We had to retrace three miles to get to our “Rails to Trails” course; once again enjoying the small town as we rode through on this gorgeous 59° Sunday morning.  A rails to trails course is a pathwaycreated in place of an old rail line.  While the tracks are gone, much that grew up beside them remains.The benefits of this course are numerous, but our two favorites are low grades on any climb and quiet from the cars and trucks.  Today’s trail was filled with tall trees,

vast fields and of course, thousands of lakes (most of which are pictured below).

The morning’s clear sky allowed the camera to focus on the beautiful lakesas many as there are, each one was different.

We were surprised how few people we saw on this fabulous trail, though we did run into three month old Willow, who could not sit still for a good picture,but loved a good scratching.  We stopped for coffee at one of the crossroads, but mostly took lots of pictures of lots of lakes….beautiful day.  Biked a few miles with Mark, discussing biking and running, but he couldn’t maintain our slow pace.  As we approached our destination, we stopped at The Depot for lunch, struggling to stay in the sun for warmth to combat the cold breeze coming out of the north.

After lunch we had our picture taken with the discoverer of the New World, Ole; though most historians would tend to differ.  Though our 52 miles was not a tough ride, we will rest, Eat then sleep, Well!

It was a beautiful 62° morning with a warm sun and cool breeze.  We knew we were going to have to face that breeze later, but for the first hour and a half it was mild and off to our shoulder enough to not be a problem.  Another two mile retrace of our path from yesterday and we were back on the glorious rail line. Saw one lake on the way out of town, but definitely not as many as yesterday, but the fields and sky made up for it. Saw a darling filly comforting in her mom’s breakfast and a baby chipmunk, still too young to run from the camera.

Our bend in the trail occurred about the same time the wind picked up to about 10 to 15 mph.  It was not brutal and we had breaks when the trees lined the path. There were not a lot of small towns along our ride, but we had the unusual experience of biking through their back yards.  Remember, these home used to back up to the railway.  But each town had an impressive church this one a duplicate bird feeder and a veterans memorial. These towns have paid heavily for our wars.

Large farms and larger fields bordered our Lake Wobegon trail.

Stopped for lunch at Melrose Place we are not making this up for a light lunch of salad, sandwich, divine tortilla soup and apple pie ala mode.“We” waddled to our destination twelve miles away, our gateway marked with a bike friendly greeting.Since the finish to lunch was so tasty, thought we’d try if for dinner too.We are either going to have to bike longer than 50 miles a day, or cut back on the eating……soon!

Clouds hung low in the sky from the early morning rain, but the precipitation was done (we hoped), as we headed out of the door at 7:00.  The temperature was the same as yesterday, but the gray sky and breeze made it feel quite cool.  For the first 18 miles, we rode the rail trail and enjoyed every peaceful moment.  Flowers along the path had come out overnight from the rain, the droplets on the grass and weeds was beautiful.Crossed a covered bridge into Holdingford, the town most closely resembling Garrison Keller’s ficticious Lake Wobegon.  For years the town resented the implication, but they have obviously come to embrace the attention.The day remained cloudy, which gave a subtle hue to the fields we passed.

Our trail came to an end in Bowlus, home to Duane Bobick one of the great American heavyweights.

It is also where we met Bill, visiting his favorite waitress at the local cafe. He volunteered to tow us to the next town behind his bike, we declined.  Bowlus is a cute town, as so many of them are; this is their firestation.

We knew we had enjoyed the rails to trails, but instantly realized how spoiled we’d become, when our course turned onto the country road; the grades changed and the road was not paved for bicycles.  We still made the best of our overcast day,thankful for the coolness.  More fields, large trees and small forests, plus the occasional bull and farm frivolity.We dragged through our last 15 miles, but were encouraged when we saw this sign; if it had only been warmer, we would have taken a swim.  We refrained, knowing we still had a few miles to town.  The slight head wind and tired legs made our 63 miles tougher than it should be; but a day off is on the horizon.  Two more miles to go to cross the 2000 mile mark, hopefully halfway.

The early morning rain left the clouds just covering the sun, maintaining the cool morning for a comfortable ride. We were surprised, with all the abundance of water, open fields, boarded by forests, that the only wildlife we had seen was turkeys and they were very camera shy.  The horses and cows, however, always seemed interested in our appearance on the roads.

Eighteen miles down the road we stopped at the Bicycle Bunkhouse in Dalbo.Just a few years ago, Don (retired Army pilot) converted his hundred year old barn to house touring bikers and is extremely generous with his time and facility.  We couldn’t make an overnight stay work with our schedule, but we did stop in to meet and thank him for what he has done for the biking community. He also showed us a nice shortcut to our destination.

We continued on our country road, crossing the Rum River at least twice more;or maybe we were just going in circles looking for the Coke and lime!

Off our bike course, we traveled through a larger town complete with a MacDonald’s where we bumped into Bill and Linda, whom we had met when we had just started this ride over a month ago.  Though we have all been heading in the same direction, they have been traveling east through Canada and had just dropped back into the states.  Spent some time catching up on where we had all been and where we were heading next.  Who knows, maybe we’ll see them again in another month.

Our shortcut provided by Don, put us on rails to trails path, sandwiched between the interstate and local road, it was nice to have it to ourselves.  We were only on the trail for about ten miles, which included a quick pass through another state,

a stop at the liquor store for necessary supplies and to meet Katherine, a local biker. As we chatted the clouds began to build; we hoped we’d make it undercover before it opened up.  Our turn from the town of Forest Lake, put the building wind directly at our back; it was just what we needed to tackle the last few miles of rolling hills.

Today we are heading to visit family that we had not seen in almost twenty years, but we were quite surprised when we heard our names being called as we were crawling up one of the hills.  Tony came pedaling up behind us to lead us to his lake cabin, saving us a few miles.  The last few miles to his home was a blur as we tried to catch up on 17 years of “what’s been going on”.  As we are tucking our bikes away, the skies opened and it poured…..perfect timing!  The rain didn’t last long and allowed the rest of the afternoon to RE-LAX! Not sure either of us could have ordered anything more perfect than visiting family in this settingespecially after 74 miles.  We’ll see everyone in a couple of days,time for a day off and to catch up with family.

It would be tough to top the ending to yesterday, as it was perfect, but then so again was today. Slept in, then enjoyed coffee as we watched a bald eagle soar over the lake.  We had a wonderfully relaxing morning, doing not much of anything other than enjoying the view from my cousin’s lake cabin.  A day trip into St Paul and probably the most magnificent Cathedral we have seen in America.We struggled to lay low and actually get some much needed rest, but did stroll down the beautiful residential streets of St Paul for about an hour.We shared more stories about the family then prepared for the evening’s get together with the other cousins.  Meet cousins Tony, Stacy and Marya…..Love you guys and sincerely hope we can get together again SOON! That evening we caught up with lives and the next generation, Kata and 7 month old, Noraover a wonderful spread of salad, roasted vegetables and salmon…it was made to order for me!!  Oh, and fresh raspberry shortcake; obviously we need to start biking to work this off.

It was tough to leave the beautiful lake house this morning, but our legs were eager to move.  We wound our way out of the sleepy neighborhood and back on the roads.About ten miles down the road we crossed St. Croix Natural Riverway into Wisconsin,over a miniature waterfall and into the cute town of Osceola.

The rolling hills had become a bit more aggressive and the wind was starting to build out of the north.  The direction would not be so bad if we were heading directly east, but our course Zigged north and Zagged east all day.  After 18 miles, we decided we needed more energy, so stopped for a hearty breakfast.  If we’d known the hills were going to be this tough, Tony and Joyce may have been stuck with us another day.

We passed a lot of picturesque barns, pastures,a vineyards and even a ski resort; yes, it is that hilly.  By noon, we were still full from breakfast, but stopped at Pap’s for some more water.It was a Gorgeous day and a very scenic ride, the white clouds against the blue sky were mesmerizing, but the wind and hills we beating up our rested legs.  We know Minnesota is known for it’s lakesbut from what we have seen, Wisconsin has a lot too.

We rode a variety of roads, all of them up and down and all roughly paved at best, by the time we’d checked in after 64 miles, we were shot.

Another gorgeous but windy day and another zigzag in and out of the wind.  Many lakes, ponds and picturesque farms; noticeably more farms than in Minnesota.  Again the day was spectacular,  if it were not for the continuous hills and very feisty wind.  While the hills are considerabley more taxing, the scenery was infinitely more interesting.Speaking of interesting…!On very few occasions our route is under construction; do we try to make it through, or take the (inevitably more mileage) detour route?!  We conferred with the locals and they “assured” us we could go through the construction, after all, it was Saturday….obviously, we made it.

The fields were filled with flowers, the farms loaded with horses and cows.

We are still looking for the local cheese, as this the the “country’s dairyland” and home of the “cheeseheads”. A few occasions today, we wound through thick forests, hearing the wind whipping through the treetops; we were happy to have the break, but not looking forward to facing it directly.  For miles we rode through winding roads along the Chetac Lake past weekend and resort homes.  The hills we climbed were short, but constant and super tough grades.  We felt like we had just done the Glacier climb and still had 20 miles to go.  It didn’t help that we could see the ridges in the distance.

We stopped at noon after 40 miles, more for a break from the hills and wind, than to eat, which was a good thing as the bar/grill where we stopped was selling a lot more beers and bloody mary’s, than food.  After lunch the clouds had darkened and wind increased and we prayed we would not get rained on.  We don’t remember much after lunch other than the wind and hills, but then, we don’t remember much of the day except the wind and hills.  Thank goodness for photographs to remind us what we saw.

We rode all the way through Hayward, passing the Fresh Water Hall of Fame as well as what looked like a darling town.  But our “in town” hotel was almost within the city limits.  Sixty three tough miles and six and a half hours on the bike seat; we would not be touring the town.