Sheltered from the corn

9/9 63 miles from Enderlin ND to Barnesville MN YES MINNESOTA

Second day of this 20 mph wind from the SE, which of course is quite unpleasant. Starting early doesn’t help as it’s at least 12 mph at 6:45. We are now off script heading over to the Shriver cabin in Barnes. That’s why we stopped in Barnesville to get a flavor.

We made a very unglamorous crossing into Minnesota. At approximately 1 pm we crossed the Red River of the north, and there was no Welcome sign. But after riding about 145 miles in this wind, I felt welcome anyway.

The Red River of the North, border between ND and MN.

The wind is so persistent and the road is so flat you start to notice very subtle differences. A row of trees near the south side of the road were such a wind block that you went about 3 to 4 mph per hour faster with less effort. John and I also noticed that when a corn field was on the south side of the road you went 1 mph faster with less effort. There were not many rows of trees so you started to root for corn. Way the hell up here in NW Minnesota everyone planted beans.

We also got the hell off of Route 46. We got on it when it started and rode it till the very end. Very bad shoulders, busy and boring. I got no kicks from Route 46.

I’m outside the Motel, gas station, Dairy Queen combo we are staying at, writing the blog.  I look up and Mike Lewis rolls up.

He started in Ancourage Alaska on June 1 and just rolled into this little S town Barnesville MN at 7:20 this evening. He is headed to Pennsylvania where he lives. He asked me to take a couple of pictures of him as his tripod broke and his family hasn’t seen him in awhile. He wanted his family to see his new shirt. Holy smokes this is strange as we are not on the American Adventure Cyclist map anymore so to see this guy roll in is freaky.  Maybe this is the God character like the cowboy in the Big Lebowski?  Hellish wind or not this trip has got me into some interesting shit. Mike Shriver: This guy is riding a Trek 520.

Hello Minnesota