200. It seems like just yesterday we passed milepost 400 on Hwy 200 in North Dakota. The miles are disappearing beneath our tires, and Maine is getting ever closer.

Riding Day 35 - Into the North Woods

We started the day in flat farmland, but soon made the transition to classic northern Minnesota rolling hills with lakes and woods. It was perfect day of riding, with moderate temps, sunshine, a light breeze at our backs, beautiful scenery, and for the most part, good roads. Highlghts included a quick tour of Itasca State Park, where we saw the headwaters of the Mississippi, and meeting Cindy for lunch at Lake George. Tonight we're in Walker Bay, 76 miles from Mahnomen, and a world apart.

Itasca State Park is both beautiful and interesting. Lake Itasca itself is pretty good sized, and at its northen end it overflows over a narrow rocky area (photo), and there starts the Mississippi! It's certainly worth seeing if you're in the area.

Today was the first full day without Kathy, and I miss her a lot, but I talked to her several times. She and her family are doing well, getting ready for her dad's big move on Thursday.

Riding Day 34 - Hello to Minnesota, Goodbye (for now) to Kathy

A 61 mile day saw us reach our destination in Mahnomen, MN just before noon. Reaching Minnesota feels like a major milestone. So far it's flatter than anything we experienced in North Dakota, with lots of fields of corn and soybeans and several small farm towns with friendly folk, but tomorrow we will defintely be in the "north woods," and the Great Lakes aren't far behind.

Unfortunately, today Kathy left us this morningfor a little over a week, to be with her father and siblings in Michigan. Her father is moving into assisted living this week, and Kathy very much wanted to be there to help everyone with the transition. It was a tough decision for her to leave the bike trip, but Rich and Cindy and I all supported her in it. It will be strange not to have her with us, especially for Cindy, who is now managing the motor home and all the support functions by herself. Predictably, Ginger was quickly promoted to being a front seat passenger! One of Kathy's very important jobs has been arranging for all of our camping locations. Typically for this very responsible woman, last night she made sure all our camping arrangements were made and communicated to the rest of us for the timethat she will be gone. Thaks, Kath!

Riding Day 33 - Some Thoughts on Wind Power

Yesterday took us 84 miles from Glenfield to Hillsboro, our last stop in ND. Unfortunately, we followed a Map My Ride routing that put us on a gravel road for 11 of the last 15 miles, so that was not a fun way to end the day, but it made it doubly good to arrive at camp at the end. Today is a rest day, and tomorrow we move on to Minnesota, which seems like a major step.

We had strong south winds all day again, but we went mostly eastbound, so it could have been much worse. The winds, however, put me in mind of America's, and the world's, energy issues. We have a lot of wind in this country, and the technology now exists to convert wind power to electricity at a cost that is reasonably competitive with coal and natural gas -- and extremely competitive if the environmental costs of fossil fuels are factored in. It's somewhat ironic that parts of ND are now prosperous as a result of the oil boom, and there is also coal mining going on in the state, but no one seems to be exploiting the wind power on a major scale. As plans are developed to try to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, the northern Great Plains, e.g. North Dakota, are seen as a tremendous resource. However, some strong resistance here and in other states has arisen within the local population. A lot of people are saying that wind power may be OK for local use, but they don't want the major deployment of high voltage transmission lines that would be necessary to transmit the power to other parts of the country. That's kind of a head-scratcher for me. I wonder to what extent the coal industry is funding that resistance.

On the lighter side, I thought folks might enjoy the coffee prices at the Finley Cafe in Finley, ND (photo).

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Riding Day 32 - Have I Mentioned the Wind Lately?

Someone told us the other day that the average wind speed in North Dakota is 20 miles per hour. If that's true, the last few days have mostly been upping the average. Not too much headwind today, but a vicious crosswind that just wore us out. We're hoping for better things tomorrow, our last day in ND. Then things will be much more placid in Minnesota, right?

Speaking of getting close to Minnesota, those of you who are fans of Garrison Keillor won't be surprised to learn that Lutheran Churches and Norwegian names are becoming quite common. Pictured is the James River Lutheran Church, set on a hill above the river, out in the country somewhere between Goodrich and Glenfield. (Or it would be pictured if Blogger was willing to upload my photos this evening. Grrr.)

I've been thinking about my bicycling habits, and how this trip has changed them. I'm pretty amazed. Prior to this year I could count on the fingers of both hands the number of days in which I biked more than 50 miles. My longest ride ever was 75 miles, and that was only because I got lost between Nevada City and Carmichael. A typical riding day for many years was a 40-mile round trip commute to work. I made clear choices not to ride in rain or strong winds. I had never been on a multi-day tour until our 3-day shakedown trip this past April. Now I'm riding an average of 70 miles a day, 6 days a week in all sorts of conditions. A 50-mile day is strangely short - we're finished well before lunch. I don't know what my bicycling habits will look like after this trip is over, but I will certainly have a different perspective.

Riding Day 31 - Getting Gradually Flatter

As we work our way eastward across North Dakota, we're noticing that the terrain is gradually flattening out. It's still not Kansas-flat, but the rollers are lower and less steep than they were just a day or so ago. So today Rich and I rode 80 miles and were still at our destination by 1:30 -- and ready to stop!

We are in Goodrich (another "Rich" town), a tiny community of well-kept homes, gravel streets, and a 1-block downtown of boarded up businesses. They also have a very nice city park where we are camped for just the request of a donation. As has often been the case since Billings, the cottonwoods are prolifically producing seeds that fill the air and get into everything. The building in the photo is directly across the street.

In addition to flattening out, North Dakota is surprising us with the amount of natural lakes, ponds, and wetlands along Hwy 200. It seems like every short descent takes us to another area filled with a stream or a picturesque pond. The cattails are starting to form heads, and the water birds are always present. Today Rich and I biked under a beautiful flight of white pelicans, so low that we could see every detail.

A major crop of this area is rapeseed, from which canola oil is produced. Huge fields of yellow blooms are a frequent sight.

One surprise for me on this trip is that everywhere we have been since San Francisco, we have been accompanied by bird song. It is, of course, impossible to hear them when traveling by car, but on bikes the songs are always with us. Given the extremely varied terrain we have covered, it occurs to me that bird song may be a constant presence everywhere, at least throughout North America. That is, for me, a pretty amazing and cool revelation, as well as a reminder of how much we are usually cut off from our surroundings.