Day One The Journey Begins

DAY ONE

The Journey Begins

Hello, I hope this blog post finds you and your family healthy, happy, and filled with Groovitude. 
What follows is a true account of Elissa and my journey across our home state in Minnesota on 
our bicycles. 

Day One, The Journey Begins:

Here is a map of our entire journey. Link

We decided to start on the far Western side of Minnesota in a smallish but very historic part of the country
 called, ‘Pipestone’. It’s named that for the stone which is found there.  The Pipestone National Park and 
Monument is so titled because of its rich and historic significance to the Native peoples of the United 
States. This is where we began. It’s seemed like a significant spot to start because of Elissa’s native 
heritage, so we camped near the park and visited it before we left hoping for good luck. 

If you go please stop at the park and see what we’re talking about. It’s a beautiful part of Minnesota. 

Pipestone had just suffered through an incredible storm and half of the town was without power and there
 were downed trees everywhere. 

We ate at a small restaurant named Lange’s and you could do a lot worse.  It really is THE place to go
 if you’re going to eat in Pipestone. 

We slept okay but it’s always hard to sleep the first day of an adventure. I’m to hyped up and just can’t 
drift off. 

The next day we ate again at Lange’s. Then went back to camp packed up and left. 

We started off at the Casey Jones State Trail which is in three parts. The trail head in Pipestone is easy
 to find and has beautiful and informative signs about the history of the trail. 

We traveled on the first part which was paved and ran between farmer fields, some tree’s, and roads. 
The day was terrific and we were making great headway.  We found a lot of little animals which didn’t 
seem to freightened of us some even followed along. There was this one Chipmunk which I’m thinking 
about who was particularly curious until the camera came out.  

Eventually the pavement ended and we continued on county highway thirty.  Highway thirty was busy
but the trucks, cars, and semi’s gave us plenty of room as we traveled straight east. That part of 
Minnesota has all sorts of windmills everywhere. It really is a treat to stand on an empty quiet highway 
and listen to the tone they make. 

The plan was to make it to a small town by the name of Avoca where we would stay the night. The 
town has just 147 people and is around thirty-seven or so miles from Pipestone.  We figured it would be 
best to try and have a nice easy day to start with. I like starting things with successes which aren’t all 
that hard to get. It gives confidence and eases your muscles into the work. 

When we got to Avoca we found a cute and small rural town surrounded by bean and corn fields. The 
campground was on the outside of town just beyond a beautifully kept cemetery. The ground at the 
campground was much softer than at the Pipestone campground. The sun had been out all day and 
burnt us right through our sunscreen so when we got to the campground we were tired, hot, dirty, and 
did I mention tired already? 
The campground is right on Lime Lake so we were hoping to do some skinny dipping at night but we were 
to tired. There was also some sort spill way between one side of the lake and the other and the current 
would have been way to much. **cue sad face emoji* 

Instead of skinny dipping we ate huge from our stores, drank tons of water, and went to bed. I didn’t think 
we would be able to sleep but we did. We slept great that night. 

Here is a video which tells the story from Pipestone to Avoca. This video is part one and is a bit longer 
than the others will be, but we’ve made it interesting. 

Have a great day and don’t forget to subscribe to our videos and this blog because there are way more 
videos to come in this series. 

Next week we leave for Mountain Lake, get a flat, ride through miles and miles of gravel and curse the 
Google Lady. ***throws fist at the sky***