Well - we can say it was a "multi" state day today. We started in North Branch, Minnesota along I-35, traveled through, up and down, along back country roads through the small town of Shafer. More twisty, curvey roads past pasture and field. At Osceola, we crossed the Saint Croix River into Wisconsin.
We are now in state number two for the day The route 'roughly' followed the St. Croix on the Wisconsin side and seemed to have more twists and turns than a cork screw. The route dropped down on Avenue E to river level where we once again crossed over the Saint Croix River.
Sign at the top of the hill leading down
into the river valley and bridge back
into Minnesota.
Guess there is a message here!
Crossed the bridge and back into Minnesota. I am sure we can count that as three states for the day! Ha
Looking forward to a visit this afternoon with a very long time friend of mine from my days of living in Minneapolis. Charlotte and I both worked at Prudential in 1969-70 and were room-mates for much of a year. Charlotte and her husband, Pat, still live in the Minneapolis area and are meeting us for dinner in Stillwater. Will be very fun to see both Charlie and Pat after so many years.
Signing off,
Patty on the curvey road
NOTES FROM TOM: A fairly enjoyable and interesting ride today. As Patty said, 57 miles of twisty turney country roads - some 2700 feet of climbing on today's route. Some surfaces were pretty rough, some were great and smooth. Some downhill sections at 40 mph, and some 11% uphills that brought us nearly to a standstill. It was not warm, but it was sunny, so we've lowered our expectations of what a good day is.
Rode by a "Maple syrup for sale sign" and called back to have Patty stop and stock up, but when she got there there was nobody home except for an overweight, very friendly black lab that tried to lick her to death -- a loss for us and them. We'll have to keep looking for some place to stock up on the real syrup.
On the wildlife front, today I saw my first turtle. Other sightings have included deer, fox, turkeys (not us), and a beautiful red bird (not a cardinal) that we don't know the name of. Of course we see ducks and geese all the time. After the dog incident the other day, I'm a little gun shy, so when I hear a dog bark, I pedal first and look second. Lots of barkers today but no chasers.
Hoping the rain doesn't come back tomorrow as forecast.
Tom.
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