#29... North Dakota (Obama's 50th)

Saturday, June 27 – Red River State Recreational Area

Grand Forks, ND

We left Itasca State Park and headed out to Red River SRA.  Red River SRA is part of the Greater Grand Forks Greenway and is located in the city of East Grand Forks MN on the banks of Red River of the North and Red Lake River.  We were able to get a non-electric site for the night.  We took a bike ride around the Greenway in both MN and North Dakota, checking off another state (#29) on our list with our 3^rd two-states-in-one-ride on this trip.   We rode through the University of North Dakota which has a beautiful campus. Total bike miles  – 22.    

Shortly after our ride, a thunderstorm with tornado warnings rolled in.  Despite some heavy rain, thankfully no tornado.   I would really hate to see what a tornado could do to a RV campsite.  After the rain let up we took a short walk to dinner at the Blue Moose on the river front.  With the park in downtown Grand Forks, there was easy access to a lot of options.

Rainbow after the storm... and a guy with a full sized
 diesel tractor to pull his 5th-wheel

Sunday, Jun 28 – Graham’s Island State Park, Devils Lake, ND

Another morning of driving took us into North Dakota to Devils Lake, ND.  We needed to take care of laundry and shopping so made a stop in town before heading to Graham’s Island State Park. Unfortunately we ran into one of the last remaining bastions of “Blue Laws”.  ND still enforces a wide of array of retail sales restrictions on Sunday, so much so that most stores don’t even open until noon… Not even Walmart!!!  But by the time we had finished up laundry, it was past noon and we could stock up before heading to our camp site.

Devil’s Lake is ND’s largest natural lake and the second largest body of water in ND.  It is well known by sport fishermen for walleye and northern pike.  Too bad we don’t fish. But there were plenty of fishermen around.  We saw some of the largest RV parks we have seen and plenty of fishing boats in the area.  Grahams Island has close to 200 RV spots and they were completely full on Saturday night, but we had no problem getting a spot on Sunday.

Monday, June 29 – Cross Ranch State Park, ND

Humid, hazy morning

The morning started off with a tough 42 mile out and back ride.  It was very flat riding with humidity in the 90’s and 10 – 20 mph wind in our face for the first half of the ride.  The humidity was so thick the sun was just an red ball in the sky.  Not a lot to see, we were either on levy roadways which run through the lake or in farm country.  Our original plan was to ride around the entire lake, 65 miles, but with the stiff headwind the last 15-20 miles back to the RV could have been a very unpleasant slog so we road to the town of Minnewaukan (or what’s left of it) and back.   

It was quite interesting to see how much higher the lake was than in the past.  Because the lake is endorheic (Google challenge) the water level can rise and fall dramatically and is more saline than most typical fresh water lakes.  The lake has risen 25 feet in the last 10 years.  Entire barns were in the water. Over 300 homes and 70,000 acres of farmland have been flooded.

After our ride, we moved on west to Cross Ranch State Park, ND which is located along seven miles of the last free-flowing, undeveloped stretches of the Missouri River about 25 miles north of Bismarck.

Abandoned house that is being taken over by Devil's Lake

Off to the Headwaters of the Mississippi

Mississippi flowing from Lake Itasca

Thursday, June 25^th  – Itasca State Park

After the night at Birch Lake Forest Campground we decided to bag the Lake Woebegone trail.  We had seen the trail and much of the local roads (beat to crap) on the way to the campground. We are getting a little tired of the rails-to-trails, cornfields and beat up roads so we decided to head 100 miles north to Itasca State Park and the head waters of the Mississippi River.  We thought that we should be there fairly early to get a campsite since every Minnesotan we talked to suggested going to this park but indicated that it was quite popular and getting a camping spot in the summer could be tough. 

By arriving early we were able to get a campsite next to Lake Itasca but checkout for the current occupants was not until 4 pm.   We parked by the visitors center and rode to the Mississippi headwaters at the effluent of Lake Itasca, then on around the Wilderness Trail for a total of 16 miles.

Mississippi crossing not far from the headwaters

Itasca State park includes not only the beginning of the Mississippi River but a large tract of Minnesota’s remaining old growth red and white pine forest.  Established in 1891, Lake Itasca is Minnesota’s oldest state park. 

Friday, June 26^th- Itasca State Park

Our goal today was to head to the home of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, as well as, the curling capital of the US – Bemidji, MN.  Our out and back ride of 69 miles followed the “Great River Road” (car) and “Mississippi River Trail” (bike) and was our longest ride so far.  Scenery was different with mostly pines and birch trees.  Much of this area is state park, recreation area or nature preserve so traffic was light although the roads had plenty of cracks.  But the day was beautiful and the ride was quite manageable.

Paul Bunyan and Babe

In downtown Bimidji in a park by the lake, we found the Paul Bunyan statue which is 18 feet tall and weighs 2 ½  tons above the footings.  Babe is constructed of wooden ribs covered with canvas.  At one time Babe’s eyes blinked and smoke came out of his nose.  The statues are on the National Register of Historic Places as official cultural resources worthy of preservation.  Why??  We don’t know… very folk art looking and clearly won’t be in the Louvre next to the Venus de Milo.

P.S.  Beth finally scored her first license plate of the trip… Minnesota!

Minneapolis Meandering Metric 100 (>62 miles)

Sunday, June 21^st – Mississippi River Trail, IA

Iowa tourism road sign... read left for the full test

After all the rain yesterday, today was sunny with low humidity and nice temperature.  We did another section of the river trail from Pikes Peak state park to Guttenberg, Iowa.  We found some serious hills as we rode along the bluffs and down to the river and back.  Just before descending into the town of Guttenberg, IA we saw this nice little ditty along the side of the road like a “Burma Shave” ad:

“This is not a clever verse

We tried

and tried

it just got

worse

Our Iowa”

 Total route – 37.5 miles

After the ride it was time to pack up and head into Minnesota.  Our campground was a state campground (Kruger) near Kellogg, MN.   Kellogg is known as home to LARK toys.   A destination toy shop with a full size, custom hand carved carrousel inside.  The animals are beautifully carved and quite unique.

Monday, June 22^nd 

Dar (Donald's sister), Beth, Ted, Margaret and Donald Fischer
We don't remember what was so funny...

We woke to rain that showed no signs of stopping so we bagged the planned ride and moved on to the Minneapolis/St Paul area.  We had a great visit and dinner with Margaret and Donald Fischer (  Heidi’s parents).   We camped at a large county campground, Baker Campgrounds about 15 miles west of Minneapolis -  A very nice facility with over 200 camping spots but relatively empty.  In our travels over the past 3 summers, the county campgrounds usually offer the best facilities at the best rates in the area if you can find one

Tuesday, June 23

No rain, low humidity and temps in the high 70’s so a perfect day for a ride.  Our route took us from the campground to Minnehaha Falls on a meandering tour.  Minneapolis has an extensive network of trails throughout the Twin Cities, so routing on bike trails and bike lanes was not a problem…. Staying on the route was.  Ted uses a web based tool, RideWithGPS.com for generating our ride routes and then downloads them to our Garmin bike GPS’s.  Frequently the route directions are “continue straight” where the trail is curving and splits into a “slight left” and a “slight right”… so what is “straight”?  So we frequently felt like Fozzie the bear… “When you come to the fork in the road… take it!”

At Minnehaha Falls

With a few missed turns and backtracking we made it to the beautiful falls and park.   Total route – 65.5 miles… a metric century, 100km (>62 miles).

Wednesday, June 24

We spent another night in Baker Campground and took a 27 mile ride on the back roads south of the park.  Of course there were many lakes along the way and a lot of really nice houses in the area.  After getting back to the RV, showering, and dealing with RV logistics (dumping and taking on fresh water) we headed NW toward our camp site for the night, Birch Lake Forest Campground.  This is a primitive site, but gives us access to the Woebegone Lake trail for a ride tomorrow before we move further north to the Mississippi head waters region of Itasca Lake State Park.

Plenty of bike trails in the Minneapolis area (green lines), but they can be a bit confusing!

Still in Wisconsin and Iowa

Thursday, June 18  Military Ridge Rails-to-Trails

Along Military Ridge Trail

We saddled up and hit our third rails-to-trails in southern Wisconsin.  The Military Ridge trail runs from Dodgerville to Madison, WI.  We left our camp at Blue Mound state park and headed toward Mt. Horeb and Verona.  Blue Mound is the highest point in southern WI, so we knew there was going to be a climb to get back to the RV, but being on a rail-to-trail, nothing is too steep.

It was another great day for a ride and we clipped right along to Verona.  We decided to circle through town on the Ice Age Trail bike path which took us right to the edge of the Madison city limits with a nice view of the western edge of Wisconsin's state capital.  If Nicholas had been with us, we're sure we would have been riding right in to the state capital.

Epic Campus - Bike trail is in the upper right

When we were approaching the Verona we saw a giant construction project.  On our way back to the Military Ridge Trail we rode up to the project which turned out to be the Epic medical software company campus.  They must be doing really well. (Was this software mandated by Obama-care?) The campus is huge, with massive construction projects underway.  We rode through the edge of the campus which must be large enough to employ at least 10,000 people at this one location, if not more.

On our way back we stopped in Mt. Horeb to check out the "famous" trolls and have lunch at the Grumpy Troll Brew Pub.  Lunch and the beer was good, but we were  underwhelmed by the number of "trolls" along the main street.  First there is a sign pointing you to "Troll way" as you come into town, but then no further directions.  We had stopped at a craft shop and Beth asked where the trolls were.  What few were left were located further down the main street... I guess we were just expecting a lot more after all the hype.

Mt Horeb Trol

Friday, June 19 - Taking care of business 

We have been on the road for a few days and riding almost every day, so the laundry was piling up.  We found a nice laundry in Dodgerville and made pretty quick time that task.  We also stocked up on ice and diesel for the RV.

Our plan was to head to Pikes Peak State Park in Iowa, just across the Mississippi from Praire du Chien, WI.  Pikes Peak is known for the bluffs above the Mississippi and claims to be the most photographed park in Iowa.  We had tried to reserve a camping spot there, but had no luck, but they have a number of sites reserved for "walk-ups".  We lucked out and were able to get a nice spot in the campground by arriving pretty early in the day.

Pikes Peak State Park, IA view of Praire du Chien, WI

Saturday - June 20 - Rained out...took a hike.
We woke up to a far off rumbling that was shortly followed by a pretty steady rain until 10AM.  The narrow roads around here are popular for cycling, but with the rain and traffic, we decided it would be a good day for a hike.  We put on the rain gear and headed out on what we thought would be about a 6 mile hike to  Point Ann" at the far north end of the state park.  Well it turned out be closer to 10 miles.  The rain stopped within a few minutes of hitting the trail and luckily it was mostly cloudy or we might have been steaming in our rain gear.  It was a pretty hilly hike and we are both a little sore today.

Hiking in Pikes Peak SP

Editorial Comment:   While a very nice park, if Pikes Peak is the most photographed park in Iowa, there must not be much to photograph.   As we were told by a former Iowan maybe
 "I Otta Went Around".  

For dinner we went to another Brewpub - Old Man River in downtown McGregor.   While they claim beer brewed on site and local food, it proved less than true.  Ted did have locally brewed beer but no beer brewed on site was available and they were out of the local cheese and sausages on the menu.  A little strange since it was Saturday night and they are mostly a tourist town.  Ended up eating mediocre bar-b-que sandwiches.  Ted's fried cheese curds were quite good.

Back in the Saddle in Iowa and Wisconsin

In the last couple of days we have picked off 2 more states, Iowa and Wisconsin  in our quest to ride in every state in the USA. 

Monday,  June 15

Camped next to the lake at Waconda State Park 

We spent the night in the Waconda State Park near La Grange, MO (north of Hannibal) with maybe 5 other campers in the whole park.  The geese greatly outnumbered the people.  It is a very nice park with a number of small lakes made from gravel pit mining many years ago. 

It was nice to have a fairly unremarkable day.   We started off with a fairly flat 26 mile ride through La Grange and Caton, Mo along the Mississippi river, then looping back through corn country to the west.  Very quiet roads and a very relaxing ride.  

As we rode through La Grange a small plant had its safety record posted - 26 years and 1 week with no time lost due to a work related incident.    Wouldn't you hate to be the one to break that record?  

While riding through Canton we passed a “Repurposing” shop (i.e. junk) and saw a yellow 10 speed bike that looked just like Ted’s first Western Flyer “road” bike that he had in the 70’s.  Ted has been tempted to hunt one of these down on eBay before.  We drove back by and stopped to take a second look.  The bike was in need of a lot of work, but the owners were quite proud of it and wanted $45.  Ted didn’t want it that bad and we would have to haul it around with us for another 6 weeks so we passed on it.  If he changes his mind it will still be there for a long time.

Roller Damn across the Mississippi at Davenport, IA

After our ride we took care of RV needs (dumping and taking on water) and hit the road to head to the Quad Cities area.  We found a really nice county park with RV hookups about 6 miles outside Davenport, IA.  For dinner we drove into Davenport to try out the brewpubs.  Great River Brewing was open and had a great IPA.  Then we walked to the Barrelhouse for a good supper.   Despite some very heavy rains we have had a relaxing day and evening.

Tuesday , June 16 – Davenport, IA riding the Great River Trail

From the campground we rode back toward Davenport and picked up the Great River Bike Trail which runs from the Mississippi headwaters to the Gulf along the Mississippi.  We started at Credit Island, riding through downtown Davenport, then across the bridge to Rock Island and then north through Moline, IL and ending at Hampton.  Along the way we were in river side parks, industrial areas and the river levies. 

John Deere Plant in Moline, IL - Deere world headquarters is
across the river in Davenport 

On the way back we stopped in downtown Davenport for lunch at the Front Street Pub.  One of the owners came over to our table and asked if we were from NM.  (Ted had his NM Zia bike shirt on)  Turns out she grew up in Aztec, NM near Farmington and Durango, CO.  So we chatted for a while about NM and the Quad Cities area.    

Talk about weird, the couple camping across from us in the New Glarus Woods SP are from Las Vegas, NM.   And when the ranger came by, he indicated that he used to live in Gallup.   This is a very small, dry campsite outside of New Glarus, WI.   Who could imagine?

Visiting "American Pickers" 

 On our way out of Davenport, we stopped at the Antique Archeology store in Le Claire, IA.  This is mostly a collection of memorabilia “picks” that they have collected from the TV show “American Pickers”, but it was entertaining to take a quick look at their expensive “junk”.

Wednesday, June 17 – Rails-to-Trails in Southern WI

It was an exceptionally nice day with temps in the low 60’s as we set off from New Glarus Woods SP to New Glarus, then on to Monticello and Monroe, WI.  first riding the Sugar River trail and then switching to the Badger Trail at Monticello.  In Monroe, we visited the Minhas brewery, the oldest brewery in the mid-west and then had a lunch of local cheese, sausage and beer at Baumgartner’s Cheese store on the square.  Monroe is also home to Swiss Colony.  We are sure everybody has received a Swiss Colony cheese and sausage package at Christmas at one time or another. 

Riding along the Sugar River trail

 Then it was the 20 mile ride back to the RV.  All-in-all a really nice day.

We are now camped at the Blue Mound SP, just west of Mt. Horeb, WI.  From here we have easy access to the Military Ridge Trail that runs about 40 miles in the area.

A Sad Turn of Events

Tuesday, June 9

After another night at Lake Shabbana, we took at 20 mile ride south and west of the state park.  Today was a little muggier but the ride was great – mostly rolling hills.   After a great lunch and visit with Beth’s Uncle Dewey and Aunt Kathy in DeKalb, IL we headed for Wisconsin.   We received a call that afternoon that Ted’s Dad was being taken to the hospital and Ted’s brother would keep us informed.  We proceeded to Yellowstone Lake SP in Wisconsin.  We were well out of cell phone range, but planned to be back in Monroe, WI the next morning.

Joe in his garden

Wednesday-Saturday (June 10-13)

By 9:30 the next morning the news was not good and we turned around to head back to Eldon, MO.  Unfortunately, he passed away within a few hours before we could make the 9 hour drive from Wisconsin.  Thankfully we had visited with him as we passed through Eldon the week before.  He had led a very full life at the age of 91, with many family and friends attending his funeral service on Saturday morning.  All of his grandsons were pallbearers, including both of our sons, Jim from Seattle and Ben from Albuquerque.  The family had the opportunity to gather several times to share stories from his life.

Sunday,  June 14

We have decided that it was time to return to our vacation plans.  Leaving the Jefferson City/Eldon area, we are camped at Wakonda State Park south of La Grange, Mo.   Our plan is to resume riding in the mornings while slowly making our way north and east through Iowa and back into Wisconsin. 

To Chicago and beyond

Chicago skyline from Lake Shore Dr bike path

6/5 - Friday... Our 30 mile ride turned into 37, due to some re-routing and construction.  We took the hybrid tandem (fat-tire) bike because 12 of the miles were on a rails-to-trail.   We should have taken the road bike as the trail was well packed limestone.   Today we encountered the heat and humidity expected in the Midwest, making for a little more difficult ride.

After riding, we drove into Chicago (Hinsdale, actually) to visit and stay with Joel and Sandy Pundmann.  Joel went to Rolla with Ted and was the best man in our wedding many, many years ago.  While we have stayed in touch, we haven’t seen them for probably 25 plus years, so it was good to catch up. 

6/6 - Saturday – Joel, Ted and Beth headed into downtown Chicago to ride Lake Shore Drive and see some of the Chicago highlights.  Lake Shore Drive is beautiful with fantastic views of the city.  It goes by Navy Pier, Shedd Aquarium and the Institute of Art museum.  It is a well-used bike path, with charity runs, a half-marathon, and many sightseers walking, on bikes and Segways sharing the path so it was very slow and go.  We then biked to Buckingham Fountain and back to where we had parked the RV. 

The "Bean" at Millennium Park 

Parking in Chicago is a challenge, especially for a large vehicle.   Thanks to a Kenny Chesney concert, we could not park in the lot in the Millennium park lot that Joel had scouted out earlier in the week.  We found a pay lot just off Michigan Ave a few blocks away.  The sign said oversize vehicles and trucks were $30/day, but there was no attendant in the lot and the self-pay system defaulted to $20 with no option to change anything.  When we returned to the RV, there was a $75 parking ticket stuck on the windshield.  An attendant was in the lot and said we should have paid for 2 spaces.  Needless to say, that was a sour note.  Joel, let us know how the protest works out.   Otherwise, we’ll most likely never be back in Chicago with the RV anyway… sue me!

We left the RV where it was and walked down Michigan Ave.   The art museum had outfitted the lions out front with Blackhawk hockey helmets… they are in the Stanley Cup finals.   And of course we had to have a Chicago hotdog, Garrett's "Chicago mix" popcorn (cheese flavored mixed with caramel popcorn) and see “The Bean”.

6/7 – Sunday… After stocking up on groceries and buying a new tire for the road tandem we left the Chicago area and moved about 60 miles west to Shabbona Lake State Park.   Today has been cloudy and rainy so no riding.   Played some board games and Ted took some time to do some bicycle maintenance.    Hoping to get a ride in tomorrow.

6/8 - Monday … It rained most of the night, but clear blue skies by 9AM.  We had planned a 35 mile route through the farm country around the Shabbona area.  We hit a couple of unplanned dirt roads, but in most cases the dirt roads were in better shape than some of the highways.  We are near Dekalb, IL, which is clearly in the heart of corn country.  Dekalb seed corn was founded in 1912.  So spending most of our 35 mile ride in corn fields was no big surprise… and having a constant wind wasn’t much of a surprise either since most corn fields had several wind turbines.  It was a great ride even with a little wind.

Looking up inside "The Bean"

A Hectic Ramble Toward Chicago

Our plan is to be in Chicago by Friday, June 5th, so have had to "ramble" at a pretty quick pace these first few days putting 1350 miles on the RV in 5 days.

June 2, (Tuesday) - Check the box on two more states!

We had a great morning ride that checked off two states we haven't biked in yet; Oklahoma and Arkansas.  We camped at Natural Falls State Park, OK which is only 6 miles from the Arkansas state line.  We mapped out a loop from the campground that swung through Siloam Springs, AR which is home to John Brown University.  It was a small, but very pretty campus.  It was 28.5 miles on great rural roads with little traffic, mild temperatures and relatively low humidity.

Back at the state park we took a short hike to the falls and the lake (fishing hole!).  The falls are the 2nd highest in Oklahoma at 77 feet.  This must be our trip for seeing things that are ranked number 2.

Then it was on to Eldon, MO for a short visit with Ted's Dad.   We parked for the night in Beth's brother, Curt's driveway in Wardsville.  They are in Florida for vacation.  Thanks, Curt.

June 3 (Wednesday) - Hannibal, MO...

Hannibal turned out to be a bust.   It is a good example of a mid-America small town historic main street that is dying.   Antique (read junk) shops, many closed and for sale, lined main street.  The Mark Twain museum is a collection of small homes named after the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn fictional town with little history of Samuel Clemans' boyhood.    A lot of hype for a very mediocre attraction,   Do they even require kids to read Mark Twain anymore?

The other notable Hannibal childhood resident, Molly Brown (Titanic fame) has a museum that we did not visit.   She is less celebrated.  

We walked Main Street and moved on to Siloam Springs State Park in Illinois.   This is the second Siloam Springs we have visited.  The first was on our ride within Arkansas on Tuesday.  We continue to be impressed with the Illinois state park system.  We stayed in a couple on our cross country trip two years ago.  This one is nice as well.

June 4 (Thursday) - Less than a week to our first flat tire.
We rode out of Siloam Springs SP and hit a gravel road which had been covered in a fresh new layer of 1" crushed rock on the road.  It was a lot like riding on marbles.   Less than 5 miles into the ride, within sight of the payment, we blew out the front tube and tire.   Luckily the folded dollar bill in the tire trick held and we finished the 25 mile ride with no further problems.  On our ride across the country 2 years ago, we went nearly 6 weeks and more than 2500 miles without a flat!

The roads were hilly but relatively car free.    Illinois has an abundance of rural paved roads that make for great riding.  Today the humidity was up and the small gnats and flies were annoying so it was much better to keep moving.  

We have moved locations again and are now staying in Jubilee College State park just outside of Peoria, IL.  Another very nice IL state park and convenient to the Rock Island Rail-to-Trail.  We'll be doing a 30 mile loop with about 12 miles on the trail.  The Rock Island was the first Illinois state owned rail-to-trail path.

Jubilee College was a frontier college active from 1840 to 1862.  It was one of the earliest educational enterprises in Illinois.  The actual college site is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On the Road - 2015

We are off for a 2 month RVing and biking journey.  We both closed up shop on work at the end of May, packed up the RV.... First stop was Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Known as the "Grand Canyon of Texas" it is just south of Amarillo and is the second largest canyon in the US. We arrived in time to hike from the bottom where our campground was located to the top and back.   Then this morning did a 13 mile tour along the paved loop by bike.  There has been plenty of rain in the southwest this spring and Palo Duro Canyon received it's share.  The road was closed in one section, but we tried to power the bike through the mud.  We didn't get far before the mud gummed up the tires.

After another short hike we headed back to the RV to clean up and get on the road for the long windy drive to eastern Oklahoma and Natural Falls State Park near the Arkansas boarder.

Palo Duro is nice but the comparison to the Grand Canyon may be a Texas exaggeration. What was surprising is several trails are dedicated to mountain biking and closed to horses.  But in general, the park is very accessible to all kinds of recreation.

Long distance "selfie" ... 

Oops... only set the timer for 2 seconds!