JC's iPhone Blog

Well, it’s the last day of the trip, and we spent it exploring the Twin Cities, known locally as ‘the cities’. Unfortunately, it was a bit of mixed bag, as so often happens to us when we’re traveling, for some reason.

First off, we headed to the Walker Art Center, a definite arts landmark, really on a national scale. What we quickly discovered, however, was that it was closed for a once-a-year event called “Rock the Garden”. The Walker as an extensive sculpture garden, and they have an annual rock concert in the gardens (which apparently hasn’t happened since Covid). So much for that part of our plans.

Oh well! Then we decided to try a couple of other options, the next one being the Mill City Museum, along the Mississippi in downtown Minneapolis. It what was once the world’s largest flour mill, and after being abandoned for years, fell victim to a large fire in the ‘90s. Here’s some photos…

There was also a lively farmers market happening in the plaza outside the museum, which we enjoyed as well. A highlight was the lemon rhubarb chess pie (yum!)

Next stop was the Weisman Art Museum on the campus of the Univ. of Minnesota. It’s housed in an impressive Frank Geary-designed building. This plate glass sculpture was a highlight…

From there, we returned to our motel, and then walked around the downtown St. Paul area a little more. One of our intended stops was the Minnesota Museum of American Art, but its interior galleries were “temporarily closed” too. Again, oh well… They did have some impressive works displayed in the windows along two sides of the building, so at least we enjoyed those. From there, a bookstore and a cup of tea had to suffice.

This evening, Wendy Holmes from Artspace and her husband David Frank had us to dinner at their lovely home in Minneapolis. It was the perfect end to the trip; a magnificent homemade pasta and salad, great conversation, and then a nightcap at the cidery across the street from their place. Thanks guys, for being such great hosts in the cities!

As I said before, tomorrow morning I’ll run Mallory to the airport for her flight to Syracuse, then start the long drive home. Thanks so much for following our travels, and we hope to see all of you one way or another as soon as possible!

Our last day of riding dawned overcast and drizzly. We’ve been extremely lucky with the weather this trip, so we were resigned to having a rainy day. And actually, as we started out, I was reminded how beautiful our world is under all weather conditions…

Three days ago, when we rode from Pequot Lakes to Walker, we saw that there was a section at the end that was curvier and hillier than anything else we’d seen on this trip, but there was also a cutoff that went much more directly to Walker and our motel. It was a 42+ mile rid, even without that section, so we decided to skip it.

After hearing from Kent, our Warmshowers host in Bemidji, that it’s really a fun section of trail that shouldn’t be missed, we backtracked a few miles and took that route. We’re both really glad we did! It was indeed very curvy & hilly, but of course we’re used to that. 😉

I had pretty much stopped raining by the time we got on the road, but it remained cool and cloudy all morning, which really helped with that more strenuous section of the trail. Here’s a selection of photos from that part of the ride…

It’s now Saturday morning, and we’re staying at a nice motel in downtown St. Paul. We had a splendid celebratory dinner at a nice ‘Latin American’ restaurant just a couple blocks from the motel, replete with a couple delicious margaritas.

Today’s agenda is to visit a farmer’s market and a few museums. Hopefully we’ll meet back up with some of the Artspace folks this evening as well.

Tomorrow Mallory flies on to Barneveld, and I start the long drive back to Colorado. Hopefully I’ll have a few city pics to share this evening or tomorrow morning before I hit the road.

Today was our shortest day yet, and since it was a repeat of yesterday, I didn’t take many photos. We were joined on the first 7 or 8 miles by our Warmshowers host, Kent, riding his three-wheeled recumbent cycle…

Kent and Betsy had just this morning asked if we’d seen any ‘lady slippers’, the Minnesota state flower, and sure enough, sharp-eyed Mal spotted a gorgeous example by the side of the trail this morning.

We arrived back in Walker about 12:30, having posted our fastest average speed so far (see stats below). It turned out to be helpful though, as I’d decided to visit an urgent care to get a tick bite checked out that I discovered last night. Lyme disease is pretty common in the ticks here, and the CDC recommends a single antibiotic dose to reduce the chances of getting it by a large margin. Better safe than sorry…

We’ve spent the rest of the afternoon visiting the local farmers market, getting some lovely wood-fired pizza, then heading back to the motel to get some laundry done. Now we’re off to a local brewery that makes excellent ales.

So as these things go, it was a typically long wait to see the doc, get the prescription and have it filled at the only pharmacy in Walker. Needless to say, though, the peace of mind is palpable.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, as it’s back to a ~45 mile ride, followed by a 2½ hour drive back to the twin cities.

Check back later tomorrow night or Saturday morning to see the next installment!