Kari Ascheman, a senior at Benson High School.
Kari Ascheman, a senior at Benson High School.
Carol Hjelle and Terry Hass at Dave's Family Foods in Kerkhoven, MN.
Last Modified on 9/23/97 at 17:55:43
Day's Narrative: I had breakfast at Debbie's Kitchen in Fergus Falls and started today's ride as the sun came up. It was a lot warmer than previous mornings. Before committing ourselves to the entire distance to Willmar, Connie and I agreed to meet at Morris, MN 46 miles (74 km) away. This was because of the uncertainty in the weather. The latest forecast was for 40% chance of showers. This is the lake country of Minnesota. There are so many lakes that it's clear to me that this must be the place from which the farm ponds of Kentucky and Tennessee descended. Perhaps many thousands of years ago, the bodies of water started their migration south, arriving finally in Kentucky as farm ponds. This, of course, is not to say that farm ponds are direct descendants of lakes, but rather that lakes and farm ponds most likely have a common ancestor -- possibly a type of swamp. There was a 10 mph (16km/h) wind from the west -- a side wind. I made good time and Connie caught up with me just outside of Morris about 11:30. We had lunch at the Subway restaurant in Morris. We decided to continue on to Willmar. I stopped at Benson, MN (pop. about 1000), about halfway to Willmar, at a store selling gas and groceries. There I met Kari Ascheman (see photo), a senior this Fall at Benson High School. Kari wants to go to college after high school and would also like to move to a larger town, but not a big city. She also works at the Dairy Queen in the summer, however it's closed from November to March, so in the winter she only works at the grocery store. Kari took a photo of me there which I will put in the log on another day. Further down the road I stopped at Dave's Family Foods in Karkhoven, MN (pop. 282) to get something to drink. There I met Carol Hjelle and Terry Hass who work at Dave's. We had a long talk intermixed with customer checkout, and I asked them if they would let me put their pictures on the web page. They both agreed, and will be looking at the web site to see how the photo came out. There was a good tailwind all the way from Morris to Willmar. I found Connie at the Super 8 motel there. It was a long ride today, but it was also one of the nicest bicycling days I have ever had -- the right temperature, reasonably smooth pavement, and a gentle but helpful tailwind. Last night Neville called -- we are trying to keep in touch. He had a bad bout with stomach flu in Duluth, MN, but is back on the road now in Wisconsin. He also said a kid threw a pop bottle at him from a car which hit him on the thigh, and then it bounced up and took some skin off his fingers. He didn't go down, but considers himself to be lucky the bottle didn't hit somewhere else. I've thought about this incident all day, and have difficulty understanding why someone would do this. Tomorrow looks like a nice day, and I'll try to make it to New Ulm, MN -- about 94 miles (150 km). [Connie] As I drove along thinking idly, I passed a town limit sign giving the town population. In the West, New Mexico in particular, the population isn't given, just the altitude. Immediately after seeing the population sign and thinking of altitude, there was a sign saying, "Elevation --1,000 feet." For someone who lives at 7,500 feet, this is barely out of the ocean, but 1,000 feet higher than we started out with in Seattle. We have discovered again that Saturdays are iffy when it comes to getting motel rooms. We had planned to meet at the AmericInn Motel. They were full with a wedding party. The nearby Holiday Inn and Comfort Inn were also full. Joyce, the nice clerk at the AmericInn, called the Super 8 to see if they had a room -- they had one non-smoking room left, so I said I'd take it. It turned out to be on the second floor. Ray is getting good at the 100+ mile/day ride thing, and was functional enough to haul stuff up the stairs so we could get moved in. It was a pretty bleak room until he got here and we moved in bikes and gear. Home Sweet Home again. Maybe next Saturday we'll be able to make reservations. © Ray & Connie Poore, 1997
Return