Day 30 - Monday, June 23, Crow Wing to Milaca, MN

DAY 30 - MONDAY, JUNE 23, CROW WING TO MILACA, MN

74.2 mi
4.45.30 st
15.5 avg
TTD-1793.66

“.. A bicycle journey may be longer and more arduous than travel by car, but, with time, distance evaporates in the elation of personal achievement. A bicycle tour may be faster than travel by foot, but its speed is the measured, rhythmic pace of one who, after James Stephens, has ‘quit forever more the brick-built den’ that hides us from all contact with our fellow men.”

~James E. Starrs, The Noiseless Tenor

We woke up at 6:00, got up shortly after. Gerry fixed breakfast while I started putting the stuff in the tent away. I checked sleeping bags and liners inside and out for ticks and other bugs before packing them away. I also made sure there were no bugs in the BOB bag. Did I mention that we were knocking the ticks off the outside of the tent last night?

The road-371-was nice and smooth and flat down to Fort Ripley. We cruised along nicely. Then we turned east onto County 47 which is newly paved. This was nice because there was virtually no traffic and it was smooth riding with a three foot shoulder. The countryside was a little more interesting with some hills and dairy farms. We stopped at one point for some food and used the umbrella for shade as it was starting to heat up. (Good tip, Susan.)

When we crossed hwy 8 the new pavement ended, as did the shoulder, and the road got rough. It remained that way pretty much all the way to Milaca. The constant thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump as we hit the rough seams took a physical toll after so many miles.

It was on 47 that we had our expected dreaded encounter with Minnesota flies. Those pesky things showed up when we were sweating like pigs, then just hung around by drafting us. I mean, I don’t think they can naturally fly 16 mph, so they hang in the dead air space around us. They’d circle around my head a couple times, take aim and clip my ear. That obviously wasn’t enough to stop me, so they’d circle again, zero in and crash into my cheek. Seeing I was not to be deterred, they’d do a kamikaze and try to take out my legs. Sheesh. The only way to get rid of them is to either swat them out of the dead air space or have a gust of wind blow them away.

We stopped at Onamia for lunch in the city park befor turning onto hwy 169 down to Milaca. It was pretty hot by this time and we were drinking quite a lot.

We reached Milaca at 2:00, found the city hall and inquired about motels and camping. The only motel is Super 8 and there was no campground. The library, which was just across the parking lot, was closed.

We rode back out to the Super 8 and were pleasantly surprised by a very reasonable room rate. We snatched it up. After two nights in the tent, evading mosquitos, we were ready for a cool, bug-free room.

When we went back outside to bring the bike in, there he was, splayed out on the ground, with BOB leaning in the same direction. Hah- caught ya! Bad BOB! Just because you didn’t care for the rough road today and we went a little longer again, that’s no reason for you to pick on Silver Streak! Fortunately, he wasn’t hurt at all. Bad BOB!

The first thing we did was laundry. This consists of throwing things into a tub of water and washing each item by hand with either hand soap or Dawn, then rinsing well and wringing as best we can before hanging. Not my preference, but better than the alternative (2-3 days accumulation).After showering, we walked a little over a mile to Pizza Hut(!) for dinner, then over to the grocery store for food for the next two days, then back to the motel. Probably about 2 ½ miles. I didn’t have socks to wear and ended up with a blister on my left ankle bone.