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.