Day 63 - 64
DAY 63
More thank to David and Angie for having us and showing us a good time! Come to Portland!!
We left Davids place and rode to downtown Excelsior to a coffee shop, were Hank got on his laptop looking for a place to stay for the night. After sitting there for an while a lovely lady started talking to us about our trip and her travels in Guatemala. Her name was Candy, and after talking to us for a bit, she offered us a place to stay the night at her son's house, just a couple of miles west of where we were. She left the coffee shop and we decided we might as well take her up on her offer. Since it was around four in the afternoon, an d we still haven't found a place for the night.
We gave her a call and met her at a gas station about 2 miles down the road. On the way Donald got a flat, as he patched up his tube, Candy sat in her car talking to Evan about Portland. We found out that back in the 1980's she lived in Beaverton and Gresham, working as a apartment manager. Small world.
We got to her son's house and were introduced to Bradly, her Son and his roommate, Josh. We actually felt pretty lucky because a storm was passing right when we got there, a situation we would usually have to ride through.
We ordered pizza's, watched T.V. and movies, which has become a forgotten luxury. A huge thanks to Candy, Bradly and Josh, for opening your house to us and letting our feet make the whole downstairs smell.
Day 64
Today we are finally going to make a try to get out of Minnesota. We have arranged a Warm Showers in Prescott Wisconsin. A good 60 mile day should warm up our legs from a two week break. The ride was 70% on bike trails, weaving through downtown Minneapolis, through St. Paul and into the long forgotten and surely missed farmlands. We took many breaks, as we slowly let go of the comforts of Minneapolis. Around 7 pm we were around 10 miles from Prescott when we got a call from from our warm showers host, saying that we are a little to late to camp at their house. Finding the closet place to sleep, we pedaled hard to Afton State Park as the sun was slipping away in the horizon. The campground was not to be found. In the pitch black darkness we had a very hard time finding the campsite, the road went up and down, continuing the same pattern, we gave up and camped and the first field we found. Staring at the stars and munching on pop tarts before we went to sleep, we gazed in a bewildered daze at the exploded suns and planets of the past that illuminated our nights sky, engaging our minds to think of subjects past our intellect, how super novas could be the missing link in creating the essential elements in making our planet, how water found on other planets could be the beginning stages of a life form similar to our own, and just how small our world is, but inside of it are numerous journeys that can take many lifetimes to explore. The thoughts reflected to us like a mirror, here we were on a journey of lifetime, exploring our own country in a way that opens natures own treasures to us in a very unique way. We look around and are happy that we are doing this with eachother. Wisconsin, tomorrow we will pedal your lands! We hope.