Today I crossed into Minnesota, but the occasion was underwhelming – not only was there no “Welcome to Minnesota” sign but the wind was in my face, there were hills and the shoulder on Hwy 14 looked like this:
On the bright side, there were wind turbines, lots of wind turbines:
And Benton Lake looks quite nice:
So I stuck it out on Hwy 14 until I got to Tyler, where this refrigerator at the BP caught my eye:
While stopping there for a rest, I fell into a chat with a couple of retired locals named Tom and Clarence who had lived in those parts pretty near all their lives. We had the usual banter about the craziness of biking cross country in the heat and the unfathomability of why anyone would live in a big city, but I’ll say this for them – they knew the back county roads all around them and which ones had good shoulders and which had what kind of road surface (though it took me awhile to understand what Clarence meant when he said a particular road was “tard.”)
I got into the little town of Tracy just as it was getting hot and went down to see what time and/or misfortune had done to the historic section.
This last shot is of a bank that is now on its third incarnation as a restaurant; I may go there for dinner but it seems a little sketchy; might be a better idea to save the ducats for New Ulm, tomorrow’s destination.
Born in Baltimore and raised in Cincinnati, I have lived on both coasts and driven back and forth across the country a number of times. I now have the "midlife opportunity" to do so on two wheels.
My old stomping grounds! The crawlers bring back so many memories! Too bad Felice and I won’t be heading to MN until late August. It would be a blast to connect with you and Rachael on our way up North.
It would have been fantastic to meet up with you and Felice and spend some time in the state together; I’m only in the southern part and there are still lakes everywhere!
On to Minneapolis this afternoon…