Nuclear proliferation in Minnesota. Sign in a convenience store in Owatonna.

Corn and soybeans by the roadside near Owatonna, MN.
For you city people, that's corn on the right and soybeans on the left.

Distance traveled today: 138 km (85.8 mi)
Average speed: 24.5 km/h (15.2 mph)
Elapsed Time: 6.41.05 (hh.mm.ss)
Max speed: 50.3 km/h (31.3 mph)
Staying at: Apache Best Western, Rochester, MN [tel. 507-289-8866 Rm 250]

Distance traveled so far: 3132 km (1946 mi)

Last Modified on 9/3/97 at 4:41:43

Day's Narrative: The morning was cloudy, but no rain was predicted. Yeah, I've heard that one before. About 6:50, after breakfast at the Embers restaurant near the motel, I rode through Mankato and out US highway 14 toward Rochester, MN, home to the Mayo Clinic. There was a northwest tailwind as predicted, at about 15 mph (25 km/h). It was cool, about 55 F (13 C).

Just outside Owatonna it started to sprinkle so I put on my poncho. It almost immediately stopped again.

The best way to tell if it's going to rain is to watch the windshield wipers of oncoming cars. The first thing one notices before the rain starts is one lone car with the windshield wipers going. It seems a few people always forget to turn off the wipers long after the rain stops. The next signal is when one see a car or two with the intermittent wipers on. They too have forgotten to turn them off. At this point you should start planning for rain.

We have left the days of riding in the West along on empty roads and thinking idle thoughts. The East is full of traffic, and I really have to pay attention to that now. It's still difficult for me to pass by a convenience store without stopping, after being in Montana and North Dakota, but the population density is high enough now that I don't have to stop at everyone of them like I did in the Great Plains. Sometimes I even go through an entire town without stopping!

Neville and I got together on the phone last night and compared notes. He discovered that in Wisconsin it's against the law to ride a bike on any divided highway. A policeman stopped him and made him get off. It took him an extra hour to ride around it. He also rode through Wausau where it's against the law to ride a bicycle in the street. You have to ride on the sidewalk. He said he's really glad to get out of Wisconsin and into Michigan today.

At Owatonna I discovered at a convenience store that nuclear proliferation was much worse than I ever expected (see photo). I asked the clerk if I could take a picture of the sign, and told her I was from Los Alamos, New Mexico and that it was hilarious. She didn't understand, but said OK.

Connie caught up with me as I was eating lunch at a Dairy Queen near Dodge Center, about 20 miles (33 km) from Rochester, MN. After lunch the tailwind was even stronger, and I rode the remain distance to Rochester in two hours, arriving at 2 pm. I found Connie unloading the car.

Yesterday I called ahead to Rochester, MN and Bicycle Sports and found a spare bicycle pump like I wanted. Today after I arrived I went by and got it. They have a very nice bike store and Steve, who works there, was a big help.

[Connie] I was astounded to hear Ray as I was unloading. I took awhile to get here since I couldn't find the agreed upon motel. The write-up said it was across the street from the Apache Mall. I found the mall with no problem, got off the freeway and started looking "across the street' in all directions, No motel. I went back and forth, up and down, on and off the freeway. On the last trip up the freeway, I found the 16th street exit where the motel was supposed to be and voila, there it was. Relief at last.

The Mayo Clinic. What American hasn't heard of this premiere medical institution? What kind of town has one pictured it to be in? I always had a vision of some kind of huge, steel and skyscraper megalopolis, impersonal and ugly. Not so. Rochester is a beautiful, green city of 112,000, ranked among the top three "Best Places to Live" in the U.S., according to Money magazine. It does have a skyscraspery area downtown, but for the most part it's a lovely green place. In the tone of "Why not, Minot?" how about "Rochester is bester." I know it's bad, but it just fell out of my head.

Ray's picture today isn't the one I thought I thought he would have, so I'll try for a word picture. At the entrance of tiny Janesville, about 15 miles east of Mankato, there is a unique town sign. Ten corrugated steel tanks (each about 15 feet wide by 20 feet high) lined up in a row and painted in rainbow stripes, each tank sporting one of the letters in Janesville announce entry into the town. It's the most unique town entry sign I've ever seen and probably the prettiest.

The next word picture has to try to describe the sight of a hundred or so Honkers (Greater Canadian Geese -- most often just called Honkers) in a field with a sort of pond-swamp for them to swim in. This area apparently has a permanent population of Honkers -- ordinarily they migrate north-south with the seasons, but if there is a nice enough place, they will move in permanently, like they have in some areas of Washington state.

[Ray] Tomorrow we head almost due south out of the cold Minnesota tundra into Iowa and hopefully warmer weather. The next destination is Decorah, Iowa, about 70 miles (113 km) away, and sunny weather with tailwinds from the north are predicted.