Day 29

Day 29, Written – 6/25, Posted - 6/27

The combination of unstable weather, boring scenery, and too many little towns makes for a pretty dull day of riding (no pictures). There were off and on showers with predictions for heavy thunderstorms (that never materialized for me) so I was just intent on making some mileage. I took a road (state rd. 23) that went pretty much diagonally (heading northeast) through Minnesota. The worst was St. Cloud which was five miles or so of strip malls followed by an uninteresting crossing of the Mississippi River (no ferry this direction). My original plan was stop there for lunch but I didn't see any non-chain place that I would have felt comfortable leaving the bike. I wound up stopping at the next little town (Foley) and had a decent meal.

Once I got to Wisconsin the riding got better. I took Route 77 across the state heading for the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The scenery changed to more typical east coast with deciduous forests and more curves in the road. There were less towns as well. The rain stopped about 50 miles into the state. I stopped a little earlier than usual at Mineral Lake Campground on a cut through road (county road GG). I figured this campground was here, the rain had let up, and I had covered about 350 miles so I might as well take the 'bird in the hand'.

There was only one other group in the campground who invited me to join their camp fire after bringing me a camp fire starting kit (how nice was that?). I decided it would be more fun to hang with them than to sit around my own fire solo. The group was Dean, his friend Tammy, his daughter Teri Jean, and Teri Jean's friend, Sarah. It was quite a lively group with a good amount of friendly ribbing especially regarding the three small fish that Tammy and Dean had essentially spent the whole day catching. It wasn't enough for dinner so Tammy had to break out the burgers. Sarah is a vegetarian so I decided to offer her some of Alicia's granola which is getting a little old (29 days in, after all) but Sarah and Teri Jean had some handfuls. I got a burger out of the deal. Besides the granola I donated a small bag of pistachios which Tammy bogarted, she was very thankful.

Tammy and Dean have started a company to manufacture and market a nifty Kayak strap to help portage or carry kayaks that Dean has invented. He showed me a prototype and I am definitely going to pick one up for Wilson Pond. The product and company are klip-n-go. I have put in a link to the web site but Dean says it won't be up for a week or two. Dean has also written a book, quite the renaissance man.



Mississippi River so big and wide, blond haired woman on the other side.
Now she's gone, gone, gone and I don't worry 'cause I'm sitting on top of the world.


I worked all summer, spring and fall, blond haired woman the cause of it all.
Now she's gone, gone, gone and I don't worry 'cause I'm sitting on top of the world.
-Vinson/Chatmon