Tag: camping

That’s 60 years…. not miles. Here’s some more of what we’ve learned.

Support your local businesses (bike shops, restaurants, brewers, grocers, etc.). We knew our bikes were due for some maintenance so we called Trailhead Bike Shop a few days ahead to get on their schedule and give them the skinny on what might need to be done to the bikes. We took the bikes in Monday morning and by Monday at 4pm they were ready to ride.

Both the Co-Op and the Cannondale are riding like new. Jeff, Andy and Kendra were over-the-top helpful in explaining what was done and why.

Northern Tier riders, if you need a mid trip tune up, supplies or just air in your tires, this is the place. Call ahead to schedule the tune up though. Their mechanic, Andy, is willing and able but busy (’cause he’s good and thorough).

Protect the bods. Every day we’ve been slathering on the sunscreen and SPFing our lips with ChopSaver. Since we’re outside everyday for most of the day, sometimes in areas with very little shade, our skin and lips get torched. And the protection has paid off. No sunburn, no scorched lips.

The ChopSaver lip balm is one of the items that makes the cut to include in the bag I keep in my back pocket (ChopSaver, drivers license, insurance card and Rosary). It’s just that much of a necessity.

Take time to visit. Our camping destination on Tuesday was 6 miles east of LeRoy. The plan was to stop at a small local restaurant to get dinner before heading to the campground since we were unsure of the skeeter situation at the campground. Not fun to eat and cook in Skeeterville.

We found the restaurant tucked back off the road with a view of Sunrise Lake. Walking into the restaurant we were flagged down by Katie who had a coupon for us to use. She herself was stopping in to cash in her birthday dinner coupon.

As we most always do when we enter a restaurant we scan the walls to check for available outlets to charge our devices. Meanwhile Katy invited us to join them for all-you-can-eat fish and chips.

Pretty sure the restaurant didn’t make any money off all-you-can-eat deals when feeding two hungry cyclists. The fried fish was so, so tasty and the convo with Katie, her husband, Butch and friend, Beth even better. Butch and Katie have a farm in LeRoy and shared a few amusing stories about when they were raising their children in Alaska. Beth, thanks for sharing Katy and Butch at dinner. Katie and Butch, thanks for treating us to the best fish fry I think we will ever experience.

Besides the tuneup on our day off, we were able to stock up on food, get to Mass, get laundry done and putz around Ludington meeting a few locals and Mark from Scotland who is from a town very close to our future son-in-law. Small world.

Oh yea we added a route tracker if you want to track our progress toward the finish line in Bar Harbor, ME. Check it out here.

We also cycled down to the Lake Michigan waterfront to watch the sun set which was a pretty righteous way to end our recovery day.

The ride report on Tuesday? A lot less humid, very little wind and a near perfect day of riding.

Looking ahead the weather appears to offer more of the same providing us with a few days of stellar riding conditions as we make our way across Michigan’s mitten, averaging a little over 70 miles daily.

#acaNoTier Haugen to Clam Lake, 85 Miles | Just an Ordinary Day on The Old Road

West central Wisconsin was gorgeous today. We traveled many country roads and although they are old, they are newly surfaced and infrequently traveled.

Tom says this may have been his favorite day of riding because of the backroads around the lakes, very little wind and although there was almost 3,000 feet of climbing it was hardly noticed because of the twists and turns in the route.

We opted to get dinner in town on our way to the campsite and again reworked our riding plans for the next few days until we get to the Manitowoc ferry. It’s tricky though, because campsites and hotels are scarce as are Warm Showers so it might change again depending how we feel and the weather.

We are now in our tent with a bazillion mosquitos buzzing around just waiting for one of us to emerge.

But… the loons are calling from Clam Lake so I’d say that’s a fine sound to fall asleep to.

#acaNoTier Osceola to Haugen, 69 Miles | From a Latin Mass to a George Jones Tribute Tavern

We started the day waking up in a luxurious king size bed with lots of clean fluffy pillows. Tom rolled out of bed first and went to get us some coffee. What a champ!

After eating a “free” breakfast with a couple of take-away muffins we were off to 8:30 am Mass at St. Joseph, which was just a block away from our hotel.

As we were going in an usher welcomed us and let us know it was a Latin Mass. Hummm I think we have only been to one in our lives.

It was very different. Gosh it’s hard to imagine what it would be like to experience worship like this every Sunday. I find it to be more of an academic experience than a spiritual one as I tried to figure out the what and whys but I would go again!

And let me tell you, the servers at a Latin Mass bring a whole new meaning to the word Mass server.

We began riding about 10 am and our destination was Edgewater, about 85 miles away.

Rural Wisconsin does not disappoint! The county roads were peaceful, scenic and we even encountered a Classic car show in one of the little towns we rode through. It took all of our self discipline not to stop and stay a while. Brats, bevvies, cheese curds – anything you could ever want – but we pressed on.

Although we were shooting for Edgewater we adjusted our destination due to the heat and wind and ended our ride in Haugen, a very small town that had a nice local grocery and just celebrated 40 years of business. #buylocal

Jim, the proprietor, suggested a campground nearby and drew up some directions for us on his “special” stationary.

We’d set up a time to FaceTime with our kids and were eager to get to the campground so we could make that happen however we were having a bit of trouble finding it. Awww those times when you’re tired, hungry, thirsty and want to be done.

Finally we rolled into the Shady Rest Campground and Mike offered us an air conditioned cabin however we opted to camp. Ya know…. we have that camping for cash challenge going on. Every camp night earns $18 for Back on My Feet or St. Vincent de Paul.

We were able to FaceTime with our kids for only a short bit and then we found that George Jones music is alive and well in west central Wisconsin. This little tavern named PoorFolks had every conceivable George Jones artifact. And the folks in there were a lot of fun to talk to.

We spent a bit of time visiting with them and then set up our tent and took a walk down by the lake. Both of us fell asleep immediately and I with my phone in my hand again as I was trying to get a post completed.

We had just a short sprinkle in the middle of the night as if being sprayed with a little holy water for making it all the way through a Latin Mass and darned if Tom and I didn’t both wake up at the same time to the sound of a guitar string breaking. Not kidding. It was as if old George was saying “good night”.

Today’s video features a song dedicated to Tom – with just days away from his half birthday. In these last few months in your 50’s you’re definitely still rockin’ if not on stage, on your bike. And you def don’t need no rockin’ chair, Tombo!

#acaNoTier Pelican Rapids to Sauk Centre, 104 Miles | Ding Ding! Ring that Century Bell Again!

Yep we did another 100 mile ride today!! The morning started with 25 miles on rural rollers and a sweet tailwind. We’d planned ahead to snag a second breakfast in Fergus Falls.

You don’t stop in a Minnesota town named Fergus Falls without getting second breakfast at The Viking Cafe.

We sat at the counter since it was packed and got to talking to Ed at the counter – he asked what kind of bike Tom rode. When Tom said an REI Co-Op he looked puzzled. He thought we were riding motorcycles. 🤣

We’d planned on staying at a Warm Showers but since the winds and riding conditions were so favorable we decided to try to power through and ride a century today. Plus we were very well rested from our day off on July 4.

There are multiple conditions that make for a good ride. Today we experienced them ALL. After Fergus Falls we were on a bike trail. All. Day. Long. That meant not using our mirrors, yelling “car back” or even turning on our blinking lights. #bikenirvana

Plus there was a steady tailwind, flat terrain, no traffic and multiple small towns to stop for Paydays and ice cream.

We met Steve who is in training to ride around Banff soon with VBT. We chuckled at the saying on the back of his jersey, “Keep Calm and Cycle On.” Go Steve!

With just 15 miles to go we met a family at the best place to get ice cream in Minnesota.

Ya know ya think ya might be doing something extraordinary until you meet a guy like Eric who rode a 36″ wheel unicycle 150 miles from Houston to Austin in two days. #stellar

We are camped in a beautiful city park right by one of Minnesota’s 10,000 lakes.

Tomorrow we are actually setting our alarm clock for 5am in hopes of getting an early start to reach Dalbo which is 106 miles away. This would be quite a stretch goal for us as we rode 100 today and the riding conditions won’t be as favorable. But… nothing ventured, nothing gained.

And there is a cyclist bunkhouse that is supposed to be a “must see” so we are motivated.

And oh yea… this happened today – let’s call this not a milestone, but a “smilestone”.

We really need a refresher Arthur Murray dance lesson. It was a sweet emotion hitting this mark but seriously we need some choreography help.

Last but not least, happiest of birthdays to our darling Annie! 💓

If there are issues watching the vid, click here to watch today’s video ride recap on my YouTube channel.

#acaNoTier New Salem to Hazelton, 79 Miles | To and Through Bismark

Dang that was quite the storm last night. Check out the image in the vid at the end of this post.

Today we rode on the southern side of Bismark, one of the biggest cities we have seen in a while.

After enjoying a large first breakfast at a cafe right next door to our motel we were soon on our way to Hazelton on a sweet tailwind.

Again there was some climbing but no I-94 and the rumbles were manageable. And honestly you would not believe how friendly people are if you wave to everyone. If anyone is coming up behind me I wave and many times give them a thumbs up. Everyone is happy.

We again crossed the Missouri River today and I saw what I think might be the most hilarious company name. I saw the truck twice today. It’s a septic tank pumper and the company name is “Turd Burglar”. Seriously. I wonder if they franchise.

We had a picnic lunch stop at University of St. Mary, a Benedictine university just outside Bismark.

Since there were very few services on the afternoon route we cycled up a pretty impressive incline to get water bottles filled in their admin building. Carmelita, also a cyclist, was super accommodating and even introduced us to Sister Janet, the president of the university. Pretty cool way to wrap up a lunch I think!

When we got to Hazelton we stopped at the grocery for a couple items and had a second lunch just outside the store in the shade and guzzled down some cold drinks.

On to the city park to camp for the night. In case you’re wondering about tent set up we’ve included a special clip for you. We sped up the video but have it down to a science and can easily set it up in less than four minutes.

One of the best things about the ride is meeting people and we heard from someone we met early on. Eric and his daughter Luci were cycling from Banff to Boise (and also playing a lot of cribbage) and checked in to let us know they finished.

Can you imagine how Luci is going to answer her high school buds when she returns to school and they ask what she did over the summer?

We had bean and rice burrito bowls with fresh tomatoes for dinner- yum and threw leftovers in a ziplock for lunch tomorrow. Watch for them to appear in Tom’s bike bag.

Since it looks like another storm might be coming we moved our tent under the shelter. Just a little camping trick. You’re welcome. 😊

#acaNoTier Circle to Wibaux, 79 miles | Thunder

From Tom:

As we looked out the tent at 5:30am this morning and saw dark clouds approaching, we jumped out of our sleeping bags and hustled through our morning chores. We jumped on our bikes and headed east towards our destination of Wibaux, 77 miles. At about mile 10 the skies surrounded us with winds, thunder and lightening. Although there was no shelter we pulled off to the side of the road, got prepped for rain, and found a place to sit to let the lightening pass. Ten minutes later we were on our way riding in a light shower until we reached Lindsay.

After visiting with Ed in the Co-op over a cup of coffee, we were back on our way east. The sun was back out and the tailwind was 10mph with a slight downhill into Glendive 25 miles away. We pulled into Glendive one hour later. Several times I looked at my Garmin and saw 27mph 😁👍.

Needless to say, this was a Nirvana for bike riding. So here we are 11am with 49 miles under our belt. Yes a century ride was definitely on our mind and we pulled out the map to check on potential camping/hotels in 50 miles. We would need to ride an additional 70 more miles to have a place to stay the night. Not out of the question since we were feeling so good.

On we went after a snack for another 25 miles to our original destination of Wibaux feeling so good. That feeling quickly disappeared after 5 miles. We merged on to a major highway (I-94), which was actually really nice, then we exited to a frontage road for 12 miles. How do I describe this road?

Chip and seal, major cracks every few yards that sent shocks up your hands/elbows/shoulders every time you road over one. The wind had disappeared and I looked at my Garmin and it read a temperature of 103 degrees. Yes a very, very long 12 miles and the 100 mile century ride left my mind as well as my positive attitude.

When we arrived to the next town, Wibaux We rolled into Wibaux I definitely needed a Snickers Bar. We roll into the Tastee Hut and Deb orders a 12” pepperoni pizza/lemonade and I a 12” chicken, pineapple pizza with Rhubarb Milkshake (yum, yum). With our tummy’s totally satisfied, we headed to our campground to set up our tent, shower and get organized.

We met another Northern Tier thru-biker camping at the site, Paul from New Zealand. He filled us in on all his adventures of mountain climbing, hiking and bicycle touring. He has done four long tours with his longest circumnavigating the United States. It took him 10 months. His route: LA to SanDiego to Key West to Virginia to the Transamerica route to Oregon and 101 back down to LA. Adding to Tom and Deb’s bucket list???? Time will tell.

Finally, needing to catch up on our blogs we found a brewery (Beaver Creek Brewery) and said we aren’t leaving until we are all caught up on our blogs 😁

Cheers 🍺

#acaNoTier Wolf Point to Circle, 52 Miles | God Bless Montana Farm Families

Bookends.

That’s how I would describe today.

It began and ended with hearing personal stories of Montana farm families and getting a better understanding of their concerns and their day-to-day lives.

When we were checking out of our campsite at Steamboat Dry Goods we asked Alice how the Dry Goods store came to be.

One story led to another and we found out Alice and her husband farm a very large ranch 15 miles away from the store. She explained what family farming is like, the economics of it, how the Montana drought last summer affected their crops and how tariffs might affect profit margins this year. Irrigation, insurance, the machinery, bank loans, and more.

I could have listened to Alice all day, especially since these are issues I don’t know a lot about but seem pretty important. To all of us. Do you like chick peas? They may have been grown in Montana. Lentils? Montana – and the list goes on.

Let’s just say I’ve added Alice, her family and all farmers to my prayer list.

So now for the end of the night, the other bookend.

When is the last time you handed someone a hundred dollar bill to support a cause you learned about only 15 minutes before?

This happened to us last night at the Circle City Park. Tom and I had just set up camp and were beginning our evening routine when Kevin stopped by to chat. He said he was meeting his “hay crew” in a bit to bale hay that night – apparently this is the best time to bale hay in Montana.

He was curious about our bike ride and we gave him the deets. He was particularly interested in Back on My Feet and their work with veterans.

Soon after his “hay crew” showed up. It was his beautiful wife Dawn, and their five children. The eldest sons, David and Donavan were meeting dad at city park to work all night. Dawn stayed behind to play with the children at the park before returning home.

This family visited with us for some time and it’s hard for me to explain how special they are.

This family. Salt of the earth. Good solid, faith filled folks who shared their stories with us and were interested in what we were doing. Again, the intentions they shared… on the prayer list.

Haha in case anyone is interested I keep a Google spreadsheet of everyone’s request so I don’t forget.

Back to our family, Kevin and Dawn, I don’t know your last names, and I was only able to give you a quick technology lesson about accessing our blog but know that you inspired us in BIG ways. Thank you.

And your idea of charity? It’s bold. And that’s something I need to practice more of. Bold charity.

Oh and about the riding, although it was a shorter day of only 50 miles, the rollers (over 2,000 feet worth) and the steady headwind wore us down a little. However we stopped more and ate more so all was well.

There were no “hangries” today for me but I almost threw a rock at Tom when I climbed to the top of a rise and found he’d gotten got his chair out and was sitting by the side of the road catching up on email waiting for me. And that was early on at mile six!

Between that and taking my pic when I fell asleep with the phone in my hand calls for action on my part. Watch out, Tom!

We crossed the mighty Missouri River today and Tom auditioned for a new job and danced a jig (I believe that puts him at three jigs, Mikey). 😊

Shortly after our picnic lunch next to the audition location we realized we were about out of water. Every ready Tom went to scout out some water and met Aaron and Lindsey who were eager to help. Seriously these Montanans are uber nice.

After a burger and grocery shopping we called the sheriff about camping in the city park and it was no problem.

We are ready for a longer riding day tomorrow!

#acaNoTier Glasgow to Wolf Point, 61 Miles | How Things Get Done

We’ve had some questions about how the videos are created, who does what in camp, and also concerns about riding day in and out. Soooo…. we thought it might be fun to give you an inside look at how things get done here on the road.

When camping, we usually wake up about 5:30 or 6:00 without an alarm. If there isn’t a big reason to jump up and get things going like sprinklers systems starting or rain, we lay in the tent and do a little dot-coming.

Dot.coms are checking weather, texts, news, sports, social media or blogging. Takes about 10-15 minutes.

Once out of the tent we usually both dash for a bathroom. Then Tom uncovers the bikes and lays the tarp out. Everything comes out of the tent and laid on the tarp and the tent is taken down. Tom then rolls the sleeping pads, and stuffs all the bags.

While he is doing that I’m making breakfast which is oatmeal with chopped walnuts and raisins, coffee and sometimes a bagel or breakfast bar if a second breakfast won’t be available. I finish up the blog if needed.

We get dressed in our cycling clothes, load our panniers, put them on the bikes, do push ups and planks, say our prayer and we are on our way!

Without rushing this all takes about 90 minutes but we can finish faster if we don’t cook and instead, get breakfast on the road.

Our fave time to cycle is first thing in the morning with fresh legs as we anticipate what the day will bring. We ride quietly and complete our own prayer time individually: Rosary for me and Tom says a litany of prayers daily.

At about 20 miles we plan for a second breakfast or a cup of coffee and snack at a gas station.

After that we may turn some music or a podcast on until the next stop which is never soon enough for me. I like “resties” a lot. These are when you get off your bike for 10 minutes or so.

If winds are favorable resties don’t happen quite as much. If unfavorable, they happen a little more often. If there are mosquitoes… We. Don’t. Stop.

We usually eat lunch on the road anywhere we can find a place to lean our bikes and sun (if it’s cold) or shade (if it’s hot) and always out of the wind.

Generally we know each day what our end point will be and if we will be stopping for dinner or cooking in camp. If stopping for dinner in town we do so on the way to camp.

The ACA maps are super helpful in providing mileage, services, elevation and even interesting field notes.

Sometimes we have to do a little exploring to locate the campground and if needed, we call ahead for details.

Once we arrive to our campsite, which may be a National Park, City Park, bike campground or RV/private campground we reverse the order above.

Bags off and unloaded. Both of us set up the tent (in about four minutes tops), we each get out our pads and bags and lay them out in the tent.

I like to get out of my bike shorts as quickly as possible. I usually cook up dinner and then it’s shower time if they are available. If not a spit bath works, too.

Tom looks the bikes over and every couple days cleans them and lubes the chains. Every single morning he checks air pressure in the tires.

We like to plan three or four days in advance where we think we may stay and we add up the mileage for each day. That’s one of my fave things to do, planning the upcoming days.

We’re usually in the tent reading and blogging by 9:00pm. It’s light here until about 10:00pm but we don’t have any issues getting to sleep at all.

An important part of the whole bike travel experience is keeping the devices charged – mostly the Garmin with the digital maps and our iPhones. We also have rear and front lights, Shuffles and an iPad with Tom’s books. The Garmin and the phones are prioritized for charging. Tom has a little gadget where multiple USB devices can be charged. We plug this hub in whenever we can to charge up (lunch stops, etc) . So far it hasn’t been an issue but just in case we both carry one charged portable battery pack.

As far as the blogging we both take pics and vids all day with our iPhones. After dinner Tom airdrops them to me. I then import them all into an app called VivaVideo where I can sequence the clips and add music. All the music is on my iPhone and if there is a song that fits particularly well and I don’t have it, it’s easy to buy and apply.

The vids are saved to my iPhone, and uploaded to WordPress.

After doing the video it’s pretty easy to write a blog post since the pics refresh the memory. We take turns blogging either at night or in the morning.

I snag the riding stats from Tom’s Strava account and link them at the top of the day’s post. Then we summarize the day.

The blog not only lets our friends, family and followers know what we are up to and where we are, it’s a journal for us that we will enjoy and use to plan our next bike travel adventure. The whole blogging process with video takes about an hour each day.

WordPress automatically posts to Facebook and Twitter. And it means SO much to us to get likes and comments on any and all of these platforms. We read every single one. Tom is reading them now!

Lastly folks are asking how the bodies are holding up. After all we are grands lol. And yes sometimes I affectionately call Tom “gramps”.

We feel pretty good! No soreness and we feel like we are getting stronger. And we’re going through a good amount of sunscreen now that the rainy cold weather is behind us. Fingers crossed.

We rode to Mass yesterday without bags on and the bikes felt so weird. It’s as if it was harder to steer them without the bags. So I guess it’s all what you get used to.

I struggled with energy a little yesterday but I think it had more to do with what I ate the last 24 hours than anything else. A nice big Caesar salad with grilled chicken for dinner sometimes isn’t enough. I’m still figuring that out although it hasn’t been a big issue. We miss our morning protein smoothies with greens, fruit, flax and chia seeds. Any my goji berries! I need goji berries!

Tom is riding strong and always positive! We have figured out that we say “huh” a lot to each other and might be losing some of our hearing. Can anyone else relate?

Oh and by the way, yesterday’s ride was sweet! Tom’s comment was “If I died and went to heaven this is what it would be like cycling.”

The roadside flowers kept me grinning yesterday while riding on Indian Highway – just miles and miles of wildflowers- mostly violet, some yellow, some white. All magnificent.

The place we are camping is super cool. There is an outfitter store in the front of a stone and cedar ranch. We are camping in their backyard and they are letting us use their deluxe kitchen and bathroom (yay). It’s out in the middle of the country and it is a lovely setting with horses grazing next door and an uber blue cloudless sky.

#acaNoTier Chinook to Malta, 73 Miles | Tailwind? Yes Please!