As we where munching pancakes and cereal in the morning, a large, thin hound came slinking out of the brush and laid down on our campsite, flapping his tail gently. We immediately noticed that he had a single porcupine quill sticking out of his nose. We thought about what the best way to remove it would be, and decided to feed him some scraps while extracting the quill with pliers. The dog, who was very friendly, didn't even yip when mom pulled the quill.
Speaking of Mom, she was the family member of choice who would be riding with me for the day. It took us quite a while to leave, but by 11:00 we where crunching down the campground's gravel road out to the pavement.
25 miles later, we stopped in the city of Bemidji for me to do some stuff, and ended up getting sucked in for 2 hours. After I got everything sorted out, we left town to ride the next 35 miles to Itasca state park.
It turns out, my mother is quite the cyclist. The longest ride she had previously completed was a mere 20 miles long, and as the miles turned by I concernedly kept an eye on how she was doing. The further we went, however, the happier she seemed, and we found the campground with smiles on our faces and 62 miles on the clock. Yay Mom!
June 4
Now that we actually had a chance, we decided to stay two nights at the state park. The state park covers a huge amount of area and has lots of sights to see, with the most prominent being the Mississippi River headwaters.
Miraculously, the 80% chance of rain for the day resulted in sun and breeze, but very little rain. We took advantage of the weather to see as much of the park as we could, and us and the "road rats" (boys) had a great time pedaling from place to place.
The rain finally came in the evening, and we where forced into a picnic shelter for dinner. It rained hard all night, and puddles had developed in the tent by morning.
Okay folks, here's a a shocking statistic. 15 days on the road, and 9 of those had at least some rain. Yep, that's us, the Wilson rainmakers.
We woke up to rain and a temperature of 50 degrees, and over a cold breakfast decided we would stay at the park another day because nobody wanted to ride. With the decision made to stay, we still had to come up with a way to occupy 4 rambunctious boys for the day. We needed to do some stuff in town somewhere, so we loaded up the truck and drove 20 miles to Park Rapids. While mom did some laundry, the rest of us loitered around Walmart and burger king. The burger king had a brand new pop machine, and the manager was so proud of it that she let us all try it for free.
It was still raining and frigid outside as we drove back to camp, so upon arrival we made a stop at the visitor center and learned all about the Civilian Conservation Corps, Native Americans, and forest fires.
Mercifully, the rain tapered off in time for us to cook some dinner over the fire. The boys had patrolled the campground and secured no less than 5 bundles of firewood that had been left behind due to the rain. We only made it through 2 1/2, but the fire still bordered on inferno occasionally.
By 10:00 the sky had finally cleared off, and we actually had a night without rain.
At some point here, I'd like to show you the equipment and gear that I'm using. I think I might wait until the rest of the family has left, when I'm in the boring plains of North Dakota.
The Mississippi headwaters
Lake Itasca
Me with Paul & Babe in Bemidji
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