Day 49 – July 31, 2015 – Bowlus MN to Milaca MN – 73 miles
The day started so well. We had some conversations with some local retired men who visited us in the park, we had a nice homemade oatmeal breakfast with walnuts, raisons and fresh apple slices. Yum. Wind was in our favor and we got moving along just fine.
It all seemed so perfect as we approached the mighty Mississippi river. The beauty of the river amazed and moved us as we stopped on the bridge before crossing. Just imagine, we are crossing the Mississippi. The world will change when we do, and it did. First of all, I had a desire to capture it all by camera but failed to communicate that to Gregg properly. I wanted him to film me crossing the bridge also but he kept going another 1/4 mile down the road before I caught up to him. We went back to the bridge and argued about that misunderstanding. The mood turned soar.
Just about a mile farther down the road Gregg noticed that his crankset was moving left and right. Big problem, we needed to find a hardware store quickly so that he could tighten it. Just a few miles down the road we got to Royalton. Hardware store didn’t have the right size Allen wrench. We crossed the highway to go to a car repair shop, he had the right wrench but it didn’t seem to be the problem. Gregg was very concerned about going any further with this issue. The nice mechanic suggested we ride 11 miles in the opposite direction of where we were going to go to a bike shop in Little Falls. Gregg said we had no choice. So we pedal along for a short moment on the highway that didn’t have a good shoulder leaving Royalton. I quickly looked on Google maps for an alternative route which I found. We proceeded up the road, Gregg going very slowly to avoid more damage.
After riding up an down hills, getting chased by farm dogs, riding for 2 miles on loose gravel roads, we finally got to a little bike shop called “Touright Bike Shop”. There we found another one of our Tour Angles – Dave. A former minister and avid bicyclist who also crossed the country a few year back. He took apart the problem part, checked things out, found out that it was a missing spacer. This may have been due to a incompetent bike mechanic in Fargo. After about an hour of work he got the bike fixed and ready to continue. He refused to take our money. I bought a t-shirt and we thanked Dave and invited him to come to LA and go sailing with us. Maybe he will?
Well we were now 70 miles from Dalbo the touring bicyclists campsite and Don’s barn, would we make it there today? After having lunch we did not get back on the road until about 1:30pm, very late. It was hot, we were tired from our morning ride to Little Falls, it wasn’t very likely. But we pushed forward to give it our best try.
The winds were in our favor, but I was truly tired. The mid day sun, the bumpy country roads we needed to take to get back on our tour route, were getting to me. But we continued, pushed ourselves hard. We got to Milaca at about 7pm, only 2 more hours of daylight and 18 miles to go. I wanted to buy some food to cook, fresh veggies, etc… by the time we left the grocery store it was 7:30pm. Just too late to make it safely. As Gregg said, it would be very dangerous to ride the country roads after dark, we must remember all the white crosses of Montana. The farmers coming out of the taverns driving home….danger. So we pulled into the only hotel we saw – Super 8 by the highway. I was very sad but understood that it was the better decision.
Unfortunately, this difficult day ended with more difficult news. Gregg’s friend Allen who has been hospitalized for over 1 month now has taken a turn for the worse. Our thoughts have been with him and everyday we have been taking moments of our ride to send positive healing thoughts to him. Sadly, it does not look good. So the day ends on a low note. We love you very much Allen!
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