Enjoying the ride

Extremes, that's what you deal with when trying to live outside of the box or in our case off the bikes. The highs are great, thrilling and make you feel alive/happy! The lows are a slap in the face, reality check time. Things get magnified, insignificant things at home take on a different importance, like clean water from a tap. We continue to cash in all the good luck chips,being way off balance, and feeling that it will be time to ante up soon.
Some good things; smooth pavement with rolling hills, partly cloudy skies with a cool tailwind, peanut butter with nutella sandwiches after riding all morning, hot showers in a clean bathroom, fresh laundry (I've already mentioned that), cold beer at the end of a ride (even if it's Miller Lite), old guys driving old trucks that smile and cap tap, little kids that yell HI! from their front yards, wildflowers in grassland, water towers (it means town is about 3-5 miles away), NOAA, birds that fly with you, getting off your bike!
Some bad things; the feel of cracked repaired black top (clunk, clunk, clunk can you feel the rhythm), cross winds that blow you into traffic, cold beer (it gets in your way of losing that weight that you swore you'd lose on this trip), shower curtains and floors in public bathrooms, skeeters, ticks, abrasions (you now where), the smell of your bike gloves, biker tan lines, uneven tent sites, a no vacancy sign at the state park campground, wide loads, old ladies driving land yachts, charlie horses.
It's all a mix and balance, with you hoping that you'll come out ahead. Accessing NOAA on the iphone has been the biggest development since our last tour. It's been invaluable with just this week it saving our hides big time! Some lucky decisions helped us skip Fargo and stay a little south. It showed heavy rain for 24 hours or more when we got to Minnesota so we decided to hold up, camping in the park at Pelican Rapids. We got about 2 inches of rain over the next 36 hours but stayed mostly dry and could walk to stores. We ate out a lot and got our hair cut by Dora who filled us in on the mashed potato wrestling that goes on in her home town during the August festival. There also is the largest pelican in the world there (yes he is a statue). Just north of us though they got baseball size hail and Duluth got 10 inches of rain in that time period! Did you hear the zoo in Duluth got hammered with eleven animals dying, the polar bear getting out of his cage, and Fiesty the seal found swimming the streets? Good luck or good decisions probably a little of both saved us a lot of headache.
We are spending our 17th anniversary in Isle, MN on Mille Lacs Lake getting some R&R. You all may think we are nuts calling this vacation but at least there are two of us doing this together. Never feel that you have been with someone too long to say thanks. Thanks to John for carrying the tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads and cook kit! Thanks for letting me know I can do this and making it fun!
Off to Wisconsin for the fourth of July holiday. It seems like a ten day event, with more traffic on the roads, so we are hoping to take time at Mark Hoffman' s Land O Lakes family cabin in Wisconsin. It seems like a lot of down time recently but with over 2000 miles behind us, we are doing great in the time department and have time to slow down and enjoy the neighborhoods.
With Floods up north, floods down south, and fires in Colorado, who knows what's next? But, with a little good technology, planning ahead and talking to the locals, the experience will go on and be filled with great extremes. Here's to enjoying it all! Kate