Hey everyone-
I hope that you all are doing well and are happy as ever. Recently we purchased forty-one and a half acres in way northern Minnesota. This is part one of our building a field road and the process of deciding where to put the camper and an eventual Tiny Home for our retirement.
Part One
Part two is where Elissa and I both get down...down on the ground. We work ourselves to the bone widening the area and deciding where to put the camper eventually. Thanks for popping by.
If you are interested please go to this link to start from Day One. LINK
The last day of an adventure can be a really sad day. You know the end is near, you know you have to go back to work, you know you have 24 hours to fill yourself with the spirit of this adventure, this life, this moment.
We woke up at Borders Inn and Suites went out and had the continental breakfast. There was something about us that made the rest of the guests stare and wonder. I don’t know if it was because we went out in our biking attire, the helmets, the massive leg muscles, how intelligent and beautiful we and all bikers are, or how tired we looked. Probably the ladder.
After breakfast we loaded up our bikes, checked out, and walked them out the door of the hotel. It was another chance for people to stare, but this time I’m pretty sure they were just jealous. That’s okay. They can be. It was a great adventure.
We got on the road and maneuvered ourselves around the early morning semis, trucks, cars and a sleepy city awakening and going to work.
Leaving Faribault was pretty easy from where we were. We just got on this road which led to a bike path which led to another road and we went from there. Cycling on a country road is really a great vibe. Sure there are cars zooming by but there’s also cattle, fields, forests, deer, meadow grass waving in the wind and a quiet which finds you and stuns you to the very core of your being. Here you are riding your bicycle through this majesty trying not to think about this being the very last day you will be here doing this. The last day of our adventure trying my damnedest to bear witness to everything happening to be in this moment of existence.
It wasn’t long before we got to my mother's house in Northfield but of course the Google lady got us lost inside the city. My mother had coffee and rolls waiting for us and plenty of hugs and joy. It was a grand moment when I could help her not be worried. My Ma tends to worry each and every time Elissa and I go out on an adventure, so I could see not only the joy on her face but the relaxing from worry too.
After about an hour we left our panniers their and rode naked of baggage toward Cannon Falls. There is a trail which leads from Cannon Falls all the way to Red Wing. In my humble opinion it’s one of the best we were on. Tree canopied with cliffs and a raging river which accompanies you from trailhead to trailhead. There are lots of wonderful places to stop and rest or take photos to show off your journey to friends and family. The half-way point is called Welch. Which I had mistakenly thought was a town which might have ice cream. Imagine my surprise to find it’s a ski spot but in the summer. Don’t get me wrong it’s pretty as a bug's ear, but I was sort of hoping for ice cream. **sad face**
We hung out there briefly and reflected on how our journey was but eventually we got stupid with excitement and left for the finish line.
When we rode into Red Wing we were feeling tired of the road and excited for the burgers we promised ourselves. My Ma was there to pick us up so we loaded our bikes on her bike rack and left for supper. Well wait a second it might have been lunch I can’t remember?
This has truly been one of the greatest adventures of my life. I’m half tempted to write a book about it in the first person. Thanks for coming along and witnessing this adventure with us. It’s really been a great time having you here with us. It’s a lot like having you here in the house sitting and chatting.
Day four started with a potty break because what we had for breakfast didn’t agree with us.
It was some sort of egg scramble, smoked Salmon thing. It looked good in the pictures. **shrugs
shoulders**. If you go here LINK you can see last weeks blog or here LINK to get to the first of this series.
We stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn and Suites in Mankato Mn. We figured why not we are on vacation anyway. To be honest though it could have been any hotel we didn’t care so long as it was clean, and they let us bring our bicycles in the room with us.
While in Mankato we went to this Mexican restaurant and had these huge burritos. Neither of us can remember what it’s name was, but we do remember it was pretty good though. The next day we found that we don’t like riding in bigger cities as much as we like riding in the country.
A country road’s curves and hills are very seductive a lot like a flamenco dancer. mother earths hips swing pendulously over the miles. A city is more staccato and way less flowy. (Yes, ‘flowy’ is now a word because I’ve used it.) Having said that though I also have to say we didn’t get lost on the way out of town at all. We just had to endure the early morning traffic of a city waking up and going to work.
There is a bike path which leads all the way from Mankato, Mn to Faribault, Mn. called the Sakatah Singing Hills Trail and it will lead you through Sakatah State Park which is a great treat.
The trail has a multitude of geologies and ecologies along it. You will travel through dense forest and then through meadows, and fields. Forty one miles of bike path with little or no traffic to interfere with you. Several little towns and ice cream shops also dot the landscape between the two cities if you have a sweet tooth and need a moment to rest.
Finally it opens up on the Faribault Trailhead.
That night we stayed in Borders Inn and Suites which is a wonderful old hotel.
The next morning we started off after breakfast and that’s another story.
Today started with a nice big sleepy, ‘How do you do?’. We both slept better here than in Pipestone for some reason. It was probably due to the fact that we’d just riden our bikes a fair distance. To start reading from the beginning go to this LINK .
We got on the road without much problem thinking and hoping for a breakfast place but there wasn’t one; as a matter of fact, there wasn’t anything but road from Avoca to Mountain Lake. This turned out to be the hardest day of the whole journey; although, it wasn’t the largest in terms of miles at all.
The fun thing about riding your bicycle across the state is the speed. You’re going around ten miles an hour with all of your bags and really tasting life. The smell of summer on a Minnesota county highway as you straddle the road between Soybeans and Corn fields will never leave me. For me this is the smell of freedom all mixed in with a hot road and the sound of bicycle tires and gears traveling across it. Cycling through my home state of Minnesota is an experience I won’t soon forget. Meeting her people, seeing nature in all of it’s abundance and groovitude (my own word), breathing her air as we cycle through the southern parts has been one of the joys of my life and a truly wonderful adventure.
Having said that I will also say that this day held adventure for us.
The Google lady took us on about ten miles of gravel roads. In the video you’ll hear me talking about four miles and then at the end it’ll seem like I’m exaggerating but at the point I said four miles I didn’t know we were about to turn onto another gravel road and then yet another. After a while it sort of gets to you. It’s harder to ride so you burn more calories, and work way harder riding in gravel. Elissa has a road bike so it was very difficult for her and as it turns out she ended up with a flat when we finally arrived in Mountain Lake.
Just before bed in Avoca we’d decided to get an Air BnB in Mountain Lake and it was a good thing too because the people whose house it was helped us with the flat, gave us some grilled tater tot hotdish (I grew up in Minnesota and never ever knew you could do that. It’s way better than in the oven.), and provided a wonderfully perfect country setting to rest our bodies. Not to mention the first shower in a few days which was nice as well. We are forever grateful.
Mountain Lake seems to be a town which like so many other rural towns is slowly passing on. The people there are wonderful, the setting is picturesque, but the kids grow up and move away. I mean you can’t blame them. The world is a big place full of adventure and when you’re young and full of piss and vinegar that’s what you want to see and that’s what you should see. I just wish they’d eventually go back so we could keep these tiny towns alive.
When we got into town we were starving so we stopped at a place called, “King Egg Roll”. It’s right on the main drag across the street from the grocery store. You can’t miss it. Oh boy I don’t think food tasted so good...well actually we were so hungry we should have used our snow shovels for spoons.
If you get a chance you should stop there, it's a great place.
Here is the map for this weeks adventure followed by the video. Please feel free to share this with all of your friends. Lets make this a movement and see where we can bring it.
It has been awhile since we've published anything on this page hasn't it? I can see I need to dust off the shelves and get the cobwebs out of the corners, but the coming adventures bring us back.
As a matter of explanation I can only say that it is difficult to keep two blogs going, book gigs, write new music, teach/tutor music, work a regular eight hour day job, and keep up on owning a home, and being married.
This blog therefore has become something we do when we are having an adventure. We will continue to post videos and a blog entry when we do post something.
Now having said that you can always go to our YouTube page and find our older adventures, subscribe, and repost them all over your own personal social media sites.
We are about to embark on an adventure of grand and huge proportions for us. We will be riding our bicycles from the Pipestone, Mn to Red Wing, Mn which is a distance of around two hundred and fifty something miles. We will hopefully be accomplishing this in a five day period and videoing a lot of it from July 21st to July 25th or 26th we will be riding.
If you keep up or want to you can find our
As far as Instagram goes we don't have time before our big adventure to make people aware of who we are and what we do so for the time being it will be under my
Now on Tuesday the 23rd we hope to be doing a live stream from a hotel room in Mankato. Feel free to hang out on any of those links and we will be there.
We hope to start our journey in Pipestone, Mn. It's near the South Dakota border and from there go east and south to Avoca. Then on to Mountain Lake, and then we will have our first fifty plus mile day as we journey onto Mankato, Mn. where we will have our first hotel stay. The next day we will be riding on a fourty pluse mile long bike path to the next hotel stay in Faribault, Mn. From there we will be on our hopefully last day of riding and we will be riding our second fifty plus mile ride and most of that will be on a bike bath as well. We will be going to Red Wing. That last day we will be on the Cannon Falls to Red Wing trail and we want to invite y'all to get on your bike and come along. We don't have the time we will be there but watch the FB page and Insta page for the details. Also that is a pay trail but I think you can pay the day of.
Well, keep watching as we will be publishing this adventure and have fun.
Trevor, Elissa, Marley, and Mama Macy
