Mostly a Bluegrass Party, With a Little Biking on the Side for Good Measure

Robert and I

First night out on the road from Minneapolis, Robert and I made it 86 miles to Wabasha, where we stayed in the Tee Pee of a warmshower's host, Terry.  Terry wasn't home but he let us use the Tee Pee and pool house.  We took upon ourselves to make good use of his hot tub and beer collection as well; I don't think he would mind.  Terry is a retired airline pilot and has a beautiful house right on the banks of the Mississippi.  It was a good end to a pretty miserable day-- we ended up riding in the dark for almost two hours...

Tee Pee

The next day we set out for Lacrosse, WI.  We stopped in Winona for some lunch at the local co-op.  While eating I checked my email and saw that someone I contacted in Winona on couchsurfing had offered to let us stay.  I didn't really want to stop for too long in Winona, so we strapped on helmets and were just about to head out, when I had some second thoughts.  It was getting a little late in the day, and it was kinda cold and cloudy out-- not really fun riding weather.  Maybe we could stay just one night.  So we met up with out host, Chen.  We ended up finding the best bar in Winona (Ed's No-name bar) and having a few beers.  It was a fun time, but tomorrow, we would hit the road again!

Well the next morning I woke up to a text: Charlie Parr is playing tonight at the Boats and Bluegrass Festival.  Now I had heard about this festival from another couchsurfer, and I knew Charlie Parr would be at it, but I didn't think he would be playing until later in the weekend, so I never thought we would actually see him.  For those of you who don't know, Charlie Parr is one of my favorite bluegrass musicians.  He is from Duluth MN and he really embodies the spirit of bluegrass.  In Robert's words "He's pretty much the king shit".  And I had been seeing fliers for his shows in small towns all summer across my trip, but I kept missing him by a week.  And now he's playing here in Winona tonight!  Chen knew some people working at the show and he told us he might be able to get us in for free, so of course, we stayed another day.  Spent the day donating blood, hanging in coffee shops, attending philosophy club meetings, and getting more and more excited to see the The Man, CP.
 

Main Stage during the day

Everybody dresses goofy at a bluegrass festival...

Chen got us in for free a couple hours before Charlie took the stage, and while waiting to use a Port-o-john, who do I run into but my old friend from the bakery, Kat Labine!  We had no idea she would be there so it was a great surprise; We all danced it up together at the Charlie Parr show and had a great time. And let me tell you, Charlie was great!  Two encores, everyone in the crowd dancing, it was awesome.  The venue was pretty incredible as well, very small and intimate, not too many people, good beer for sale and they let you bring in any food and drinks you want. So much fun.  But really, tomorrow we will get on the road and make some good cycling progress!

My Sunglasses couldn't survives the enthusiasm of Kat's hug

Friends!!

Well, it would be short ride to LaCrosse, so we might as well go see some bluegrass before leaving...  Ha!  You can't just attend a couple hours of this party and not stay all night!  So we stayed another day.  This time we set up a tent in the middle of the shanty town of tents that sprung up next to the venue (the Blue-verville, if you like) and called Robert's girlfriend and her roommate to come down and party with us.  The music was excellent of course.  The music itself ended at 1:30, but after the show a bunch of the musicians who were (camping right next to us) started up a big fire and jammed until 7:00 in the morning.  I didnt stay up that late, but it was great party. 

Sunset on the Mississippi

Well it would still be a short ride to LaCrosse, so we might as well go see some bluegrass before leaving... It was now the last day of the festival so we watched a couple shows, and this time we were able to drag ourselves away!  We had a real nice ride the rest of the way to LaCrosse and met up with our host, Nicole.  We didn't know how to get downtown, but our instructions when we arrived were to "follow the sounds of drunken madness..."  We arrived on the second day of the week long Octoberfest celebration in LaCrosse, which apparently people from all over the world come to.  Even Germans! And it was absolutely crazy--  Very much like Springfest (or Appleblossom for my Wenatchee people), only 10 times more people!  And not just college students, either.  The streets were closed and people were everywhere.  We had a few drinks, but didn't get too crazy.  In many ways it was very different from the laid back atmosphere of the Bluegrass fest; but we had a great time!  I didn't get any pictures though so here are some giant pictures I found on google search of giant six packs in La Crosse...

Tunnel built in 1870s

The next day Robert hitched a ride back to Minneapolis.  It was a shame he couldn't make it all the way to Madison, but we had a great time!  I continued the ride east, but I was hit with three solid hours of steady rain.  I was pretty well soaked through after the first 30 minutes or so, and to make matters worse, I was riding on a crushed limestone path (not paved) which was muddy and riddled with apples and rocks large enough to cause a fall if you hit them just right.  I took a break in Sparta WI; its a small town that claims to be the bicycling capital of America.  I don't think I saw any other riders on the road, but they did have a museum dedicated entirely to bicycles, airplanes and astronauts.  I had to check it out!

Next Stop, Madison WI!

Fargo to Minneapolis...and beyond?

Sorry for the delay in the reporting.  It’s been a crazy few weeks since leaving Grand Forks.  I've got to experience soo much, I feel like I crammed an entire summer's worth of fun into just a couple weeks.  (Though I suppose my entire summer has been like that...)  So let me think back and share a few tidbits with y'all...

I made it to Fargo!  And after waking up earlier than I have had to wake up for anything this entire summer we rode out to the Cyclocross race site.  My plan was to just watch my friends in the race, then hit the road, but it looked like too much fun, so I took all my bags off the bike and signed up!  Long Haul Trucker with road tires, don't fail me now!  The race was a blast, though some knobby tires would've been nice, and afterwards we all went out for pizza and beer.  Like I said, the plan was to ride on to Fergus Falls that day, but pizza and beer in the afternoon don't really make you want to ride 70 miles.  So I stayed another night in Fargo.  Just a relaxing evening in.

The next day I made the largely uneventful ride to Fergus Falls.  I stayed with a couchsurfer Haley, and her family.  They were quite nice, and fed me a tasty dinner and dessert (home made key lime pie).  Haley and I went out for a beer afterward and ended up drinking with some locals who were quite drunk and rambunctious.  One claimed to be the guy who invented the lighter-at-a-rock-concert thing.  A tall tale, perhaps but I like to believe its true...he just seemed so convinced of it.  Anyways, the next day Haley rode with me out of town.  We got to a bit of a late start, but the whole day was on a beautiful paved bike path, 115 miles from Fergus Falls to St. Cloud.  It was a beautiful day and we had a great tailwind.  Haley decided to stop at Alexandria, so after a picnic lunch, I rode on solo the rest of the way to St. Cloud.  I got in after dark and got a little lost trying to find my next couchsurfing host (Thanks for the directions, Aaron).  And to make matters more difficult, I was greeted by a local who thought it would be a good idea to throw an unopened can of beer (or possibly soda) at me.  It hit, and exploded right in front of my front tire.  Thanks, jerk.  But I did make it to my next couchsurfing host, Rebekah, who greeted me with spaghetti, not thrown at me, but instead placed carefully in front of me, on a plate, with an open invitation to eat it. 

Haley and I about to hi the road

The next day I rode into MSP, and I only got lost once while navigating the bike paths.  I rode into downtown, straight to Barrio, a tequila bar that I had been to before, for some world class guacamole.  It was delicious.  I’m going to go ahead and say it: Best guac I've ever had.  Then to my sister Ingrid's place in St. Paul for some tasty, reasonably-priced pizza. 



The View from the Guac

I spent about a week in the Minneapolis St. Paul area.   Ingrid was pretty busy with school most days and sick with a cold so I entertained myself riding around St. Paul, hanging out with friends, and veggin out watching episodes of Community. 

And you will be pleased to hear I got my dance on, to the max of course.  Friday night Ingrid, my good friend Robert and his girlfriend (and also a good friend) Ashley and I went out for a classy dinner and then ripped up the floor of a couple dance clubs.  The best dancing of the night was at Club Jager.  Good music, plenty of room to groove, and most importantly it wasn't full of baseball-capped, polo collar popped D-bags and their overly made-up arm candy who would rather stand and text on the dance floor then get down.

Overall I had a great time in the Minneapolis area, but with winter fast approaching it was time to move on.  Robert is going to ride with me for a ways (possibly to Madison) so that will be a fun change of pace.


Robert and I getting Ready to hit the Road

 Now, as I write this entry, I am in La Crosse, WI.  I only had time to write about this leg of the journey, because the next leg (St Paul to Madison) has already been so full of adventure, excitement and good times it would've taken way to long.  But let me give you a little taste of what's to come...Couchsurfing with a host who let us use his TeePee despite the fact he was out of town, a lunch in Winona that turned into three days of a bluegrass festival, meeting old friends and making new ones at the bluegrass festival, and an evening of October fest in La Crosse, that easily makes both Grand Fork's Springfest and Wenatchee's Appleblossom festival look like church picnics.  And I don't even know what will happen in Madison...

A Farewell to Grand Forks

Woa! Where did those three plus weeks go?  I feel like it was just the other day that I was rolling into town, excited for a beer at Rhombus and some cheesy pickles at the Frog.  It has been absolutely great seeing all of you lovely people again-- you know who you are!
But seriously... I gotta get outta this place!  I need to be on that road again.  Sure its nice to have that roof over your head.  Its nice to have your best pals on either side of you while you sip drinks at the bar.  But I am itching to get out of here.  But, let me bring you up to speed on what I've been doing here in Grand Forks...

Mostly drinking

Well now that you're all caught up on what I've been up to, I suppose you can go back to surfing facebook, checking your email and all those other important online tasks.  Thanks for stopping by, I will talk to you later!




Bakery, featuring Aaron

 Ha!  Just kidding people, there has been so much more to my stay than the bottle.  Much more.  I've been doing it all!  Eating tasty food at the bakery (That's Dakota Harvest Bakery) going on bike rides with the pals, smoking fine Panamanian cigars, sipping Espresso, reading books in the park, throwing the frisbee around.  Shit, what haven't I done?!  There has been great live music at the Art Museum, fun dancing at a buddy's wedding, making new friends, going to art openings at a few local galleries.  Oh, and then there was the nine straight hours of mountain biking from 11:00PM to 8:00 AM at the 24 hour Adventure race-- yea that was pretty amazing.  And what have I been doing in between all of these fun, healthy and productive activities?  Mostly Drinking! Rhombus, of course, the Frog, the Hub, Blue Moose - I've raised many a glass with my good friends here, and loved every minute of it.

Adventure Race!



 But now its time to move on.  I gotta keep moving east, chasing that adventure, painting the roads with my tires.  I've been saying it for the last week at least.  And I would've left days ago, had I not procrastinated and left all of my chores and errands to the very end of my stay.  But oh well.  That's life through the eyes of Greg.  (Clearly Im not wearing my contacts).

Quick update: I've made it to Fargo! Had a few drinks at Rhombus (the fargo location, of course)-- its weird.  Its Rhombus, but its not rhombus.   Tomorrow I will hit up the Fargo Cyclocrosss race, then ride to fergus falls!

Eastern MT and ND is Soooo Boring

Ok, Im sorry to all those who live in and love eastern MT and ND, but really, there isn't much out there. I left Billings after a couple days off from riding. It was great to take a break, but Billings was a bit lame.  A sprawled out death maze full of insane drivers would be the best way for me to describe it.  So I wasn't too sad to put it behind me.  The next few days were spent heading East along the interstate.  I stopped in Custer, Miles City, Glendive and a few other towns along the way.  Not much to say about 'em, really.  Miles City seemed pretty OK.

There were a few fun moments.  I stopped in Terry MT at a bar to refill my water.  The people inside started asking me about the ride and when I told them what I was doing they were so impressed they gave me $20.00!  My first Sponsor! That felt pretty good.  So if any of you are ever in Terry MT, get yourself a drink at the bar-- good people there! 

It took about four days to ride from Billings to the border or ND.  Then another four days across ND.

One of my worst days of the entire trip was riding from Glendive North up to Williston along highway 16.  Just about everything that happened to me was bad.  I woke up with terrible back pain and feeling a bit sick.  I drank some mediocre coffee in a cafe and planned my route.  By the time I set out the wind was blowing strong from the North, so I had a good headwind to contend with all day.  And of course, the shoulder was quite narrow and the traffic was terrible.  A lot of oil trucks, the drivers of which do not feel it necessary to move over for cyclists.  But whatever.  Add to that a couple miles of construction to ride through, dodging semis, dump trucks and steam rollers, but again, whatever.  I stop to get some water and looking ahead to the NW and I see rain clouds forming.  I decided to press on, hoping that I can get to the next town (Sidney) before the rains hit.  Of course it is slow riding because the wind is still blowing.  I'm about five miles from Sidney when the downpour hits, and I am soaked.  Then it lets up a little.  Then it hits me again, this time just two miles from town.  I arrive right when the rain stops for good.  awesome.  I rest, eat a little and decide to press on, but of course the wind is still blowing.  So I ended up camping in Fairview MT, right on the border of ND.  Shitty day, I suppose, but they are bound to happen.  The next day I turned east, only to find that the wind shifted and is now blowing out of the east.  Awesome.

But overall, I kicked ass in North Dakota.  Crossed the whole thing in four days!  I stayed in Tioga, Minot, Rugby, and of course, Grand Forks.  But it wasn't much more exciting than Eastern MT.  Highway 2 was fairly dangerous West of Minot due to the oil traffic and the tiny shoulder, but I survived.  Minot looked like a war zone with entire neighborhoods abandoned due to the flood.   The highpoint of ND was definitely the last day.  I finally had some luck with the winds: about 30 mph blowing straight out of the west!  I rode the 153 miles from Rugby ND to Grand Forks in just over seven hours.  It was pretty incredible.  Most of the time I was cruising around 25 mph on level ground.  Great fun!

So here I am in Grand Forks.  I am going to take a much needed break, eat some much needed pizza and drink some much needed beer for a while before heading out again.   

 

Yellowstone, Land of the tourists

We rode into Yellowstone the next day.  Thankfully, the campgrounds (which usually fill up by 11 in the morning) always keep a few campsites open for hikers and bikers.  This was the first time I had to pay for a place to sleep since the start of the trip, but we figured that stealth camping in YS (land of the super bears) would probably be a bad idea.  Shit, its probably even a felony.  So we paid up.  But the campgrounds were quite nice and only five bucks a night for cyclists.
We spent the next few days riding to a campsite, setting up, then riding on, unloaded, to check out the sights.  Let me just say, that Yellowstone is an awesome place.  There is some incredible scenery and a great deal of wildlife cramed into that park.  We saw hot springs, gysers, canyons, waterfalls, elk, buffalo and I even got to see a grizzly (though it was pretty far away).  Here are some pictures:

But Yellowstone did have a few drawbacks.  Unless you go on some serious hikes, you never really get away from the most abundant animal in the park, Homo Sapiens.  Cars everywhere, busses, RVs, children, the elderly, the obese, the ignorant, Yellowstone can proudly claim them all.  And they're not bad people, I really have nothing against them, I was just kind of expecting a more personal and intimate experience with the park.  But Oh well.  I would love to come back some day and do some real backpacking/camping.

My last day in the park I rode out the North East entrance through Cooke City.  It was the first time in a while that I could get cell reception or check my email, and I was a little disappointed to be connected again.   I stopped for a little while in Cooke City before riding up and over Coulter Pass (around 8800') to my campsite on the other side.  The next day would be probably the biggest physical challenge of the ride so far:  Beartooth pass.  Topping out at just under 11,000 ft, I had been dreading this one ever since arriving in Yellowstone.  I honestly wasn't sure if I would be able to get over it.  And what would I do if I failed?  Would I have to stealth camp with the bears somewhere halfway up?  Would I become sick with the altitude and have to ride all the way down?  What if I had to turn all the way around and go back through Yellowstone?

I didn't sleep too well that night.
But I did oversleep the next morning!  Pop quiz, folks: Was Greg (a) early to depart the campsite (b) right on the desired ETD or (c) late ?

If you answered (a) or (b) you clearly haven't learned anything about how Greg works.

I was a little late to start to the day which wasn't good because I was worried that Thunderstorms would pop up in the afternoon.  But I rode on.  I started the day looking up at the Mountains surrounding the Clark Fork River around my campsite and by late morning I was looking down on them and I still had at least 1000 ft to climb.  It was a slow ride to the top, but it was honestly, a lot better than I thought.  The grade was steady and the road was in good condition.  And the view all the way up (and going down) was sooo incredible. 

 I received a lot of encouragement and looks of astonishment from the drivers as they passed me by, which was fun.  I also received a lot of mosquito bites.  I was only putting out about 6-8 mph on the way up and with the slight tailwind I had, the mosquitoes where able to keep up with me.  So I had to try to swat them away as I churned up the never ending pass.  (I later counted over 80 mosquito bites on me, mostly on my back.  They had no problem poking me through my jersey)  But it was all worth it at the top.  What a view!

That's me at the top

See that road down there? That's were I will be riding in just a few minutes.

And the ride down the other side was great! I rolled into Red Lodge around 4:00 PM.  I took a little break and looked around for a place to camp.  I didn't have much luck, So I decided to make a run for Billings.  Its only 60 more miles.  So a little before 6:00 PM I set out for Billings, where I knew my man, Danny W, would have a place for me to crash.  I made good time to B-town, but i was sooo tired by the end.  120 miles by the end of the day.  I slept well that night.