DAY 17 Wednesday, May 18, 2011

I couldn't believe that I got to bed last night at 11:00 PM! Wow, I had a full nights sleep. Unfortunately, my eyes opened at 5:30 AM, an hour before my alarm was set to go off at 6:30 AM. I forced myself to get back to sleep. At 6:20 AM I got up, turned the alarm off, got dressed and packed. Chuck, my roomie, got up also and was still getting dressed when I told him that I was going to my Motor to get it ready for today's ride. Chuck told me that he would catch up to me at breakfast. I took a bag down to my Motor, uncovered it and packed the bag. I cleaned up my windshield and then walked over to the breakfast room. I was the first one there so I got a table that sat all six of us. Soon, Chuck walked in, as did C.E. and Jan. Ken and Bruce walked in a few minutes later. This was NOT a free breakfast, however, when we checked in, the lady, Rose, gave us a discount ticket for breakfast. We ordered and were served. We had a nice and young waitress with a good sense of humor. She had us laughing. We finished breakfast and C.E. needed to go to Wal Mart to get a new holster for his cell phone. We left and Ken went with him. While they were gone, we all went back to our rooms and gathered our stuff and packed them in our Motors. The "old guys" were still gone so we started cleaning our Motors. I asked the Front Desk Clerk for some rags and she gave me two. These two rags cleaned three Motors. Bruce and I went back to the Front Desk and checked out of our rooms. The "old guys" returned and C.E. walked to the Front Desk to check out. While he was gone, the rest of the guys saddled up and were ready when C.E. returned. We left at 9:28 AM.

Chuck was up to lead again, as he didn't finish his turn yet. I called to Chuck and pointed the direction that we needed to go. It was a "one way," so he had no other choice! We headed out on Highway 2, going along Lake Superior. Did I tell you that four of us had been to all five of the Great Lakes? Oh yeah, I did! We left Ashland, WI and rode for 46 miles. At 10:13 AM, we stopped for gas at a Mobil gas station in Poplar, WI. It was a strange gas station to me. The pumps were away from the building as usual, however, after we finished pumping our gas, we parked next to the building by the restroom. There was no other life at the station except us. I looked around the building and there were no attendants. Strange. We left at 10:29 AM.

It was Jan's turn to lead. I positioned myself behind Jan, then Ken, Bruce, C.E. and Chuck. We continued on Highway 2. Soon after Jan took over the lead, we came up to the "Welcome to Minnesota" sign. In the past four years, we have been to almost all of the States. We were lacking Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota. We took care of those States. Now, we need North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey and Delaware. We will leave those four States for another year. We continued on in Minnesota and rode for 66 miles before we stopped in Floodwood, MN at 11:40 AM. We were in need of a pit stop. We parked our Motors and you would swear that we were a bunch of beginners parking our Motors. They were not parked in our usual neat and orderly fashion. Chuck couldn't believe it so he took a picture. We bought some water and snacks. Behind the gas station was a "Minnesota Harley." I pointed it to Ken and he kept looking for it. I was more descriptive of the item and told him that it was the red tractor. He liked that! I forgot to tell you. You probably don't know it, but Ken is a "Wild Man." That is a story that I will tell you later. We were sitting on some picnic tables and we noticed a sign on the wall that said, "No Loitering." How long does it need to be before we were considered Loitering? We discussed lunch and decided that we would go another 30 to 45 minutes before stopping for lunch. There was a Subway across the street. I told Jan that we needed to drive out of the gas station parking lot and go to the Subway. He laughed, but didn't. We left at 12:11 PM.

Soon after we left, I made a quick panic stop. I didn't see my camera in my usual spot. I checked my pocket and didn't feel it. I thought that maybe I left it on my rear seat. I looked but it was not there. I check my right jacket pocket again and there it was! It was a deep pocket...but I found it. Off we go again. We rode through several small towns but didn't see any Subways. We kept riding through little town and I told Jan to stop at a local Mom and Pop restaurant. We rode for 55 minutes and stopped in Remer, MN at 1:06 PM at the Woodsman Family Restaurant. This restaurant is famous for their "Woody." They had a hooded sweater pinned to the wall that was screen printed with, "I got my hoodie where I got my Woody." The Woody was a sandwich. Get it...Woody...Woodsman...never mind! We finished lunch and left at 2:11 PM.

We continued on Highway 2 for 9 miles and changed to Highway 200. You know, I can now understand why Minnesota's nickname is, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." There are more lakes in Minnesota than there are Circle K's, Starbucks, Fry's and Target's in Arizona! We passed by Leech Lake. It was HUGE! Looking at the map, there are other larger lakes. We rode for 48 miles and at 2:57 PM, we stopped for gas in LaPorte, MN. The pumps were the old style where you get the hose, lift the handle and pump. After you pump your gas, you go inside and pay for it. Aah, the good old days! We finished pumping gas, made a pit stop and Ken snapped at us saying, "Let's go!" We were scared so we saddled up and left at 3:13 PM. Wild Man!

It was Ken's turn to lead. Ken had looked at the map with Chuck and me and got the directions that he needed to lead us to. We zipped right along and covered 23 miles quickly. We arrived at the Lake Itasca Welcome Center at 3:37 PM. We needed to go to the Welcome Center to purchase a one day permit. We got our permits and started sight-seeing. We eventually got to the Mississippi Headwaters stop, which is the Source of the Mississippi River. We parked our Motors in the parking lot and walked down about 800 yards (it was marked with signs) to the Start of the Mississippi River. We took many pictures. It was breath-taking, or, as one of two gay BMW riders we met about a week or a week and a half ago said, "It was Pastoral!" We didn't know whether he was talking about a religious person or a pasture with cows! We learned a new word. Jan sat by the river's edge and took off his boots. He was going to wade across the Mississippi River. It was about 18 feet wide and about 1 1/2 to 2 feet deep in some areas. I took a couple of pictures of Jan. I then switched to video. Jan walked across the river and looked at Chuck. Chuck was taking his boots off also and was going to walk in the river with Jan. Not wanting to be outdone by Jan, Chuck went one step further. Chuck took his pants off and was in his boxers and t-shirt! The six of us were the only ones there at the time...thank God! I continued the video and got both in the River walking across and back. Chuck starting splashing about trying to get us wet, but all he accomplished was to get his skivvies wet! That'll teach him! Chuck and Jan got out and eventually put their boots back on and Chuck also put his pants back on...just in time. An older couple came walking up to where we were and talked to us. The lady told us that a bus load of little girls were also coming our way. If the little girls saw Chuck in his skivvies, they would have had a good story to go back home to tell their mommies about...STRANGER DANGER! They could have also told their mommies about the "homeless" guy that couldn't afford to buy pants. We were done with the start of the Mississippi River and Lake Itasca so we headed to our Motors. We needed a pit stop so we took care of that first...in a restroom! Ken took charge and told us to line up our Motors in front of the Mississippi Headwaters sign so that we could take a picture. We parked our Motors in front of the sign, Harley's on the right and Honda's on the left. We all stood behind the sign. My camera was on a tri-pod several yards away. Since I'm not a runner, Jan was asked to start the timer and run back to us for the picture. We did this three times. We wanted to make sure that we got a good picture! We mounted our Motors and left the area and rode on the Wilderness Trail. It is a 10 mile road that circles Itasca State Park. It is a one way street with a lot of twisties, uphills and downhills. We left the Park 5:43 PM after riding sight-seeing in the Park for 18 miles.

We headed towards a town called Bemidji, MN. We had seen a sign before entering the Park that advertised a Best Western. We rode to Bemidji and drove through the town. We went over a bridge for Lake Bemidji and the Mississippi River. We rode on Paul Bunyan Blvd. NW, which is the Great River Route. We also saw a large statue of Paul Bunyan and Blue, his ox. As we neared the Best Western, we saw a Holiday Inn Express. Chuck and Jan broke away to go check the price and Chuck would call me with the report. I followed the other three to the Best Western. We rode for 35 miles and at 6:29 PM we arrived at the Best Western in Bemidji, MN. The four of us went inside and Bruce was talking with the Front Desk Clerk to make the deal. A deal was made and I told Chuck and Jan to come over...they did. I did a load of laundry and we all got into the hot tub. After the hot tub, we walked about 2 blocks to a sports bar/restaurant and had dinner. While we were having dinner, Jan told us that he had spoken with Gary Mulleneaux earlier and that he would meet us tomorrow along the River somewhere. Gary is a good friend of us all and lives in a town about 300 miles from where we are staying tonight. After dinner, we walked back to the hotel and four guys covered their Motors and tucked them in for the night. Jan and I needed to go to Wal Mart. We did and when we returned, tucked our Motors in for the night also.

We rode 291 miles. We saw a lot of lakes and some of them were beautiful. Some were smaller that others. We finally got to the northern start of the Mississippi River and two guys walked in the River; one dressed and one in skivvies. "But they look like trunks!" is what I later heard. Tomorrow, we start going south following the Mississippi River and meeting up with Gary Mulleneaux. We will try to get as far south by the River as possible. The other guys have to do laundry also. Who knows where we will end up. So, until tomorrow...