McGreger, MN to Isle, MN

Monday, September 8, 2003
Distance Cycled: 53 miles
Total elevation gain: 355 feet

We ate a continental breakfast this morning. They had French toast and waffles that were cooked in a toaster, no cereal, no milk, bagels, sweet rolls and that was about it. Tomorrow morning looks as if it will be even worse. We left McGreger and traveled on what looked to be the old highway. It went right through the main business section of the town and met up with Hwy 65 about 3 miles from the town. We continued down the road until we came to the headquarters of the Rice Lake National Wildlife Refuge. We stopped and spent at least ½ hour looking at the exhibits and talking to the rangers. They explained that the rice grows wild in the lake and the entire lake is only 2 foot deep except for one hole that is 8 feet deep. The Indians harvest the rice by using a flat bottom boot that is polled by one person and another grabs the stalks of rice and beats off the rice grains.

We continued on our way looking at the scenery. We turned onto a county road and in the next 15 miles we had three automobiles pass us. The road was almost deserted. Most of the time both sides of the road were forest. Every so often we would see a farm or a house set back in the trees.

This area is honeycombed with lakes. Almost every road goes straight for a considerable distance and then suddenly jogs to get around one of these lakes. We stopped for lunch in Glen. The restaurant was very small but the food was quite good. After lunch we continued south and rode about 5 miles and stopped for ice cream. By then the temperature had gotten quite warm and we were traveling into a head wind. We were now traveling along side Mille Lacs Lake. This lake was formed by the glaciers and appears to be a very popular ice fishing location.

We saw several rows of ice-fishing houses that were being stored until the ice freezes.

We arrived at our motel tired from fighting the wind, changed into our swimsuits and sat in the hot tub to let our leg muscles relax. After supper we rode our bicycle downtown looking for a restaurant. There were no restaurants downtown but we did find a restaurant on the route we would be taking on our way out of town. The only problem was that the menu did not have a single item that a vegetarian could eat. Mary Kay dug all the ham out of her soup and put it on my plate, the meal was not very good. Gary and Ann had the right idea, they want to the grocery store and bought food for supper.