I Love Cows (and their milk) And Cows Love Me

September 9, 2024

Sauk Centre, Minnesota

Most people consider the beginning of their day to be when they wake up in the morning. According to official time protocol, however, a new day begins at midnight. On this day, I found myself adhering to the official standard. I woke up shortly after midnight and, while using the great outdoor restroom, I looked up into the sky and saw a big display of bright stars. It was awesome, and I don't use that word indiscriminately.

I tried to take a picture, but my phone doesn't work for that kind of photography. Instead, I settled for a picture of my tent, which was illuminated by the only light I brought with me--a red taillight.

I went back to sleep for a few hours and woke up to another cool morning (50-degrees F.) I made coffee and took a short hike to warm up.

At the trailhead, there was a sign that took me by surprise. It had the figure of bike rider with a slash through it. Even though I only intended to hike the trail this morning, I felt like the sign was directed at ME. That's because I have ridden my bike on state park hiking trails many times in the past. It's fun.

My cartoon alter-ego, G-2, was offended too. He thought the bike riding figure on the sign looked too much like him.

After my hike, it was time to pack up. I took a picture of this caterpillar before flicking it off my pannier. Admit it, you would have photographed and flicked it too.

On the way out of the state park, I took a picture of a water tower built by the W.P.A. in the 1930s. It seemed worth a photo because it was a little different than most of the water towers I've seen in my bike travels.

There was also a W.P.A. picnic shelter made out of logs.

The first town came a couple miles after I hit the road. Little Falls has the distinction of being the home of the Minnesota Fishing Hall of Fame & Museum. Even though I'm not a fan of the "sport" of fishing, I thought such a grand monument would be worth a visit . . . or at least a picture.

The Catholic church was pretty nice though.

Little Falls has a population of 9,140, which is 10 times the combined population of the other three towns I passed through today. The first ten miles west of town were straight and flat on State Highways 17 &18. It was busy, but it had a wide shoulder.

When MN-18 turned south from MN-17, the shoulder shrunk from 6-FEET wide to 4-INCHES wide. It was fine though, because the reduction in shoulder size was commensurate with the reduction in traffic. Plus, the drivers in both directions were very polite. I was polite too. I waved and/or smiled at everyone.

A lone swan swimming across a calm pond. I love this image.

I wasn't so enamored with this image of hundreds of swans staring at me from the inside of a barn. [My team of editors just informed me those birds are turkeys, not swans. Still sad though.]

I gotta tell ya, I expected endless fields of corn and soybeans from the route I planned for today. Much to my sense of happiness, it turned out to be full of varied, and often beautiful, landscapes. I LIKE corn and soybeans, and I got plenty of that. But I also got nice stretches of cattail-lined wetlands, forests, several lakes, green fields of alfalfa, and even a few hills. Man, I had fun.

The first of the 300-population towns I came to was Swanville. I liked it. I found its city park for a snack break. I drank half a bottle of water and ate two big handfuls of almonds in the shade of a picnic shelter.

I thought it strange that the picnic shelter had no picnic tables until I noticed they had been moved to another area of the park. While in my noticing mode, I noticed there were basketball hoops at both ends of the picnic shelter. Then I noticed a basketball sitting on the concrete floor. To my surprise, the basketball was fully inflated.

Naturally, I had to shoot some hoops. I didn't do so well from three-point range. My free-throw percentage wasn't that great either. But I made almost all of my layups.

I made the layup and am waiting to grab the rebound.

Swanville had a cool water fountain, but there was no way I'd stick my head in that lion's mouth for a drink of water. Lions can kill a man in a matter of seconds.

Moving on, I continued southwest on Highway 18. I was liking it more and more. Then I came to a hill. It was probably the biggest hill of my entire tour so far, which isn't saying much. Yeah, this last day-and-a-half has been embarrassingly, yet enjoyably, flat.

There were more hills after that one, and some more nice scenery, but I didn't take any pictures for the next several miles. I regret that now.

My picture drought ended when I came to the next town of Gray Eagle. With a population of almost 400, it was slightly bigger than Swanville. Gray Eagle didn't have a public basketball court, but it did have an attractive lake.

Bass Lake. Son of Bing Bong is posed at the end of the fishing dock.

Gray Eagle also had a Viking statue. I have Scandinavian heritage, so I felt worthy to strike a Viking pose.

The next town was Burtrum. If my memory is correct, I think the sign said it has somewhat less than 300 people. I zipped right through, but I wished I had taken a picture of the sign next to a small church that said something like, "Join us for an old-fashioned hymn sing-along."

The date of the hymn sing-along was back in August, but the sign was still up. If I had been riding through here on that August day, I'd have loved to see that spectacle. I might even have sung a few hymns, but the other folks in attendance probably wouldn't appreciate Church of the Great Outdoors hymns as much as I do.

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My Delorme Map of Minnesota indicated there was another town on my route called Spalding. If there was such a town, I totally missed it.

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Way before I ever started posting pictures of my travels on the internet, The Feeshko (my wife) used to criticize my photography. She didn't like my scenery pictures. She told me they needed to include people to give them more perspective and personality.

With that in mind, I included G-2 in this photo.

The title of this page promised something about my mutual respect and admiration with cows. The following pictures and video should address that.

Cow picture #2 has some longhorn cattle. They might be immigrants from Texas.

I made it to Sauk Center and got a campsite at the Sinclair Lewis City Park. (That might give a hint to the second famous Minnesotan I hope to meet on this bike trip.) My site was right on Sauk Lake. I set up my tent and wrote about my day.

I hadn't seen a single cloud all day. I prepared for the worst when these thunderheads moved in.

It seemed appropriate to end this post the way it began--with a picture of my tent.

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Rachael AndersonI love the video of the cows!
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2 months ago

Emily SharpAnother nice day and a good way to end the day - in a tent! Those cows obviously don't get handfed or supplemental feed since they didn't start following you, thinking you were bringing hay. Glad you made it up that big hill, too, I was worried for you.
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2 months ago

Gregory GarceauTo Emily SharpThank you for your worry, but it wasn't necessary. I conquered the hill with moderate effort, and if I had a USA flag, I would have planted it at the top for an ironic photo op.
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2 months ago