Monday, July 3, 2000

Today we rode 58 miles from Little Falls MN to Milaca MN. The tour guides had a route planned that was shorter by 10 miles but they miscalculated. The road they planned to use prohibits non-motorized vehicles. A bicycle is a non-motorized vehicle so the long route was required. We met Joel Crabb in Royalton. Ron Crabb, official bicycle and person transporter, brought him from Minneapolis to Royalton just as he had delivered Nancy to Alexandria.

The day was very cloudy and a little foggy when we started riding in the morning. Mary Kay complained that the fog was thick enough that she had a hard time keeping the moisture off of her glasses. The clouds and fog did keep the temperature down and made riding pleasant. In addition, we had almost no wind. The route was also very level. It seemed that hills were almost non-existent. Because of the change in our route, we crossed the Mississippi River twice today. Hopefully we are east of the Mississippi River for good. In the early afternoon we came to an area where many farms had chicken barns, a special building that is designed to raise chickens.

As we stopped for a snack alongside the road, three bicycle riders came along. They were from Bellingham WA and were on the way to the east coast by the fastest route. Between our snack stop and Milaca we passed them or they passed us several times. They were camping out and seemed more in a hurry then in enjoying the ride. It was great having the Crabb’s with us on the ride.