Saying howdy

The lemonade stand was a great stop along the road today. Someone put a mannequin on a recumbent bicycle and I got the real biker to talk to him! We had quite a downpour for a while but it tapered off. Now I finally might get my towel to dry!
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Along the bike trail

The trail is an old railroad bed that follows the river. The bridges are slick from rain and many bikers have fallen, including Dusty. She is a bit bruised and her bike a bit bent but still good to go! We did 54 miles today mostly downhill and it didn't rain until we arrived at camp. My tent is leaking but I'm going to stick it out tonight.
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Along the bike trail

The trail is an old railroad bed that follows the river. The bridges are slick from rain and many bikers have fallen, including Dusty. She is a bit bruised and her bike a bit bent but still good to go! We did 54 miles today mostly downhill and it didn't rain until we arrived at camp. My tent is leaking but I'm going to stick it out tonight.
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Root River Trail

Yesterday we began our ride in southeastern Minnesota. Rain followed us in the morning but even so the area is beautiful with red and yellow limestone bluffs, green Amish farms and plenty of wildflowers.
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Getting ready for our first day of "Ride With Jim" in southeastern Minnesota. Tents are going up on high ground to get out of the flood zone. People and their bikes are arriving!
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Graduation Time

Ron’s granddaughters graduated from 8^th grade and Kindergarten last week! We enjoyed being with the family on the farm! Myra was fearless in front of the mike when she welcomed the audience to Kindergarten graduation and Katelynd was beautiful. I caught Katelynd riding her horse Silly and Myra playing with her new hula hoop and learning to ride her bike. While we were there one of the mares had her foal and the girls got a miniature donkey for their graduation. I had to laugh when the horses got to mowing the grass in the yard – big lawnmowers! Mike competed in the truck driving championships – we cheered him on and he won! Yay!

From Arizona to South Dakota

We left Arizona just when the temps started to heat up there. It’s quite a pull from Phoenix to Flagstaff, just ask Ron and the poor, grunting truck! The flowers were in full bloom, as you can see by this yellow field by Black Canyon. Winslow sported dust devils, and we stayed the night in Gallup, where red arrows surrounded the gas station and red cliffs surrounded our campsite. The next day we traveled to New Mexico where beautiful flowers were spread all over our campsite. Driving into Texas the next morning, people kept waving and honking and we knew they weren’t happy to see us – we had completely blown away a trailer tire! After a couple of very friendly Texans got us pointed to the tire shop, we were on our way again to Kansas where the wild onions were abundant in variety and number. I now understand why the early settlers used them for cooking – the ones we get in South Dakota are wimpy compared to these! The next day we blew another tire outside of Topeka, where we decided to spend the night. It’s a good thing, too, because the campsite I had originally picked out was near where a small tornado blew through the area! By this time we were getting frustrated with all the blown tires, so I started doing research on them. Turns out our trailer was equipped with very cheap tires and they were delaminating! So we were very nervous by now, waiting for the last 2 tires to blow, but we couldn’t find any of the replacements we wanted on hand – we would have to stop and wait for them to be shipped to where we were. We stopped in Council Bluffs to visit Ron’s 90 year old aunt Vera and cousins Denna and Lonnie. What a treat to visit with them! The next day we set off on the last leg of our trip. We arrived at Ron’s daughter’s by Sioux Falls making good time. When we got the trailer tires replaced, it turned out that one of the original 2 tires left had a big bulge and was ready to pop. Thank goodness we got it replaced before anything worse happened! Well, it’s cold and extremely windy here, but better than Hot Springs, where they are having winter storm warnings and below zero wind chill forecasts!