Chicago 2009

The Mississippi River in North Dakota where it flows as slowly as molasses.

Lutheran Church in which we stayed for the night during a big storm in Chester, MT.

Bird Island in Flathead Lake, MT

Rest and Relaxation in Chicago

Morgan Hubach and Barb Hanson at Japanese Garden in Chicago Botanical Gardens

At the Blue Moose in East Grand Rapids, ND with Joan and Dennis Johnson.
Camping in the backyard of "Karen, the Librarian" in Glasgow, MT with four other cyclists who were heading west.
The long FLAT road into North Dakato.
Lucy and Bike Friday at the North Dakota border.
Ray, Montana. Our stuff hanging to try in the trailer where we stayed out of the rain for a night by the grace of the c-store clerk's boyfiend.
Church at the Scandinavia Heritage Center in Minot, ND.
William Riggins, Barb Hanson, Alexandra Riggins, and Lucy at Minot. William and Alexandra have been bicycling the world for 12 years.
Field of canola in bloom (rapeseed)
Geographic center of North America in Rugby, ND (I'll figure out how to turn the picture someday :-)
I'm enjoying a week of "rest and relaxation" in Chicago with my long time friend Morgan Hubach. Morgan's idea of resting in Chicago is "go, go, go!"~and most of it by foot since he doesn't have a car. Yesterday we rode our bicycles 36 mile round trip to the Botanical Gardens north of Chicago. Playing in traffic on a bicycle, Chicago style is quite a trip! I lost my chain twice hitting potholes~but the motorists were very courteous. They seem quite accustomed to cyclists and perhaps~they just don't want to do the paperwork if they hit one.

Since my last blog, we spent a layover day in Minot, ND a delightful little prairie town with a Scandinavian bent. We toured the Heritage Center built in honor of Dave Hanson's ancestors. At the library we met a couple who have been bicycle touring for twelve years! They virtually live on their bicycles and sing for their supper daily. I love this three month journey, but twelve years, I don't think so.

As we left eastern North Dakota, the operational word became "FLAT." I could see the horizon for 360 degrees. Most of the time we had a tailwind. But one day with no wind at all was like being in a spinning class at the gym for seven hours. Lots of people along the road honk and give me an encouraging thumbs up!

In Rugby, ND we stopped at the "geographic center of North America" for a picture and lunch. These little midwestern towns are absolutely clean~no junk or weeds anyplace.

From Rugby we rode to Devil's Lake only to find that a big fishing tournament had every motel and camping spot in two counties filled. So I gave one motel owner the very forlorn look I have stowed away for just such an occasion and asked if we could camp on his grass. He said, "This parking lot is my grass. Those guys with their boats will run right over you." Then he got on his phone and call another motel owner who has an open grassy field back of his motel. He consented happily to letting us camp there as long as we took a corner out of sign of his patrons. He doesn't want to start a trend. Well, the grassy field was brimming with mosquitoes! I whipped out the DEET again and gave myself a quick rub down. After throwing up our tents we went looking for a shower at a truck stop only to find that the shower was taken out in February. So we comanderred the women's restroom for thirty minutes to do a spit bath! I stopped at Walmart on the way back to camp and bought a "camp fogger" which I generously sprayed from the road to my tent to save me from being devoured by mosquitoes. It worked! and I'm alive to tell about it!

Leaving Devil's Lake we had a headwind so made it a short day to Lakota, ND. Then our wonderful tailwind from the west kicked in again. We rode 70 miles to East Grand Forks, Minnnesota where we camped in a lovely city park in the greenway they are establishing along the Red River in the flood zone. Thanks to Dave Hanson and Kim Mason, we contacted and had dinner with Joan and Dennis Johnson, Dave's sis and bro-in-law. They took us to the Blue Moose Saloon where we became quite the celebrities. I ordered Walleye for dinner~the best fish I've had in years. The owner even invited us back for breakfast on him the next morning.

Once into Minnesota, the flat green landscape gave way to "rolling" green landscape and neat farms with red barns. Just outside of Bemiji, MN we came upon a man from Canada who is walking across America, pulling a rickshaw type trailer loaded with 200 lbs of his stuff. Now that is just plain crazy! He walks about 20 miles daily and seems to get his picture on the front page of many local newspapers. After Bemiji, MN the landscape turned into pedaling through an endless green tunnel with the never-arriving horizon in the distance. Now, I'm counting roadkill~painted turtles, racoons, skunks, little brown birds, snakes, cats, and an occasional white tailed deer.

When we arrived in Grand Rapids, MN after a 78-mile day with no wind (like a 7-hour spin class) we rolled into a motel. The owner took one look at both of us and gave us a very nice room. He said, "You looked like you needed a good rest!" We draped our tents (which were dripping wet from 91% humidity last night) over the plastic chairs outside the motel room to day and went to dinner.

At the resturant we encountered a group of "red hat ladies." They were a hoot! Everyone of them had a red hat made from a red bra. They had each lavishly decorated their bra to disguise it (or not). They had everyone rolling with laughter and snapping pictures as they paid their bills and exited the establishment.

Our final day of riding before Morgan picked us up was to be to Duluth, but I was so tired after riding five days of 60-70 miles that I said, "UNCLE" in Floodwood, 25 miles short of Duluth. We booked a couple of motel rooms and Morgan arrived about 10 pm. We have pedaled 1,924 miles so far in forty-two days. We've had only four full rest days. We're camping about 2/3 of the time. Everyday it is a big adventure to start out with an estimated destination in mind and a hope that we'll find a place to camp or motel.

People, especially women, we run into along the way at rest stops, c-stores, etc. are truly amazed that two "little old ladies" will get on their bicycles loaded with all they need to survive and will themselves to the world. Some days I look at my legs and wonder how they keep pedaling without complaining at all. My ischial tuberosities, however, are complaining about the lack of padding so I had to buy two new pair of cycling shorts with thicker pads for the last half of the trip. I also have two new "slick" tires for my bike from Bike Friday. The knobbies that I have from Walmart really slow me down. But it is reassuring to know that I can get tires to fit my Bike Friday most anyplace that sells kids bikes.

North Dakota is Green and Rolling

We finally made it into North Dakota a couple of days ago. Montana is certainly the "widest" state in the Union. Amazingly, as soon as we crossed the North Dakota state line, the farms took on a different look and the people took on a different accent. North Dakota is rolling hills of green, green, wheat, barley and canola (rapeseed). Farms are manicured to the "T." People are smiling and helpful.

Yesterday was difficult with headwinds and rain. After only 34 miles we made it to the tiny town of Ray where there was no place to get out of the weather. At the c-store on the edge of town a clerk volunteered to let us stay in her boyfriend's trailer for $20. We didn't have water, but we had electricity and a roof over our heads. The trailer swayed in the wind and rain.

Today we awakened to blue sky and a 23-mph tailwind! The "Bicycle Gods" were smiling! I rode 96 miles in 6.5 hours (with rests). At times I sat up and just let the wind push me~no pedaling at 23 mph. What a trip! This is the best day of riding so far. It's a good thing we had a tailwind because there was absolutely no place to stay on this 96 mile stretch of Hwy 2. Due to the oil boom in ND, all the motels in the small towns are occupied by the oil well workers on a monthly basis. With the ferocious wind, setting up a tent would be a struggle. I tried to stop and take a picture but the wind was so strong, I couldn't even stand up, hold my bike and find my camera at the same time.

I love my I-Pod. The music and books on tape make the long miles fly by. I'm careful to keep the sound low enough that I can hear approaching traffic. I've also become heavily dependent upon my bike mirror. Bike Friday is holding up well. I did have one tire blow out at 1,200 miles. I neglected to rotate front and back when that "little voice" told me to do so. I have more on order at Morgan's in Chicago in a week.

We'll do a layover day here in Minot to work on our bikes and rest. Then eastward again hoping to be in Duluth in a week. More later~~~~~~Cycling Grandma Lucy

Still in Montana

Just a quick update from Montana, certainly the BIGGEST state in the nation~. We're in Malta taking time to shop, do washing, sleep in and cycling only 25 miles this afternoon to Saco. We did two very long days (87 and 67 miles each) under windy conditions (both head and tail winds) so we decided we needed a rest. Also there is virturally nothing between towns in which we stop to overnight. It's a lot of rolling hills for hundreds of miles.

We're still cycling along the railway and the Milk River. These small towns are wonderful. The people are curious about our journey and very helpful and friendly. We have seen about half a dozen other cyclists in the last 24 hours in Malta. Everyone has a common complaint: sore butt!

That's another good reason to take a short day. The librarian is closing in 3 minutes for lunch to bye to all. We've pedaled 1,067 miles as of today (day 26).

Day 24, July 6, 2009, Monday. Chester, MT. Here we are taking a weather-imposed, rest day in the middle of the "Big Sky" country and wheat fields of Montana. As we left a grocery store early this morning on our way out of a town, a local farmer's wife (Sue Violett) stopped us and said, "Have you ladies heard about the severe weather warnings for today?" Although we stayed in a motel last night, we didn't even turn on the TV~so accustomed to no TV~so we didn't see the news or weather. She said, "There will be hail and maybe a tornado this afternoon!" We're getting all our farm equipment into shelter right now!

With a sixty-mile day planned, we looked at each other and said, "Maybe we should stay put!". So Sue said, "You can stay at the Lutheran Church." She lead us there, opened the door and gave us a tour. It wasn't even locked! They never lock the church. So home is a church today. The Library has new computers, so I'm blogging. It may be October before we reach the east coast at this rate!

Since leaving Flathead Lake, we traveled along the Middle Fork of the Flathead River, crossing it many times along a back road. About five miles before our destination camp ground, the road turned to gravel! We stopped to eat lunch on the bridge over the river and began chatting with a guy who was swimming his dog. He offered to haul us and our gear over the dirt road to camp. Thank goodness! The road was uphill and wash boards all the way! The camp at we chose what we thought was a good tent site. As the evening progressed, two mammoth sized trucks with mobile homes parked next to us and began their banging, wheezing, jamming until late into the night. Lesson learned: choose a campsite on the grass instead of with the big rigs.

From there we traveled through Glacier National Park doing the southern route across Marias Pass. It was very easy compared to the Cascades. (Wow! It just started pouring rain outside the library~so happy to be inside!) In East Glacier, we stayed with Ranger Sam and his wife Jo. They fed us like royalty then took us on a mini-auto tour of "Two Medicine" in Glacier. DRAT! I forgot to take my camera. We did a short hike to "Falling Eagle" falls which look similar to Donut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon near SLC, only about four times a large. Both of our hosts gave us a wonderful running dialog of the history, geology, flora and fauna of the area. We also saw another Cinnamon Black Bear foraging for bugs along a little stream near the Two Medicine Campground.

Since leaving Glacier, we've been riding along Hwy 2 which parallels the railway from coast to coast. Consequently, I've enjoyed the whistling of many, many big train engines as I ride along. Yesterday, the "Fourth of July Holiday, California Zephyr" pulled by a real steam engine, roared passed me, tooting and whistling as I waved wildly from my bicycle. What a treat! I'm learning to love the comfort of the rumble and whistle of the trains day and night.

Despite this being a holiday weekend, the traffic along this stretch of Hwy 2 has been very light because it doesn't lead to any major destinations. So riding has been very pleasant. So far we've traveled 907 miles. I'm feeling very strong and healthy~oh~there goes another train whistling through town :-)