Written by Nancy

Day 45 – July 12 – 66 Miles, 1,600 feet climbing (Oakwood Lake SP to Marshall)

Woohoo, we have completed state #5 (South Dakota) and have now entered state #6 (Minnesota).  And boy, are these Minnesotans nice people.  Everyone we have talked to so far has welcomed us to Minnesota, asked us about our trip, and told us to enjoy Minnesota.  We rode by a golf course coming into town and some folks yelled from their golf cart, wanting to know where we were from, gave us a whoop when we yelled back Oregon and welcomed us to Marshall, our home for the night.

Our night in the cabin was okay, though between Dave snoring in my ear, and Chris snoring from the other bed, I felt like I didn’t get a lot of sleep.  Someone claims that I was snoring too, but I don’t think so as I am not sure I was asleep long enough to snore!  We didn’t run the air conditioner overnight, as it was pretty loud.  The cabin had windows on each end that had screens, and with them both open we had a nice cross breeze that kept it a comfortable temperature inside.  Though, in hindsight, perhaps the noise of the A/C would have been preferable to the sounds of snoring…

We had another nice sunrise this morning; the humidity is pretty high in the morning which seems to make for a nice orange sun as it comes up.  We were on the road by 7am, back on the same road that we turned off of into the park.  We headed basically due east all day, and like yesterday had a pretty stiff cross wind to make the flattish road seem harder than it should have.  It was about 30 miles to the Minnesota state line, where disappointingly there was no ‘Welcome to Minnesota’ sign.  We did see two posts that would hold a nice sign at the state line, so it looked like someone might have decided they needed one for themselves. 

Once we entered Minnesota we were on State Highway 19, which gave us a straight shot to Marshall.  This was not the route suggested by Komoot or the Adventure Cycling route (Marshall is slightly off the ACA route), but we were seduced by the straight line into Marshall.  The road didn’t have much of a shoulder and what there was often had a rumble strip but the traffic was pretty light and everyone was very courteous about giving us lots of room.  All of the trucks pulled way over into the other lane or waited patiently behind us until they were clear to go into the other lane.  It was a bit wearing though, particularly with the wind from the south trying to push us into the lane and the slight ups and downs to make sure we never really got a flat straight section.

We made our first stop in Minnesota in the small burg of Ivanhoe, where we got our first taste of the Minnesota charm.  We stopped for a snack at a servo (well, for Chris that meant a big sandwich) and the gal behind the counter wanted to know our story, was astounded when we told her we’d ridden from Oakwood Lake State Park (‘that’s all the way over in South Dakota!’, she said), and then was even more astounded when we explained we’d ridden from Oregon and were headed to Maine.  She told everyone in the store and even went out to a guy who was pumping gas to tell him the story.  As we left, she told us to have fun in Minnesota.  It was a fun stop, and helped us get the rest of the way into Marshall.

The border region between South Dakota and Minnesota had a really large collection of wind turbines, way more than we’ve seen anywhere else on the trip.  It looked like pretty fertile farm land but turbines don’t take up much room and they reportedly produce about $8,000 per year per turbine for the land owner.  It’s hard to see why there wouldn’t have been more wind farms out in South Dakota where there weren’t any farms as for sure, the wind was blowing there just as much as in the border region.  It could be politics as South Dakota had more visible oil fields, further research is required.

We are taking a rest day here in Marshall tomorrow, primarily to do some planning for our route into Minneapolis, where we hope to take a few days off to explore a bit and then onward from there.  And, truth be told, we all could use a day off the bikes to give our legs a rest.  This last section of 70+ mile days with continual ups and downs and winds has been tough.  After a good feed at a sports bar near us we are ready for a good night’s sleep.