Waaaaaaaah!

Day 38: Nashwauk to Hermantown, MN--93 miles

Milestone: 2000 miles!

I was expecting a short day to follow up on our day off...WRONG!

We started the day out leisurely with ANOTHER great meal at John and Terry's house. Egg "hot dish" (a Minnesota term for any casserole), granola, and bacon. Yum! At breakfast Amy had a saying that stuck with me for the rest of the day: "FAIR is the place you bring your prize pig." She uses this saying with her kids, and it will really ring true after you hear about our "un-fair" day...

We left our home away from home at John's house at about 11:30. We had a great morning! They are really fun people, and we imagined how much Tom would have liked talking with John about woodworking! It was hard to say good-bye, but we went on our way. Jenny was headed back to Minneapolis to pack for her trip to Equador, and John and Terry had a woodworking/storytelling demo scheduled for the weekend and were getting ready for that.

Our ride began on the bike path out of Nashwauk. We took the Mesabi bike trail and stopped about 20 miles later in Hibbing for lunch. We found a great restaurant in this nice town--Amelia's. They had a porketta sandwich on the menu, and we decided to try it because it is an Iron Range specialty. It was good! Sort of a spicy barbequed pork without sauce. I think the main spice is fennel, and we liked it. Amelia's had many other awesome items on their menu--I drooled over the spinach salad with fruit (FRESH berries, etc.). Maybe next time...

From Hibbing, we headed south out of town, and then continued in a checkerboard south and east. At this point we entered the green desert. Although it was green all around us, there was NOTHING. No people, few cars, and NO services available. It was pretty flat and all the trees were way off the road. So there was not even a good place for me to pee on the side! We were really surprised to find such desolation right in the middle of Minnesota!

At about 50 miles intot he ride, I took a break and told David "I'm ready to be done for the day! Let's find a place to stop." He laughed and said, "I think it's going to be a long day." We didn't know at that point HOW long...

It turns out that the next available hotel was 43 miles further down the road! There was almost nothing in between, either. We cut out to the main road and thought we'd find something at Canyon, MN. At that "town" there is a bar. This particular bar looked like a rough place, but we went in because I was out of water. I filled up and we had a ginger ale. While we were there, two people offered us places to stay. One gentleman said we could sleep in his camper and he would sleep in the cab of his truck. The bartender said we could set up our tent on his property. The problem? No running water! I had recently re-committed to my one-shower-a-day routine, so this was a problem for me...

So we decided to move on. There were towns along this road 12 miles further and then several after that. Of course we would find something soon!

WRONG again! We left the bar at about 7:30 p.m. Then the hills started--after an entire day of flat terrain.

We found the town of Twig--NOTHING there. Next town--NOTHING. And so on, and so on...

Finally, we were about 15 miles from Duluth and had been about 85 miles. David said the absolutely WRONG thing "I think we're golden--looks like we'll make it before dark." Of course, that was right before I had a FLAT tire!

So there we were--watching the sun go down. It was getting colder and darker by the minute. David went into FAST action mode and changed that tire in 5 minutes flat! Then off we went. The last 10 miles or so of our ride were purely adrenalin. We raced as fast as we could toward town. Would we make it before dark? Would we get more flat tires because we couldn't see the road? Would we expire before we got there? We put on our flashers and David put on his flashing headlight. I was behind with my trusty reflective vest--and we finally made it to Hermantown just as people were starting to use their headlights on the road.

We pulled into the first motel we found, and checked in for the night at about 9:45 p.m. It was a LONG day, and we ate pizza for dinner at about 10:30! David found some good beer at the next-door bowling alley with Dave's Pizza attached. I drank not one, but TWO Sutter Home Chardonnay's! How low can I go???

But it was a good meal, and we met a guy from the Air Force who has just recently returned from Iraq (his second tour). He said they had many close calls--so keep all those guys in your prayers. They need it!

We hit the sack at about midnight after a too-long (and not very fair) day!