by Greg | Jul 5, 2019 | Training
I had a “slacker” day today and stopped in Jamestown, ND after only 42 miles. Actually the short day turned out to be an awesome tourist day! The above scene intrigued me for some reason and the rest of the day was filled with similar, tranquil scenes all along the rural highways of North Dakota. I pedaled most of the day on July 4th, was passed by a vehicle maybe once an hour, and didn’t see anything except birds and cows. What a special day I had just riding and thinking happy thoughts of my Mom and past 4th of July celebrations.
There has been so much rain in this area that even the cows have a hard time walking through what is normally a dry area. The tiny calf on the right was floundering in the mud and water, but luckily mama cow came to the rescue. I love animals, except snakes and mice, but I wasn’t about to wade in to save the calf.
North Dakota has two types of bicycle trails. The above county road was straight, flat, with little or no space next to the rumble-strip white line, but did have stunningly gorgeous scenery. The other type,
is straight, flat, with tons of space next to the double white line, stunningly gorgeous scenery, and plenty of loud, yet courteous, trucks and vehicles. North Dakota is one of the few states that allow brave, or crazy, cyclists to travel alongside “the big boys!” Today I chose rural county highway 22 instead of I-94, but after a “Dogkota” day like today I may decide to ride with the big boys tomorrow. Today I encountered four very ferocious farm dogs that truly believed highway 22 was their property to protect. I have pedaled my bicycle past literally hundreds of farms so far this summer and today was the first time I have been attacked by a farm dog. My guess is North Dakota farm dogs do not approve of the music I am playing on my iPhone. No Peter, Paul and Mary, Pavarotti or Sarah Brighton when I am in “Dogkota” farm dog territory! For the rest of my time in ND, I will either ride I-94 with the big boys, or play “Old MacDonald,” “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” or even “Baby Shark.”
When I am pedaling all day long for 6-7 hours, I love imagining what the area I am currently pedaling through looked like 100-200 years ago. Today my thoughts drifted to the buffalo that roamed in this area of the Great Plains. You can imagine my surprise when I rolled into Jamestown and discovered that the National Buffalo Museum is located in Jamestown. What a fabulous learning experience for this enlighten former teacher. The museum was filled with artifacts, photographs, indigenous tribal exhibits and a short movie detailing the history of these magnificent creatures. What a fabulous few hours I had wandering around the museum AND visiting the world’s largest buffalo sculpture! So cool!
Right next door to the buffalo museum I found a Louis L’Amour museum. I love reading Louis L’Amour western novels almost as much as Lee Childs’ Jack Reacher novels. Good guy helps someone in distress, defeats the bad guys and the good guy always “wins!” Anyway, it was so much fun reading all the information about Louis L’Amour, learning all about his life in Jamestown and getting a list of all his books! Wow, what a fun filled, educational and throughly delightful day in Jamestown, ND.
I promise this is the last photo for this post. On the “About” section on my webpage I included an example of my bicycle card. (I give one of my cards to people I encounter on a daily basis.) “Faith, Family & Friends” is the logo for this Journey and today I rode past the scene below! My Mom would have said, “Neat, neat, neat!”
As always,
Greg
by Greg | Jul 3, 2019 | Training
I will explain the details regarding the group joining me for my ride into North Dakota, but first a few photos of scenery along The Lake Wobegon Trail. I made a last minute change to my route, but it was one of the hardest decisions I have had to make on this journey. Unfortunately I will not be able to visit with my good friends, Steve and Diane Norlin, who live in Pine River, MN. Twenty-six years ago when I did this same ride, I came back into the US from Canada a bit north of Steve and Diane’s home and was able to surprised them by “dropping in” for a visit. The length, beauty, location, and solitude of the Lake Wobegon trail, which is south of Norlin’s home, was just too hard to pass up this year. I am so bummed I will miss spending time with Steve and Diane, but so far my “spur of the moment” decision have worked out. We’ll see this time if I chose correctly.
Above are just a few examples of the beauty all along the Wobegon trail. The last photo is a seemingly endless field of corn. The photo was in “pano” mode, but it doesn’t come close to capturing the grandeur of this one field.
“E-I-E-I-E-I-O and on his farm he had…”. Well certainly not cows and pigs made out of milk cans and water tanks. This random collection was just off the trail in a very small town, population 26.
The sign on the railroad depot reads “Memoryville!” Someone built this authentic example of an early American town right beside the trail. Unfortunately nobody was around to give me access to the property, so I took a few photos and cycled on towards ND.
As I rode into Fargo, ND this afternoon my new best buddy, Ms. Google Maps, guided me through town and right by this memorial. As a young boy growing up in Albuquerque, I loved baseball more than peanut butter, apple pie and that new thing called television. Baseball was my life, and nothing could pull me away from playing everyday, all day long. My boyhood idols/heroes were Roger Maris and Mickey Mantle who both played for the NY Yankees. One day I would imagine myself as Roger Maris hitting a home run and the next day I would be Mickey Mantle hitting a homer with Maris on base. Oh, the memories the above memorial gave me today are priceless!
Tomorrow, July 4th, would have been my Mom’s 94th birthday! She truly loved being a “4th of July Baby” and couldn’t get enough of all the festivities associated with “Her” birthday. (Her Dad actually wanted to name her Liberty Bell Williams, but her Mom said, “NO!”) The American flags lining Roger Maris Drive would have put a huge smile on her face, even though she probably didn’t have any idea who Roger Maris was.
Now, the rest of the story! I enjoy riding solo, except for when my son joins me, but today I rode all day with a group! I can’t remember all the names, but for sure there was a John. Also, four men from Alabama, a Gambler, someone leaving on a jet plane, a man from Folsom prison, a lady named Lucile, another lady who was “Up” all day, some guy who had a pet dragon named Puff, a Grandma who only talked about her feather bed, a man from a west Texas town of El Paso, a boy named Sue, a little girl who said her Mom was at a PTA meeting regarding her behavior, a man wearing leather boots instead of Roman sandals, a man who said he saw a horse drinking a beer, a really Crazy lady named Patsy, and even a guy who said his name was Nessun Dorma! I’m sure there were plenty more in the group, but together we completed about 60 miles, despite blowing in the wind.
I am sure after reading the above nonsense all of you think I have been riding way too many miles and have lost my mind. No, I just needed something new and exciting. So I plugged my iPhone into an external battery, cranked the volume up as loud as possible and listened to trashy country music for 60 miles. I also listened to Pavarotti, Israel Kamakawiwo, Kathrine Jenkins, Neil Diamond, Gordon Lightfoot, Tennessee Ernie Ford, James Taylor and many more artists! Oh well, another pure cyclist “Bites the dust!”
Happy 4th of July! Please be safe, enjoy family and friends, don’t drink and drive, eat a lot of hot dogs, apple pie and corn on the cob, watch “A Capital 4th” on PBS, and watch fireworks either in person or on TV!
Greg
by Greg | Jun 30, 2019 | Training
Well now you know who flew for hours via Alaska Air, drove for two more hours in a rain storm and met me in Winona, MN! Words escape me when I try to describe my emotions when Anita got out of the car! It was like the joy and elation one feels on New Year’s Eve, Christmas, and a special birthday all celebrated on the same day! 😘😍😘😍😘😍
After visiting for a few hours, we got ready for bed. (Anita had been in St Louis visiting her cousins and also visiting our good friend from the North Slope, Steve Culbertson.) As I walked by the bathroom mirror I noticed my left eyelid was beginning to swell up. We went to bed not knowing the reason for my “monkey like” eyelids. When I got up to shower on Friday the area above and below my eye was REALLY swollen! We debated about heading to an Urgent Care, but after searching the internet for a possible cause and treatment, we decided to just try warm compresses. The swelling decreased a bit so we loaded my bike and gear into the car and headed west to Rochester where there was a Mayo Clinic Urgent Care. The swelling didn’t get any worse during the drive, so we headed to Red Wing, MN fifty miles north and located beside the Mississippi River. (Truly unexplainable as to why Anita arrived on the exact same day that I couldn’t ride due to a swollen eye!)
What a super special day we had just walking around Red Wing, watching the Mississippi River flow by our park bench, learning about the origin of the town’s name, eating delicious ice cream at the Red Wing Confectionery Company, and marveled at the beauty of a gorgeous sunset. Saturday morning my eye was less swollen, but we felt it prudent to keep driving towards Minneapolis. We think my swollen eye was the result of an encounter wit a tiny flying insect, but I could not find a mark near my eye. Who knows? (I felt a bit guilty driving instead of biking, but spending two days with the Love of my life takes away the guilt. This Journey is about Faith, Family and Friends, so time with family should never bring on feelings of guilt!)
Anita mentioned that visiting the Mall of America was on her bucket list, so we asked Ms. Google Maps to lead us to the MOA. The first photo on this post was taken in the LEGO store with Anita standing beside some full sized LEGO robot. Watching kids of all ages walking in “dreamland” brought thoughts of our OMJSN and how much they would have thrilled to be in the LEGO store. MOA is just another super gigantic mall with hundreds of stores, but also a Disneyland like experience for visitors from all over the world. We saw families enjoying roller coasters, carousels, stomach churning Tilt-A-Whirl type rides and Magic Mountain log rides. Wow, what an experience and a fun way to get our 10,000 steps in for the day.
As I looked through photos on my iPhone I found the above photo. I found the above photo of a mural and two girls painting it while pedaling through the tiny town of Norwalk, Wisconsin. I rode over and introduced myself to the girls, thinking they probably had been told thousands of times, “Don’t talk to strangers!” To my relief, both girls were thrilled to talk about their art work. Both are in high school and OFF for the summer, but they chose to spend their free time painting the mural, a high school art class summer project. Both said they wanted visitors driving through Norwalk to experience something out of the ordinary and memorable. I asked how long it would take them to finish painting and one of them said, “I’m not really sure because even though this is a high school art class project, everyone in town has been helping with the painting. We have our town elders, elementary students, Mom’s with babies on their back and even strangers who just want to help!” Creating a beautiful, cheerful mural instead of graffiti is one way the students and citizens of Norwalk are showing the world that Norwalk is a warm, friendly and cheerful place to live and visit. Way to go Norwalk and thanks for making my brief visit one I will long remember.
I want to share one more reflection on an earlier post. I talked about how grateful I was that I had met Jeanette Hasse. Jeanette took in a stranger and gave me shelter from a rain storm in her son’s Missouri Tavern just outside Madison, MN. As it turns out my good friend and former colleague at HAP, Sheri McIntire, know Jeanette very well! Travis, the owner of The Missouri Tavern and son of Jeanette, is the best friend of Sheri’s brother. Sheri grew up in the area, rode the Elroy/Sparta trail while in high school 10 years ago 😍, and both her parents, Almarie and Rich, work seasonally for HAP in the summer. Our world is an extremely small place and it is hard for me to explain how such unusual encounters occur over and over on this Journey of ours.
Today was just like when my son Jeremy and I said goodbye two weeks ago. Anita and I enjoyed a super breakfast at the Cornerstone Cafe in Monticello, mounted my panniers onto my bicycle, filled water bottles and then we hugged each other for what seemed like hours. She drove off in the rental car towards Minneapolis and I pedaled west towards North Dakota. Anita loves the below quote, but it took ten miles of riding for my tears to dry! Anita is the love of my life, and the bright light at the end of every “tunnel” I have encountered. Her brief visit will live forever as one of my fondest memories of this journey. Thank you my love!
As always, thank you all for your kind thoughts and continual moral support!
Greg
by Greg | Jun 26, 2019 | Training
For some reason, I have never liked rain. It doesn’t matter if I am in Hawaii, Anchorage, Tucson, or anywhere else in the world! Maybe it is the result of the ten summers I worked in “Wettier,” I mean Whittier. Anyway, as I rode north out of Madison, Wisconsin, Mother Nature decided I needed another refreshing rain storm. Just as the big rain drops started falling, I spotted The Missouri Tavern maybe 200 yards ahead of me. The tavern was closed, but as I rolled into the parking lot a lady was exiting the rear door. I asked her if I could take shelter under the covered deck! She said, “Why of course, no problem at all.” After the rain let up I knocked on the back door so I could thank her for the use of the deck shelter. Jeanette invited me, a perfect stranger, into the bar to visit. She offered me a glass of water, use of the restroom and we talked about our families and life in southern Wisconsin. I learned the history of The Missouri Tavern, her son’s distillery operation, his Apple Pie whiskey and her life in the area. Eventually the rain stopped completely and we said our goodbyes. Jeanette is yet another Giver I have encountered on this journey. Yes, there really are special people in this country.
Even though I detest rain, wild flowers, corn and alfalfa love a gentle rain. Flowers constantly remind me of the love of my life, Anita, so as I pedal along I always have her on my mind.
Wisconsin may be known for the Green Bay Packers and cheese curds, but the bicycle trails are fabulously! Back in 1873, the above trail and bridge were constructed by the Chicago and North Western railway. This particular trail, The Elroy-Sparta Trail, is 32miles long and most of the time I was totally alone.
Am I back in Whittier? No this is a 1,625 foot long former train tunnel that the Elroy trail now passes through! Top photo is the start and bottom photo is looking back at the entrance! Look closely and you can just make out the entrance, the tiny white dot. (The red is my blinking tail light.) Water dripping down from ceiling, absolute total darkness, iPhone flashlight just to see one foot in front of my wheel, had to walk due to slippery wet trail, water on both sides of trail, and a temperature drop from 85 to 55! I am not claustrophobic, but entering the tunnel after reading the BAT advisory, I was a bit apprehensive! “I am on a journey to discover new and interesting things,” I kept telling myself! At the same time I was thinking back on my years as a teacher. “Man, this would be the ultimate school field trip!” Just imagine the creepy, scary, unimaginable tales I could tell the kids as we walked through the historic train tunnel! Critters lurking in the dark ahead and behind, slimy things in the water beside the trail, flying “things” above our heads watching our every move, what was making the trail so squishy, and bears LOVE deep dark caves! Oh come on now, do you really think this kind hearted man would ever do such things? I was kind of glad, but sad as well, to come to the end of the tunnel. Walking through the tunnel gives new meaning to the phrase, “Light at the end of the tunnel!
I know this is a long post, but I have good WiFi tonight, so just a few more reflections. There wasn’t cafe in Wilton, Wisconsin this morning, so I drank Motel coffee, ate a few Newtons and hit the road. At 9:00am I arrived in Norwalk only to find the cafe I had found on Google was out of business. As I was about to enter the trail I was to follow today, I noticed a sign for Bailey’s Diner! The diner didn’t open until 10:00, but the kind lady inside motioned for me to come on in. Talk about a surprise, but the tiny Bailey Diner was a small Mexican food diner. The waitress, daughter of the owner, spoke great English and gave me the paper menu which was written in Spanish! Oh how I wish my good friend Pedro had been with me instead of working on the dock in Whittier! I recognized frijoles and burrito and as most of you know I LOVE bean burritos! Maria brought out the HOT green chili sauce and said, “Most people think this is too hot, but maybe you want to try it?” Almost as good as the Hatch green chili from Paco and Ma’s in Tucson! Maria even wrapped up a few extra handmade tortillas for my snack later in the day. I finished my ice cold bottle of Jarritos – Mango flavor, and using my limited Spanish said, “Adios and muchas gracias!” What a totally unexpected and welcome find in South Central Wisconsin!
“Can’t go over it, can’t go around it, gotta go under it!” I was able to push the front part of my bike through, climb over and then pull my bike the rest of the way! Oh the challenges of bicycle touring!
Back in the late 90’s as a driver/guide for Princess Tours, we were cautioned about “dash trash” by Kathy Pierce, Anchorage Transportation Manager. Well fast forward to 2019 and I have my own “dash trash.” The Fig Newtons fit perfectly on my handle bars and since I graze all day long, “dash trash” is allowed on this vehicle! (Also, if I stopped to munch, the tiny gnats/mosquitoes would attack both my Newtons and me. If I ride above 5 mph, the critters stay always!)
“Mississississ… oops, too many crooked letters! Snowstorm and I have crossed the mighty Mississippi River and are in La Cresent, Minnesota! My next post will hopefully include photos of a very special person in my life’s! Stay tuned for!
As always, thanks for your comments, support and motivation! I am doing the pedaling, but all of you are giving me the mental strength to keep on pedaling!
PS. (I even ate cheese curds last night and they were like eating crusty melted cheese!)
Greg
by Greg | Jun 22, 2019 | Training
I stated in my last post that I would describe the most fantastic day of my Journey so far in this edition. Well, my unbelievable son Jeremy, gave up family time and vacation days, so he could fly to Detroit, drive to Port Huron and meet me for three days of bicycle touring. Words cannot begin to describe my emotions when we started pedaling west from Port Huron last Tuesday morning. We last cycled together back in 1994, he was only 14 at the time, when we rode our bicycles from Seattle, Washington to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I will never forget the look of joy on his face when we pulled onto Doe Lane and saw Nano, my Mom, waiting for us in front of her house. Anyway, as with all parents, Anita and I dreamed that our kids, Michelle and Jeremy, would grow and mature into loving, caring, successful and thoughtful parents themselves. Michelle and Jeremy, have exceeded our hopes and dreams. Oh how blessed Anita and I are that our dreams have come true.
Jeremy and I were able to ride together from Port Huron to Grand Rapids, Michigan. We pedaled along with Jeremy in the lead and me tucked in behind him. (Drafting really does make a huge difference.) We shared memories of our last tour, dodged all kinds of “road kills,” waved at the ever present grandpa’s on their riding lawnmowers, scanned the road ahead for broken glass, looked sadly at flooded fields planted with corn that should be at least “knee high by the 4th of July,” and created new memories on our new journey! The first two days were filled with sunshine, awesome trails, magnificent scenery and Ms. Catherine’s St. John’s Motel!
Ms. Catherine’s establishment is a throw back to the Route 66 motels of the 50’s and 60’s. Every square inch of space in each room was filled with snowmen, heart shaped shelves, Christmas decorations, flower print pillows galore, stuffed “animals,” placards with biblical quotes, and a gorgeous red Christmas sweater. Jeremy would have loved to have brought home the sweater for an “Ugly sweater Christmas party,” but no room in his panniers. I think Ms. Catherine collected her treasures over a life time of estate and garage sales. With all her “finds” she quickly ran out of room in her own home, so she bought a 12 room motel in order to display her treasures. At one point, Jeremy who is 5’ 11” attempted to walk into the extremely tiny bathroom. Luckily he ducked his head at the last moment or he would have had a sore forehead. Low ceilings, creaking floors, air conditioners that sounded like jet engines, and shower stalls that brought back memories of The Bates’ Motel and Norman! When I manually filled out the registration book, Ms. Catherine asked if we could pay cash since her credit card machine had not worked for some time. “No problem, and if we don’t have enough cash between us right now, we’ll find an ATM,” I said. “Oh, just stop by before you leave and settle up your bill,” she cheerfully replied. I asked about room keys, but she said, “Oh, we don’t lock the rooms, but the keys are in the room somewhere.” I never found a key in my room. She gave us the WiFi password, but it was so slow I could not open my Gmail page, LOL. I am sure Ms. Catherine is the owner, manager, housekeeper, maintenance person and interior designer of the motel, even though there was a Mister on a handwritten note of phone numbers taped to the front door. She told me she was battling cancer and the subsequent side effects, but she was not going to let cancer prevent her holding on to her dream of owning and operating her beloved St. John’s Motel. Jeremy and I will both long remember our night at Ms. Catherine’s St. John’s Motel.
Our last day of riding proved to be a memorable, wet and soggy experience. Rain, rain and more rain stayed with us for the first five hours. A generous grocery store clerk gave us plastic bags for our feet which turned out useless, but was a thoughtful gesture. I placed quart size Ziplock bags over my gloves, we both donned our rain jackets, smiled at each other and started pedaling west. As you can see from the above photo, the State of Michigan provided us with a fabulous, hard packed gravel bicycle trail which was many years ago a railway. We tried to avoid the puddles for awhile, but eventually just enjoyed splashing each other by hitting the bigger puddles. At the end of our last day we both agreed that our rainy day just added one more fabulous memory to our shared bicycle journey. On Friday Jeremy loaded his bicycle and gear into a rental car, I loaded up my bicycle for another day of riding, and then we hugged each other for what seemed like forever. I have to admit that as I watched him drive away back to Detroit, tears of joy and pride filled my eyes. At one point as we pedaled along I tried to express to Jeremy how thankful I was that he would give up so much just to spend time with me. He replied, “I know a man who has done the same thing many times.” Never have I been so proud to be a Dad! One last comment about Jeremy’s visit and then I will stop babbling. I can’t tell Brittany, Jeremy’s wife, how much I love her and appreciate the sacrifices she lovingly accepted so that Jeremy could spend time with me. We are so blessed that Brittany entered our lives as the loving life partner of Jeremy and mother of Jack, Sadie Lynn and Nathan. (She even agreed to add a new puppy to her already over flowing household.)
Goodbye Michigan and Hello Wisconsin. I cheated today and racked up 86 miles traveling across Lake Michigan via the high speed Lake Express ferry. Cheers and I will never get tired of reading your comments to my posts. Thank you and Happy June Solstice!
Greg
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