Day 106 - ending at Maple Grove, MN - The Great Plains Trail - Sort Of

August 28, 2023

Day 106 - ending at Maple Grove, MN

Day 106 - St. Cloud, MN to Maple Grove, MN

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I was debating with myself this morning whether or not to make a pot of motel room coffee. In the end I did. I don't think it slowed things down too much.

The motel is separated from the main highway (US-10) by a frontage road. The highway is having major road reconstruction, and it was noisy. The motel owner walked by just before I left, complaining that this construction was going to go on for 2 years. I'd previously looked at my routing. It didn't have me on US-10 in this area, so that was a good thing.

I left the motel room at 8:55am, but I wasn't going far - just to the Holiday gas station south of the motel for breakfast. More often than not, I forget to bring my thermos into the store or restaurant where I plan to get ice. So after breakfast I went back outside and got the thermos, filled it with ice, and grab two Gatorades. The checkout clerk said, "You need one more Gatorade." I said, "No, two is all I need." His response was, "But the third one's free." So I grabbed my free Gatorade. The clerk double sacked my bag so I could carry more than normal. Just before I paid I noticed three cookies at the counter and added those to my purchase. I was thinking of having those for lunch on the road.

My destination today was Minneapolis NW KOA Campground in Maple Grove, Minnesota. I stayed on my pre-planned route today except where I had to make a detour. I was on secondary roads, a divided highway, city streets, and bicycle paths.

I left the gas station at 9:48am, which could be considered my actual start-of-the-day riding. North, then east, then south was my routing out of town. I eventually got on US-10 - at 10:38am, going southeast. By the way, there are highways in Minnesota that do have rumble strips; US-10 has them. I was riding on the shoulder, but kept having to curve around clumps of grass, which had that just-mowed smell. I looked way ahead and could see the tractor mower. I finally caught up and passed him. The shoulder ahead was full of those pretty yellow wildflowers. It seemed a shame to be cutting all those down. I wasn't too much farther along when I noticed a couple tackle boxes in the grass that the mower would soon be chopping to pieces. I would have kept them, but obviously, I have no more room. The only thing I could think of was to set them on the shoulder near the rumble strip hoping either the fellow mowing or somebody passing by picks them up.

I left US-10 when I arrived at Clear Lake, and rode MN-24 to Clearwater. I was in Clearwater at noon. 16.8 miles so far. I stopped for my cookie lunch, but ended up eating only one cookie. A secondary road that parallels I-94 on its north side is what I used to get to Monticello. My pre-plan GPS routing through Monticello looked out-of-the-way, but it turned out it was a good way through town, since there is major road construction going on here too. I went through parks down by the river. Ate another cookie here. I had my third cookie break near the town of Albertville at 3:50pm.

I had to change my route a little when I came to a trail closed sign at 4:11pm. I backtracked and got around that. I went through Fletcher at 5:11pm and arrived at the KOA Journey campground at 5:32pm.

It turns out the fellow who checked me in at this campground used to live in my hometown of Morton. He said, "I heard that your Dairy Queen closed." Apparently, big news gets around! Meeting someone from Morton made me feel like I'm getting close to home. This campground, like the one in Medora, North Dakota, has an escort to get you to your campsite, even though I could easily see where it was from the map they gave me. I'm at site #91, which has electricity. Their wifi here doesn't work very well, at least on my phone.

After getting the tent up, I ate supper from my lunch bag. I thought I was hearing thunder way off in the distance. I checked the weather radar. It was raining in parts of Minneapolis further to the east and north. Then I remembered this morning when listening to the radio, that they had said there was a possibility for rain in the late afternoon in the eastern parts of the city. Minneapolis is apparently big enough that different areas need different forecasts. After supper I went to the camp store and bought a container of ice cream for dessert.

I started working on picture selection at the picnic table, but the mosquitoes came out, so I continued that job in the tent. I was having such a terrible time staying awake, I finally set my phone alarm to give me a 30-minute nap. That helped. As soon as I get this evening report sent off I am going to bed.

Jeff

Spent: $13.48 (breakfast items) + $9.87 (Gatorade, cookies) + $50.77 (campsite) + $4.25 (ice cream) = $78.37