Bishop Bike Adventure Day 33 August 2, 2010

Before leaving Fargo we had a few errands to run in the morning, including restocking groceries (our standard power bars, oatmeal, bananas, trail mix, etc.), camping supplies, and cleaning supplies for our camelbaks. Timely replacement of supplies is a necessary part of bike touring and, because we are unfamiliar with the services in western Minnesota, it became more important that we have full supplies. We also purchased some extra bug spray as someone from Minnesota forewarned us about the mosquitoes there and how they don’t spray for them as they do in North Dakota and Montana.

The sky looked overcast, something we have not seen in most of our travels to date. We thought we had averted the severe weather that the plains are known to have. However, the Weather Channel indicated there was a 30% chance of thunderstorms. As the day wore on, much to our relief, we were blessed with beautiful weather as we entered the sixth state of our trip! From reading our Adventure Cycling material, we learned that somewhere in the middle of North Dakota we moved from the western region with typically arid conditions to a mid-continent region, where humidity dominates the weather. Although the temperatures are now lower, the humidity factor changes the weather dynamic. We were able to tolerate the arid 90-plus degree weather as well as 80-degree more humid weather.

It is interesting that each State seems to have its own character. Not far into Minnesota, we noted a significant change from North Dakota. The farmland was a bit less expansive, more trees seemed to pop up, there were houses along the roadside, and, of course, we saw a few lakes. When a State boasts 10,000 of them, there are only so many places to put them--so we noticed these right off.

The Adventure Cycling map had a few too many towns with “camping only” as the main means of accommodations so we purchased a large print map of Minnesota (for the over 50 crowd). As we ventured into Minnesota, we found our way along some very bumpy roads with some detours and road closings that we could not have anticipated. We soon discovered that everywhere we looked we saw beautiful farmland, rolling hills, and lakes around every corner! Putting up with some bumpy roads was a worthwhile price to pay for the scenery. Deviating from the canned biking maps yielded a treat at the end of the day: having a motel room in Fergus Falls.

Lastly, I could not pass up this photo opportunity today in Pelican Rapids! Please note that this is Tim's bike, not Debbie's!