Skip to main content

 

Day 18

 

Alexandria to Minneapolis, MN


62 miles / 1,750 feet of elevation


Sunny / warm start, 56° but fall is coming!  We learned that snow has fallen on some of our route already – we just snuck in these rides on the Northern tier route in this year. 

 

We feel sad this journey is coming to an end but blessed to have been able to complete one half of the Northern tier this year.  Spring / late Summer 2022, Minneapolis to Bar Harbor, Maine!


We continued our ride for 62 miles today on the nicest bike path we have ever encountered.  As I said in yesterday’s notes, Minnesota’s roads stunk out loud and their shoulders were non-existent.  But this bike path is super fantastic.  Smooth, safe, quick riding and great views all around.  This old railway route, converted to a bike path, is really special.

The old rail route connected farming towns outside of Minneapolis St. Paul and today the towns have embraced the bike 100 percent.  (See photo with bike and “roadside repair kit,” with pump!  Very cool.)


In many of the towns they have displays of artwork or graphics depicting their heritage, which they are all very proud of.  The lakes, pastures and crop lands between the towns are also calming to ride through and fun to see.  As we enter and exit the towns on the pathway, the homes which abut the path have beautifully manicured lawns and landscaping.  The pride in their homes and surrounding landscaping is wonderful to see. 


Yes, very sad to complete this first half of the Ride Across America II so soon, but happy and blessed that we had no major mishaps or injuries.  (Also, not a single flat tire – amazing, given some of the terrain and road surfaces we rode!  We had 15-17 flats on the RAA I!)

 

We are also very happy to get back to our wives, Gwen, Marta, Nancy and Kim and we want to once again thank them so very much for allowing us (again) to indulge our boyish quest for epic adventure.  Thank you Gwen, Marta, Nancy and Kim!


Thank you also to the folks we all work with for “holding down the fort” these past 18 days. 

 

Thanks also to Cody and his crew at Skagit Cycle for outfitting us and making sure that all of our bikes were in perfect working order before we left Anacortes, Washington. 

 

Finally, I would also like to thank Carol Simpson and Laura Mack for gathering photos and preparing my dictation for these daily posts.  As always, job very well done you two! 

 

Until next year, we wish you all the very best and remember, “Bodies in motion tend to stay in motion …”




Popular posts from this blog

  Day 6                Libby, MT to Whitefish, MT   50 miles / 3,700 feet of elevation / shortened day due to mechanicals and necessary bike shop stop   Today’s shortened route took us up and over a beautiful mountain course bounded by a lake to our left (for the entire day!) and a mountain wall to our right.   We traversed over gently rolling and sometimes fairly steep hills with long rollouts afterwards.   We had fantastic road conditions and very few, perhaps 12, cars / trucks passed us during this entire day’s ride.   Near perfect day in the saddle with beautiful scenery all around us. From time to time the tranquility of today’s ride, in sharp contrast to yesterday’s “white knuckler,” was integrated by one of us pointing off the road to deer and wild turkeys.  Some of both allowed us to get quite close before they bounded or flocked away from us.    Later in the day we visited a local...
Read more
Day 8   East Glacier to Shelby, MT   85 miles / 2,800 feet of elevation   Montana is the “new Texas” from RAA I, we are in Montana for 5-6 days out of 18.   Growing up in Alaska, my “lower 48” geography is a bit off, I truly had no idea Montana was this large of a state!   However, happy to be in Montana; the roads and shoulders are good, the drivers courteous and share the road willingly.   We have had some trouble with hotel accommodations as the state is not well populated and some towns don’t have hotels for us, so we end up shuttling at the end of the day and beginning of our days.   This shuttling is a very slight inconvenience for the beautiful surroundings we are cycling in. We enjoyed wide open roads with good cycling all day long.  Montana’s “Big Sky” was a treat throughout the day. Again, we tried to show you this aspect of Montana in some of our photos but our photos just don’t seem to do the real thing justice – at times w...
Read more
  Day 5   Priest River, ID to Libby, MT (new state crossing)   102 miles; 3,258 feet of elevation / had to portage two times   Today’s first 25 miles of cycling began with some traffic and narrow shoulders.  From there the traffic and shoulders go progressively worse.  After some “white knuckle” riding we decided to portage (twice) to appease some of the Idaho drivers.  (After a quick vote, Idaho drivers get the “worst etiquette / least favorite state to ride in.”)  We don’t want to bash all Idaho drivers, perhaps the 10 or 11 that let us know of their displeasure with cyclists were just having a bad day?  To be clear, we are riding on several marked bicycle routes across America.  We are riding the Northern route, legitimate “Route 10,” which is one of about seven different routes which begin on the coast and literally go across America from there.  And, we drove this route last October (thinking the pandemic would be o...
Read more