I got off to a late start...don't ask. Then before hitting the road I stopped to fill the tires with air and boy did frustration come looking for me, but I prevailed. I picked my helmet up off the ground, took some deep breaths to calm down before it got out of control and in a dangerous place. With that I was finally off. Finally.
Jockeying through Minneapolis got me thinking about the poor designers working in those boxes. The ride then took me to new places within about 40 minutes, of starting out. It’s coming into harvest time and so the farmers are out moving the hay around, harvesting corn and soybeans too. I always love this time of year for the simplicity of life. Winter is coming so you stock up the food shelves. But it is also so beautiful the new colors emerging from the infinite number of greens. It just looks warmer even though, as today proved, its getting colder.
I grew up in Minnesota so riding through these towns I've heard of but never been too was quite interesting by how so completely small they are. They are just a square of houses surrounded by trees in the middle of the rolling hills.
But then I got to South Dakota...pavement changed to a sparkling charcoal black, the towns go much further apart and the terrain changes from flat, flat, flat to the rolling hills with beef cattle grazing. And for once I'm not speeding, the limit is posted at 70mph.
Then you get to a place like Roscoe that offers free camping (though donations appreciated) and in a park that might as well be in my folk’s backyard and you begin to see a greater generosity then you normally would think possible in any town. The camp is part to the town park that is maybe one city block square and has space for about three or four campers. The town itself was pretty small but the park offered running water, flush toilets, and sinks.
Today was pretty chilly. But halfway across Minnesota I was finally beginning to warm up and good thing too because the road actually got interesting, well, for about an hour. By interesting I mean relative to the straight lines on the maps.
I had it in my mind to make some decent miles today since...well South Dakota isn't really a mecca for riders but it does offer some wide open spaces to at least think about life outside of the city and therefore trade off miles for getting to the actual trip highlights of the mountain roads.
Motorbike is running great. I swear it runs better than before I had it serviced at the BMW dealer in Vermont. I think it is mostly due to a different brand of spark plug. I can go about 145 miles before the low fuel warning light goes on. And let me tell you the new bicycle shorts I bought with the gel pad in the butt are night and day better in soothing my patience with the ergonomics. The seat caused a lot of concern before committing to the trip because a sore butt after two hours means the next ones get even worse and I would be putting in many a miles over the course of two plus weeks.
But its 8:10 and the sun set a while back so I am going to crawl inside my tent with my new book and then get me some shuteye.
Did I mention the hand dryer in the bathroom here? Might not have all the conveniences of home but for the price that made my day, if it only reached my tent.
Nighty night.

Route: I-494 to Highway 110, west to Highway 62, to I-35W, north to I-94, west to Highway 12, to Roscoe.