And Then There Were Six Stockholm, WI to Woodbury, MN
As has been the case lately, my morning began pretty early … well, by my standards anyway. I was up and packed by 7:30 AM. I wasn’t planning on leaving right away but I figured I was up so I might as well get everything put together.
When I wandered over to the house, Martha was busy making pancakes. I can’t be sure but Martha might be part machine … I don’t know how she manages all the things that are going on at the farm. PLUS, there was an addition through the night. Actually, there were five additions in the wee hours of the morning.
Hours-old puppies
With the puppy census complete, the focus shifted to breakfast. A feast of pancakes with homemade maple syrup, homemade yoghurt, homemade tapioca pudding, Not surprisingly, it was all fantastic.
Making butter!
With the butter made (or at least the major task completed), Martha had to take her kids swimming and I had to get on the road. It was definitely one of the most active and interactive Warm Showers experiences I’ve had.
In terms of getting back on the road, the goal for the day was to head back into Minnesota towards St. Paul. Most of my ride was spent in Wisconsin, although I later found out that the Minnesota side wasn’t as hilly and had better views of the Mississippi River. There were definitely some long climbs on the Wisconsin side but in the grand scheme of things they weren’t TOO bad. Nothing that required shifting into the granny gear.
Welcome to Minnesota. Again.
The biggest challenge of the day was navigation based after I arrived back in Minnesota. Neither Google nor Garmin had a solution to the road closure I encountered on Highway 95 and 110th St. Since I’ve been able to ride through road closures in the past I thought I’d check it out … even though it was about a 2 km gamble. As frequently happens when I gamble, I lost. Big. On the upside, I certainly can’t say that I didn’t investigate all my options to circumvent the closure. On the downside, circumventing was not an option. I was going to have to backtrack and find another way. Spoiler Alert: I did.
Hmmmmm …
Eventually I made it around all the obstacles and arrived at the home of my hosts, Becky and David. Not surprisingly, they were incredibly welcoming and generous. David and I enjoyed a large bowl of freshly made popcorn and discussed all sorts of things including my route for the coming days. Essentially, I needed to make a decision – would I go around or through the Minneapolis-St. Paul area? It was a decision that could wait.
Becky prepared a fantastic dinner and it was topped off when David asked, “Do you want a banana split?” I’m pretty sure I looked at him blankly for a moment to process what he just said. I mean, I heard the words but they were so unexpected. Once I returned to moment I confirmed that yes, I would very much like a banana split.
As ways to the end a day go … a banana split is a pretty great one. And I can say with no uncertainty that that was my first banana split while on any of my previous cycling tours.
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- The road ahead
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- The road behind
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- Lunch in Prescott, WI.
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- Sadness is realizing you didn’t buy crunchy peanut butter
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- That’s Minnesota on the other side of the river
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- I tried but pedalling around this wasn’t an option
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- It wasn’t an option here either.
Today’s totals:
Distance: 93.76 km
Ride time: 4:19:47
Average speed: 21.65 km/h
Maximum speed: 64.28 km/h
Wisconsin Redux Winona, MN to Stockholm, WI
After spending just one night in Minnesota, I unexpectedly found myself planning a not-quite-immediate return to Wisconsin. No, that’s not a judgment on Minnesota. Or Wisconsin for that matter. It was merely a logistical happenstance that occurred when a Warm Showers host responded to my request this morning. Wisconsin, here I come. Again.
Hello, Wisconsin. Again.
The plan for the day was actually very similar to my ride from Onslow, IA to Dubuque, IA with a brief detour to the Field of Dreams Movie Site. No, I wasn’t going to Chisholm, MN to find Moonlight Graham. But I would be stopping at another movie site. It’s funny, I certainly didn’t intend for this tour to be a pilgrimage to midwest movie sites but it’s kind of turning into that. Although, in reality it’s just a coincidence. In the case of today’s stop, I actually completely forgot about the theatrical connection to Wabasha, MN. Today was a reminder.
The ride from Winona to Wabasha was to be about 60 km (much like from Onslow, IA to Dyersville, IA) and the subsequent final portion of the ride back to Wisconsin was about 35 km (much like from Dyersville, IA to Dubuque, IA). As luck would have it, most of today’s ride came with a tailwind.
Trail of Gnats. Trust me – they’re there.
After escaping the flying protein clouds, I found myself back on regular roads heading north to Wabasha. At one point, another cyclist out for his daily ride caught up with me and we chatted for a bit. It turns out, this was actually his first ride in several months beyond the city limits as he recently had his knee replaced. He seemed happy to be pedalling again. Anyway, I told him of my not-at-all direct route to the Grand Canyon and he said, “That sounds pretty great.” He then asked if was travelling alone or meeting up with other cyclists along the way. I said that all my trips have been solo endeavours to which he responded, “That sounds pretty great, too!” I couldn’t help myself and simply said, “Yeah. It is.”
The road from Winona
To say that my ride to Wabasha was easy would be quite the understatement. The terrain was more than manageable and the wind was mostly quite cooperative. Days like that don’t happen to me very often. I was sure not to under-appreciate it. In fact, I even made note of my totals after the first leg of today’s ride:
Midway totals:
Distance: 63.91 km
Ride time: 2:33:13
Average speed: 25.03 km/h (by far, the fastest average speed on this tour)
Maximum speed: 40.24 km/h
“Moron.” “Putz.”
Stop number two was Slippery’s Tavern & Ristorante … Home of the Grumpy Old Men. It’d be more accurate to say that the Slippery’s in the movie was inspired by this place as the scenes in the movie weren’t actual shot inside this location … that certainly doesn’t stop the marketing of it though. Again, this is sort of Minnesota’s answer to the Rocky Steps.
Given that it was lunch time, I’m essentially a grumpy old man, and I was standing outside Slippery’s, it only made sense to go inside for lunch. So I did. A Slippery burger, fries, and a beer (Fulton Standard) later, and I was once again nourished. Actually, I was still a bit hungry but I find it’s pretty hard to fill me up these days.
Souvenirs
Despite riding in the sun all morning, clouds had moved in while I ate lunch – that’s what I get for stopping! Anyway, I was only on the road a few minutes when the drops started. Fortunately, right at that moment there was a driveway with a temporary garage/shelter just calling out to me. I answered. And I answered for about 15 minutes. After that the mini storm had blown through and the rain had stopped. I figured I still had about two hours left on the road so I set out once again hoping there would be no further rain.
My final destination for the day was a farm in Stockholm, WI. And just like my first arrival in Wisconsin, I was once again greeted with a sign. Wisconsin was 2 for 2 on the signage front.
Waiting out the rain in Wabasha, MN
My hopes for a dry ride to end the day were dashed about 7 km from Stockholm. On the upside, I didn’t get ambushed by a torrential downpour and just a steady rain for about 3 km. In all honesty, it felt pretty good as it had been a hot day. Plus, despite the general flat terrain of the day, I had been warned that there was a 400′ climb to get to the farm so cooling off a bit before that climb was likely a bit beneficial.
I should probably just type “The end.” now but I’m getting close to the end so bear with me for a bit longer. Or not. You have free will, you can do as you choose.
So apparently you chose to keep with me a bit longer. Ok, I’ll try to be brief.
My hosts for the night were Martha and Geoffrey – although, Geoffrey worked nights so essentially it was all Martha. And Martha was great. So knowledgeable and not just about all things farming, cows, chickens, eggs, making cheese – I learned so much about making cheese (and have since forgotten so much about making cheese) and I even got to sample some of Martha’s homemade cheese – SO good. Oh … and she was making peanut butter and jam cookies, too (yes, you read that right.) Also SO good. Anyway, she was really interesting to meet and talk with about so many topics. And she and Geoffrey are very generous and welcoming hosts – so much so that in addition to hosting me, they’d also offered to host two other cyclists who didn’t arrive until after 9:30.
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- Not Devils Tower
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- The road from Winona
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- National Eagle Center
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- Welcome to Slippery’s
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- A not-so-grumpy old man
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- I’m home. All I need now is a Jack Lemmon, Ann-Margret, and Sophia Loren
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- Cheers!
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- Ahhhhh.
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- The Famous Slippery Burger
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- Good former lunch
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- More souvenirs
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- Still waiting out the rain
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- Goodbye, Minnesota
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My home for the night
aka. The box
It turns out they had also stayed with Dave in Ashkum, IL where my name and trip were discussed. They had also stayed at Frances’ farm in Indiana. And they had seen my name in the guest book at the city park in Wenona, IL. It was pretty odd. And amusing. They seemed very happy that they had caught up with me.
The end.
Today’s totals:
Distance: 98.75 km
Ride time: 4:13:51
Average speed: 23.34 km/h
Maximum speed: 46.48 km/h
A Catch Up Day La Crosse, WI to Winona, MN
Not every day is full of blog-worthy tales of adventure. Despite my frequent babbling, the argument could be made that MANY days are lacking of blog-worthy tales of adventure. And yet I write. Side note: I just had remove a bug from my screen and apparently I was bit too aggressive as I now have to remove bug guts from my screen. Sigh.
Insert passage of time transition and appropriate sound effect here.
Okay, bug guts have been removed from my screen … on with the update. For a few reasons, today was a short riding day. Partially due to wind, partially due to accommodation limitations, and partially because I really needed to take time to get caught up (again) on my updates. It really is remarkable how quickly things fall behind.
My goal for the day was to get to Winona, MN (not to be confused with Wenona, IL from a week earlier). Winona was less than 60 km away making it seem hardly worth a day’s ride. However, despite the short ride, the day would include moving on to another previously uncycled (not a word) state (by me, anyway). Minnesota, here I come.
Mississippi River
After the aforementioned initial climb was over it was pretty easy riding before reaching a somewhat matching decline near the end of the ride. Yes, the headwind did take some of the fun out of the descent but it was still good. Certainly better than a climb with a headwind, at least. Although, I guess that’s pretty obvious.
My arrival in Winona meant that I needed to address the lack of accommodation that I was facing. The good news was there were several Warm Showers hosts in Winona. The bad new was they were either already hosting people or not available at all. Considering I wanted to do a fair bit of writing, I really didn’t think a Warm Showers stay was appropriate anyway. For the same reason, I was hesitant to go to the local campground because typing while sitting cross-legged in a tent for extended hours isn’t exactly ideal. As such, I deemed it would be a motel night.
The motel in question was the Sugar Loaf Motel. It certainly wasn’t a four star place (or a three … or a … well, you get the idea) but it had everything I needed – including surprisingly fast internet access – and the room was less than half the price of the franchise establishments in the area (i.e. Holiday Inn Express, Super 8 and other such entities).
Home for the night
Of course, it would be four days later before I would actually get around to typing up THIS update. But it’s now typed and I can move on to the next one. No rest for the wicked.
Today’s totals:
Distance: 58.96 km
Ride time: 2:46:10
Average speed: 21.28 km/h
Maximum speed: 52.92 km/h
A Classic Old Fashioned Bagley, WI to La Crosse, WI
I MAY have stayed here.
But I may NOT have stayed here too.
As rides go, the first seven minutes of this one went really well. Then it stopped. Not by my doing – well, I guess technically it was my doing in that I applied the brakes to stop my bike. The reason for stop was entirely out of my control. I hate that feeling.
Remember those train tracks that were right next to my campsite? Well, those same tracks intersect the road that leads from the campground (and neighbouring community) to the main highway. And, not-so-hypothetically speaking, if a train decides to stop and block that intersection there isn’t much one can do. There’s also not much SEVERAL can do for that matter and I was not the only one trapped by the train. We had to wait it out. I actually considered unloading my bike and carrying all my gear between the train cars but I suspected that would’ve been frowned upon. Besides, how long could the wait possibly be?
I wonder how long this will be here?
One person didn’t have overly pressing matters but really wanted to go for her 2-mile run. And that’s how I met Mary. Mary arrived at the crossing not long after me. We chatted for the next hour about, well … a whole lot of things – after all, we had a lot of time on our hands.
With my early departure I was really hoping to reach the next town (Prairie du Chien) by 7:30 AM. Not that I NEEDED to be there by then … it was strictly a “how early can I get there” sort of scenario. The answer was clearly “Not as early as you thought!”
70-minutes later.
For the record, even though I was on the wrong side of the tracks, I’m not going to admit to actually staying at the River of Lakes Campground. Yeah, I know … posting photos probably won’t help that argument. The only reason I mention this is that I MAY not have exactly paid the full fare for my site last night. Or any portion thereof. But it wasn’t really my fault. I mean, when I was in the office the previous afternoon I was told to go look for a site. Can I help it if the office closed early for fourth of July festivities thus making it impossible for me to pay last night? Can I help it if I was on the road before the office opened this morning? Yes, those are both rhetorical. Or, at the very least, the answer to both is, “No!”
And so, there I stood. Trying to make my escape. Blocked by a train. Sigh.
Today’s Destination: La Crosse, WI
From Granddad’s Bluff
I’d say fast-forward 70-minutes but there was nothing fast about that 70-minutes. And clearly there was no forward movement. That said, it was great chatting with Mary during that time … had I been there on my own I may have gone mad. So thank you to Mary. Side note: I’m reasonably confident that had there been no one else around I SO would’ve taken my chances and moved my gear between the train cars. I mean, it’s not like trains make jackrabbit starts.
It was around 7:20 AM when the train finally cleared the intersection and everyone was able to resume their journey. On the surface, everyone seemed to be in reasonably good spirits – under the circumstances. What everyone was ACTUALLY feeling, well … who knows. All I know is I was glad to be rolling again.
Lynxville. First stop after leaving Prairie du Chien.
With the mostly-necessary provisions replenished, I got back on the road. Destination: La Crosse, WI. About 100 km away. Well, it was 100 km away from my current location. Since I had already done about 25 km to get to Prairie du Chien, I was looking at a 125 km day.
For the most part, the ride to La Crosse was pretty easy. After a couple of days of sort-of-favourable winds, there was a headwind for most of the ride but, fortunately, nothing drastic. My first stop ended up being in Lynxville, about 30 km from Walmart. Specifically, my stop was at a roadside snack bar called The Dawg House. As one might expect, they had hot dogs, burgers, fries, ice cream. All the good stuff you’d expect from such a location. Despite the tempting aroma coming from the small kitchen, I ended up having some peanut butter on a tortilla wrap from my recently replenished supplies.
Maybe it’s me, but this looks creepy.
My hosts for the evening were Taylor and Cami. And they were great. Prior to Cami’s return home, Taylor took me around town to see some of the sights including Granddad Bluff Park and Pearl Street Brewery. The former provided great views. The latter provided great beers. An excellent combination for an excellent afternoon.
After dinner, Taylor and Cami took me into town where we wandered around for a bit before we enjoyed a beer on the roof of The Charmant Hotel. The evening later ended with Wisconsin’s state cocktail: a Classic Old Fashioned (my first ever) at Schmidty’s Bar & Grill. For a brief moment I got to pretend I was Don Draper (which only means something if you’ve watched Mad Men) … then it was back to reality where I am pretty much the polar opposite of Don Draper. For better or worse.
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- Beer on the roof
Even though the day got off to a bit of a slow start, it ended up being yet another great day. Except for that giant hot dog … I still think it’s leaning towards being creepy!
Today’s totals:
Distance: 124.18 km
Ride time: 5:45:57
Average speed: 21.53 km/h
Maximum speed: 57.97 km/h
Happy Independence Day Dubuque, IA to Bagley, WI
Today’s ride got off to a great start thanks to directions from my Warm Showers host to get me to the bridge that would take me to Wisconsin … State #6 of this tour. Great directions can never be overlooked especially considering the route that Google wanted me to take. In fact, Google was so insistent on its route that I couldn’t even force it to go the way that I had been recommended by, you know, a human. A human that actually rides a bike.
Hello, Wisconsin!
Despite Wisconsin being the sixth state on my trek, it was the first one that offered a welcome sign. I was practically giddy when I saw it. Ok, no I wasn’t. But I suspected there wouldn’t be a lot of photo stops on today’s ride so I was happy that this one presented itself.
Other than getting into Wisconsin, I really didn’t know how far I would be riding for the day. I certainly didn’t have any accommodation arrangements made. It was definitely going to be one of those “make it up as you go along” sort of days.
Goodbye, Iowa.
I arrived in Cassville, WI (just under 70 km from where I started) in about three hours. Considering the aforementioned climbs, I was more than happy with that. At that point I somewhat decided to make Bagley, WI my destination for the day. It was only another 30 km away which I figured would give me plenty of time to find accommodation. Worst case scenario, there was a city park which I figured would be a potential wild camping opportunity.
The remaining 30 km included one more longish climb and one more longish descent – with pretty much a level plateau in between. With the wind being somewhat favourable, it was a very easy 30 km.
The ups and downs of my day
As I coasted into town it became apparent very quickly that my plan to wild camp at the city park was not going to happen. Why? Well, it would seem they have a small rodeo in said park on the fourth of July. And today was the fourth of July. I needed a new plan.
In addition to being a small town, Bagley seemed to be in somewhat of a void when it came to cell service. Well, at least for my phone anyway. As such tracking down accommodation was made a bit more challenging. I actually suspected that might happen so prior to leaving Cassville I contacted a campground on the other side of Bagley to see if they had any tent sites available. Unfortunately, my phone didn’t want to connect with them so I had to send an e-mail and hope for service down the road. As mentioned, that service wasn’t there.
Home
Given it was the holiday weekend, the campground was pretty full. And given that I was offered no information as to which sites were deemed tent sites and which ones weren’t, it was bit unclear as to where I might be permitted to setup my home.
I eventually ended up chatting with a group of campers that were more than a little curious about my bike and tour. I didn’t get any of their names because, well … there were a lot of them and I likely wouldn’t have remembered. But they were all very nice and were able to direct me to a site I would eventually call home for the night. And yes, there was a picnic table.
It was still pretty early in the afternoon by the time my tent was setup but I opted to make supper anyway. The hills of the day were far from excruciating but I still was more than a little hungry. I didn’t see the need to postpone pulling out my alcohol stove for another not-great-but-not-terrible bowl of pasta. And that would definitely be a good description of the resulting meal.
Not-great-but-not-terrible pasta
Funnily enough, the toughest part of the day came after my ride was over. The toughest part of my day actually came after supper (i.e. late lunch) was consumed, dishes washed, and stove once again packed away. The toughest part of the day was actually boredom.
It was probably around 4:30 PM when the food portion of my day ended. In an ideal scenario I would’ve sat at the picnic table and worked on my blog until the battery of my laptop expired. The problem was the bugs. There were a lot of them. And they really seemed to enjoy my company. It was not a mutual feeling. I thought my bug spray might’ve given them the hint that their presence wasn’t welcome but apparently they were immune to such a fragrance. Now you may be thinking, “Why not work on your blog in the safety of your tent?” Well, that would’ve been great except that it was still a very hot day and, even in the shade, my tent had essentially become a sauna. So there were my options, sit a picnic being hounded by bugs. Or sit in my tent and melt into a pool of goo. With neither of those options seeming pleasant, I spent much of the next multiple hours wandering around the campground until the sun went down. It was a lot of walking.
The trains (two tracks) are just on the other side of those trees
As is always the case, the sun eventually dropped near and then below the horizon and some of the heat dissipated shortly thereafter. My tent was once again habitable. And inhabit it I did. And much to my surprise I actually drifted off for a bit. In fact, it was the fourth of July fireworks that woke me. Although, only long enough for me to roll over and go back to sleep. Despite the early hour, it was clear that my day/night was over.
Today’s totals:
Distance: 108.09 km
Ride time: 5:00:00
Average speed: 21.61 km/h
Maximum speed: 58.85 km/h