Day 20 - Hawley MN to Baxter MN

Yah sure, you betcha!  Can you guess where we are now?  Our landscape has changed, the dialect - just a little different :) and the moisture content a little higher.  Minnesota brings rolling hills, trees along the roadways, lakes everywhere, small towns and friendly folks.  We left I-94 at Fargo, and traveled along US Hwy 10 to Motley, then Hwy 210 into Baxter/Brainard.  Did you know that there is at least one Lutheran Church in every town in Minnesota - and I mean every town.  I passed a town today that posted a population of 48 - right in front of the sign for the Lutheran Church.
We had lunch at a great park, next to a restored train depot in the town of Wadena - passenger trains have not stopped here since 1971 - but the coal trains run about every 7 minutes.  Continuing along the rolling hills, we entered the town of Motley - a photo op indeed - with my motley travel companions, who could have asked for a better town.

Patty rolling along with the motley crew

Notes from Tom:  Our first full day in Minnesota, and the riders put in a little extra effort to make sure our support staff had an easier day tomorrow.  It took 115 miles to get us to the hotel, but it will mean that Patty won't have to get up early and drive us to the start point.  We had good roads, a mostly friendly breeze, and although the humidity was really noticeable for the first time, this Colorado boy who's used to DRY air did not find it too oppressive.

Along the way, we rode through Staples.  That was easy.

A little about road kill.  We've seen more road pizzas than you can imagine, and I sure some people are a squeemish about the subject, but we deal with it continuously.  If there were cafes that served only road kill, you could count on having venison and skunk, no matter the location.  There would be specialty items at each cafe depending on location.  Some place would have assorted birds, some places would have various rodents, some would have muskrats, and some would have "mystery meat" because it's either so destroyed by the vehicles or rotted so badly that it is unidentifiable.

We left the rolling hills of wheat, corn, and hay, and headed into an area with much more timber--the most we've seen since leaving western Montana-- and a lot of wetlands.  Unlike Washington, Idaho, and western Montana, most of trees are here deciduous, but it's still a nice change.

Tomorrow it's on toward Duluth, and apparently we'll have to dodge the roads in that area are still closed due to the massive flooding from a few weeks ago.

Notes from Jerry:  The mysterious road guu reappeared again!  Both Tom and myself once again have mainly our right legs covered in tar like spray!  Yuk!  Anyone (Brian DeSousa) that might want to weigh in on this great mystery is welcome to comment on this very strange malady that apparently has nothing to do with lube on our chains.

I could live in Minnesota (so far) and of course only in summer, but the land just appears more hospitable with some farms on the western side, lots of trees and rolling hills and of course lakes.  Lots of lakes.  On the road we can't see even 1/4 of what is out there, but the signs give it all away, with resorts signs every mile for every lake.  Of course on the road, since we left the interstate, we see lots and lots of boats from fishing boats to inboards to party boats (pontoon boats).  Patty said the car GPS shows more water than land!

The roads in Minnesota have been remarkable.  Wide shoulders, smooth, with only the "good" kind of rumble strip.  I enjoyed looking at the hot rods on the road today since it was Saturday.  Lots of cool cars (finally).