New Ulm, MN.
Well, we made it to Minnesota, Ya sure, ya betcha! We made it out of South Dakota alive! Actually I really did enjoy most of SD, the Black Hills were quite awesome (the way we did it on our bikes) and being in one of the most memorable small town bars in my life. Sommer's Bar in Miller will be one of those places I will revisit in my memory frequently, DC, the owner took us in, almost like family, and made us feel welcome. He had photo albums of his family , the bar, and his motorcycles, and told us really old "bar" jokes until Moon shot beer out his nose! The only one that is "PG" enough to write here is the story of the old farmer who had a pet rooster named "Cluckey" who rode on his shoulder, he took his rooster everywhere with him. One night he decided to go to a movie, when he went to buy his ticket the girl @ the ticket booth informed him that the rooster could not go into the theatre. The farmer walked around the corner and stuck Cluckey into his overalls, went back and bought a ticket and went in anyway. The theatre was quite full so he sat next to a couple of old ladies. After a short time Cluckey became restless, the farmer opened the fly of his pants to give Cluckey some room. The little old lady sitting next to him leaned over to her friend and said "I think I'm sitting next to one of those perverts." Her friend asked, "What makes you think so?" She answered, "because he just opened his pants and let his 'thing' out." Her friend replied, "Oh Hazel, we are old enough that that shouldn't upset you!" Hazel said, "This is different." Her friend asked "Why?" Hazel said, "Because it's eating my popcorn!"
We have made it past the 1/2 way point when we rode thru Huron, SD. The weather has changed the last hundred miles of SD, the winds have been "kinder", still coming @ us but not so fierce and the heat has dissipated. We are now in cooler but more humid conditions. Everything has "greened up" with irrigated crops and small farms lining the Hiway, towns are becoming more frequent also so it seems as if we are not so isolated as we once were! It really reminds me of central Nebraska, you feels as if you are trying to breathe underwater and the corn smell in the air is as if you are in the middle of the field. The roads are not any better here, very little shoulder outside the white line, all the vehicles are close to us but most are quite courteous.
Yesterday as we left Tyler, MN. (a old Danish town) we rode into a gray overcast day, the rain started about 0900, it began as a drizzle and turned into a gentle rain, it never really "down poured" but we got pretty wet anyway. Several of us stopped @ a Subway shop in Springfield, MN. for a sandwich when the rain was the heaviest. There was one Semi that had very little room to pass due to oncoming traffic, when he got over as far as he could it placed his tires in the ruts in the road, you know, where all the water sits, and blasted me with spray, I swear if it wasn't for the fact I was sitting on my bike seat I would have had a cold, rainwater enema!!! The other thing was that spray from all the other vehicles were blasting us also, there seems to be a large number of livestock transport (mostly pigs) trucks on the Hiway, the ones with pig poop running out of every crack and opening in the trailers, and the rain was doing it's best to clean the rigs for the owners. There was a "rendering truck" , they pick up the dead animals from farms to make into make "soap or whatever", that sprayed me also. It took almost 15 min of blowing my nose and spitting to get the smell out of my system. When I arrived in New Ulm I was dry but smelled like "dead pig shit".
New Ulm is quite the experience, they just happened to be having their 1st annual Bavarian Blast, a German celebration. The beer flowed as if from a heavenly river and the bratwurst fell from above like rain drops. We had WAY too much fun, drinking, eating, dancing, and singing @ the top of our lungs. People around us were soon joining us and it turned out we were a lot more entertaining than most of the other parts of the event. They will remember us for a long time here. We met and had pictures taken with the Mayor and the Royalty. Some of the crew actually got up this AM and ran in the 10K run and Fast Lucas placed 1st in his age group and 2nd overall, oh to be young and foolish again!! I did not rally well this morning and stayed in bed until 1100, 1st time I've slept that late in almost 1 month. Moon, Justin, and I toured the Schell Brewery, great tour, and free beer. The beer went down hesitantly, but hey, it was free. The tour itself was very informative and interesting, well worth the time and bike ride to get there. Came back to the dorm, folded clothes and tent, packed up my bags and ready for the next stretch on the road. This has been a life changing trip so far and I value every day and the people that I have met, Do follow your dreams, for they can come true! Sorry to get so philosophical on you but I can feel the end closing in on me and I'm afraid to be swept back into the old routine!
On to new adventure in the AM, YEEEEEHA!!!!!!
We have made it past the 1/2 way point when we rode thru Huron, SD. The weather has changed the last hundred miles of SD, the winds have been "kinder", still coming @ us but not so fierce and the heat has dissipated. We are now in cooler but more humid conditions. Everything has "greened up" with irrigated crops and small farms lining the Hiway, towns are becoming more frequent also so it seems as if we are not so isolated as we once were! It really reminds me of central Nebraska, you feels as if you are trying to breathe underwater and the corn smell in the air is as if you are in the middle of the field. The roads are not any better here, very little shoulder outside the white line, all the vehicles are close to us but most are quite courteous.
Yesterday as we left Tyler, MN. (a old Danish town) we rode into a gray overcast day, the rain started about 0900, it began as a drizzle and turned into a gentle rain, it never really "down poured" but we got pretty wet anyway. Several of us stopped @ a Subway shop in Springfield, MN. for a sandwich when the rain was the heaviest. There was one Semi that had very little room to pass due to oncoming traffic, when he got over as far as he could it placed his tires in the ruts in the road, you know, where all the water sits, and blasted me with spray, I swear if it wasn't for the fact I was sitting on my bike seat I would have had a cold, rainwater enema!!! The other thing was that spray from all the other vehicles were blasting us also, there seems to be a large number of livestock transport (mostly pigs) trucks on the Hiway, the ones with pig poop running out of every crack and opening in the trailers, and the rain was doing it's best to clean the rigs for the owners. There was a "rendering truck" , they pick up the dead animals from farms to make into make "soap or whatever", that sprayed me also. It took almost 15 min of blowing my nose and spitting to get the smell out of my system. When I arrived in New Ulm I was dry but smelled like "dead pig shit".
New Ulm is quite the experience, they just happened to be having their 1st annual Bavarian Blast, a German celebration. The beer flowed as if from a heavenly river and the bratwurst fell from above like rain drops. We had WAY too much fun, drinking, eating, dancing, and singing @ the top of our lungs. People around us were soon joining us and it turned out we were a lot more entertaining than most of the other parts of the event. They will remember us for a long time here. We met and had pictures taken with the Mayor and the Royalty. Some of the crew actually got up this AM and ran in the 10K run and Fast Lucas placed 1st in his age group and 2nd overall, oh to be young and foolish again!! I did not rally well this morning and stayed in bed until 1100, 1st time I've slept that late in almost 1 month. Moon, Justin, and I toured the Schell Brewery, great tour, and free beer. The beer went down hesitantly, but hey, it was free. The tour itself was very informative and interesting, well worth the time and bike ride to get there. Came back to the dorm, folded clothes and tent, packed up my bags and ready for the next stretch on the road. This has been a life changing trip so far and I value every day and the people that I have met, Do follow your dreams, for they can come true! Sorry to get so philosophical on you but I can feel the end closing in on me and I'm afraid to be swept back into the old routine!
On to new adventure in the AM, YEEEEEHA!!!!!!
posted by ltsullivan3 at 11:01 AM
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