July 8, 2008
Day 57: Wabasha, MN to Stillwater, MN
90.29 Miles, 7:58:44 Ride Time, 11.31 Average Speed, 36.5 Maximum Speed
The sun was way up in the sky this morning, and it was hot and muggy by the time I rode out. The Adventure Cycling route had me immediately riding South for a few miles (?) and then climbing away from the Mississippi up to a steep bluff. I am usually a True Believer in these routes, but today, as I sweated up the hill, the doubts finally crept in. There had better be something extremely scenic at the top of this hill... wait - that's it? A gravel turn-off overlooking the Mississippi and the town of Wabasha? Well, maybe there will be an interesting historical marker or something later (there wasn't).
After about twenty miles of OK but unspectacular, hilly farmland, I descended back down to US 61 and Lake City (pop. 4,950 - The Birth Place of Water Skiing!) on the Mississippi. I stopped at a Burger King and looked at my maps. Coming up was another (probably) pointless side trip up to a bluff. I decided to skip that, and just continue on US 61/63 all the way to Red Wing.
Red Wing (pop. 16,116) is famous as the home of Red Wing shoes, but what I noticed as I rode into town was the overpowering smell of sauerkraut. Searching the internet reveals no connection between Red Wing and sauerkraut, and I remain troubled by this. (I assume the smell is the byproduct of some industrial process at one of the factories in town... back in Wenona, IL, I kept smelling donuts, and finally determined that the odor, which was driving me crazy, was emanating from a furniture factory, of all places).
At Red Wing, I crossed the Mississippi into Wisconsin again, where I soon encountered two young women, locals out on a three day bike tour of the state. Upon hearing that I planned to ride West to Washington, one of them advised me to just take the train from Fargo to Glacier National Park, and save myself much heartache with the wind.
After looking at my map, she also suggested that I alter the next several miles of the Adventure Cycling route, and take a longer, but less hillier way to Prescott. Time will tell if she was correct about taking the train from Fargo, but she was definitely right about the Adventure Cycling route on the second half of Northern Tier Map #84. IT WAS TERRIBLE. For the next twenty miles on State Route 35, I fantasized about the tongue-lashing I would give the creator of this route, if given the opportunity.
Not much happened during this long, hot slog. I did encounter, after slowly riding to the top of one of the hills, a group of four male motorcyclists. Three of them were laughing, pointing, and taking photos of the other guy, was was taking a leak in a cornfield. If they had been following me around for the last two months, they would hardly have thought such a sight was unusual, or worthy of a photograph.
I finally reached Prescott, where I stopped at a gas station and, after drinking a quart of chocolate milk and a 32 oz. Gatorade, crossed the Mississippi back into Minnesota. It was now late in the afternoon, and, as is the way with these things, everything suddenly seemed different - the terrain was gentler, it had cooled down a little, and the wind seemed to be at my back for a change.
The last 25 miles were the most fun of the day. In less than an hour, I rode through Afton (pop. 2,839), which looked like a nice town; there were places to stay there, but now that I was moving faster, I decided that I had enough daylight left to get to Stillwater, and the end of Northern Tier Map #7.
Outside of Afton, on County Road 21 (also called, more appealingly, "The Stagecoach Trail"), I saw two little girls by the side of the road, holding up a hand-lettered sign offering "Icees - 50 Cents, 2 for $1.00." I didn't know what an "Icee" was, but it sounded appealing, so I stopped, and learned that an "Icee" is what we call a Popsicle where I'm from. I bought one, and found it refreshing.
I got into Stillwater (pop. 15,143) around 7:45, where a friendly local policeman took the time from pointing his radar gun at the local traffic to give me directions to the Super 8. After getting things arranged there, I walked a few blocks to a "Cub Foods" supermarket, where, in a shocking twist, I bought apples and pears to go with my usual chocolate milk and junk food. In the checkout line, I noticed, for the first time since the Northeast, a pronounced regional accent - the nice people in the store sounded like the movie "Fargo." Cool.
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Today's ride: 90 miles (145 km)
Total: 4,126 miles (6,640 km)
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