Day 4: It was an iffy start....

...but we finished strong ! In the sun and in Sioux Falls which was our optimistic destination.

We left Ladysmith, WI, around 1135h in the pouring rain and 9 degrees. I was concerned about the water dripping off my helmet and in around my neck. Jim opted for his leather gloves over the rubber ones for warmth and he doesn't have boot covers so he would have been dreading cold wet hands and feet. As it turned out, it didn't take long for his feet to be sloshing in his boots (been there, done that) and his gloves got soaked but he said his hands weren't cold. Me? One of these soggy rides, I'm going to get everything right. My new BMW boots worked great! and although my NBA scarf and Buff got wet, it didn't feel all that bad and it didn't make me cold. I just found tonight when I went to put my jacket on after dinner at Grandma Max's about 5 km from here (Quality Inn), that one of my back vents was open which might explain why I felt chilled every once in awhile. My problem today was - I don't have gloves with gauntlets so I tuck them into my sleeves and snug the jacket cuffs up with their velcro strap. The rain sneaked under my cuffs so it was my wrists that got wet! SOMEday, I'll have everything wet. As it turns out, there's a big Motoplex across the street from us that opens at 1000h. We had planned on an early start for a change but that's the only bit of shopping that I may do and it's so convenient, it would be difficult to ride by. Perhaps our soggy problems will be solved sooner rather than later. A note about my gloves: they're leather and not WP and I forgot to get big rubber gloves to pull on over them. My OR friends will appreciate this. Last year, riding home from CFR in Cape Breton in Hurricane Hana rain, I put on a pair of surgical gloves over my leather ones. They often become 'contaminated' in the opening process and since they can't be put on a sterile set-up, some of us bring them home. They're great for gardening or some cleaning jobs. Last year, I put a pair of the regular powdered latex on over my leather gloves. What a mess the gloves ended up being when the powder mixed with perspiration moisture! For this trip, I had a pair of size 8.5 Protegritys = no powder and big enough to go over my gloves nicely. They worked perfectly!

The thing about riding in the rain is that it makes you want to keep on riding for as long as you can. It hurts worse to put on wet gear after a coffee than it does to ride in the rain. Neither of us really minded the rain. Visibility was awful and there was lots of water on the road but you slow down and the wind keeps the water pretty well blown off your helmet shield. Except I started out with rain on the inside of my visor so it was hard to get that off!

We finally drove out of the rain after about 90 km and the pavement dried. Temperature rose a bit to 10 and 11. Recall previous posts about temperatures. We were able to pile on the ponies and make up for lost time. We didn't stop until around 1400h and 230 km. We stopped for coffee but figured we'd better have lunch as well. That's the normal time we've been having lunch. We topped up our gas at the same time so that we could keep on motoring. It's been a LONG time since I've been in a McD's!

Our route today was: continued on Rte 8 to 35W and 494 around Minneapolis; then 169 to 60 through the cornfields of Minnesota to I-90 to Sioux Falls. Entering Minnesota, we rode down a long hill into a valley and the town of Taylor Falls. Across a bridge and the highway continued up a hill, with trees overhanging the roadway. It was beautiful! Unfortunately, I was too busy concentrating on the traffic around me and negotiating the intersection to take in too much. And there was a great Welcome to Minnesota sign that would have made a great photo op but came on it too fast with no good place to stop OR turn around ( as we did with the Welcome to Wisconsin sign).

The ride into and around Minneapolis was good - fast though in order to keep up with the traffic. Lots of road construction and, it seemed to me, some of the lanes were little more than trails going around detours and with cars & trucks whizzing around us. I kept up with Jim and we watched our road signs - all was well. I did NOT look at the Zumo during this. At some point, we even crossed the Mighty Mississippi!

Somewhere along the way we came upon a Harley dood with full touring gear, legs stretched out on highway pegs, wearing a wool toque (I don't know how it stayed on in the wind) and tapping his hand on his leg to the tunes he had playing - either on his bike or in his head. I don't know what was more shiny - the bike chrome or his boots! We passed him, he passed us; later on we passed him again and finally he passed us - and we didn't see him again. He really didn't like being behind us ;-)

The cornfields of Minnesota - beautiful!! They're fairly newly planted and there was water lying everywhere from all the rain. I'd love to see them grown. Flat, flat, flat with the only thing breaking the horizon being stands of trees enveloping a farmhouse & silos, and huge processing plants & silos complete with railways and rail cars. It was here that we saw sun for the first time since Saturday and by the time we got to South Dakota, the temperature had actually doubled to 18 degrees. All around us were huge, grey clouds and ahead were breaks of clear sky. We thought we were riding into nirvana. All the sun and a few degrees of warmth made Jim a little frisky and he got ahead of me for a little way but I dawdled along at 110ish. I wasn't worried since it wasn't as though I couldn't see for a couple of miles at a stretch! Not many curves in the cornfields! He finally pulled over so we could take some pictures. The speed limits today, by the way, were 65 and 70mph so little chance of being nabbed by a LEO (law enforcement office).

Going into South Dakota, the landscape changed slightly. At least, so far, there are little rolling hills with stands of trees along the highway. Jim pointed out to me that we're still in the prairies so landscape will be similar through the state. We're headed for Rapid City tomorrow and it's in that area that we'll see Mt Rushmore, Badlands, Wounded Knee, Deadland and hey! while we're in the 'hood we'll likely take a ride through Sturgis. There's still rain in the forecast but we're thinking we've seen the worst of it.

I have to talk about dinner tonight. We went to Grandma Max's which is a truck stop and a chain operation that originated in Nebraska in 1948. I've been kind of craving steak - which I can normally take or leave. This was NOT the place where I was going to order a steak. But.... the waitress pointed out that it was Omaha beef and Jim reminded me that the midwest was THE place to be eating beef. We each had the 8-oz sirloin, medium rare. The waitress asked us to cut into it as she stood there to make sure it was to our liking. It was perfect and the plate was swimming in juice when we cut the steaks.

An interesting on-the-road note. When we stopped for coffee and gas at 1800h at a truckstop, Jim made a beeline for the washroom and I found a table - as it turned out, right beside an older gent (tractor trailer driver) and his bride. He struck up conversation with me asking if we were cold. I told him cool and dampish but we were getting better with the nicer weather . He then told me about how he'd passed us - twice, when we were pulled over on the side of the road,and then WE passed him! He told us how he's always very careful of motorcycle riders and pulls around them giving them as wide a berth as he can when has to drive by them. And that when we passed US, he wondered if we were cold and was grateful that he was in his nice warm cab. We got a kick out of him saying that the second time he passed us on the side of the road, he TRIED to pull over but there was "big ol' bull hauler' (ie, cattle truck) right beside him so he couldn't get over very far :-) As a point of interest, it never once occurred to me today or yesterday that I'd rather be in a car.

Smells today: aside from the yuckies (bull haulers, slaughterhouses, feed lots, and the exhaust of 000's of vehicles when we hit the Interstate), I had the most interesting experience going through Minneapolis. I say "I" because Jim didn't smell it. There was a 'fragrance' as opposed to 'odour'. It was so pleasant that it was almost as if I was smelling my own facial moisturizer inside my helmet. It wasn't that and I don't know what it was. But it lasted through Minneapolis and I didn't have it before or after. Weird.

With just over 3,000 km on the Feej since Friday morning, we're well past Bangor and we must be over halfway across the country. So, would the naysayers please stand to be counted ?! :-)

Thanks for reading!

KSAO&E quiz:

1. What is the State of Minnesota known as? (think 'water')
2. In which direction do cold and rainy weather fronts generally travel? What are the chances that your rainy forecast for this week is related to the cold and rain we've been travelling through ?!
3. The Mississippi River originates in Minnesota. What BIG city does it go through on its way South ?