Day 64 Lake Louise to Fisher Grove State Park 98km

What an odd day today has been! We rode out of Lake Louise this morning in good spirits and were blessed with a tail wind for the first 20 miles or so. The fork in the road was decided on the basis of this tailwind, and we opted for some extra miles with it rather than a shorter route cutting NE. The roads were littered with abandoned houses, looking to be from somewhere between the 30s and the 50s. Their empty windows, flaking paint and desolate yards added an odd ambience to the prairie, what used to be a family farm now surrounded by an ocean of corporate corn.


We even rode past the Monsanto (evil!) experimental farm, I wished for a big texta to deface their sign with a political message. Our northern route eventually brought us to Hwy 212 which we will follow, more or less, into Minnesota. This right turn was also a turn of fortune, the wind was now bumping against my right shoulder, the narrow shoulder on the road was rendered unridable by a deep, thick rumble strip, forcing us onto the road proper, and it was 32 miles to the State Park on this road. Music again provided both entertainment and motivation and we soon rolled into the large (relatively speaking) town of Redfield, the UPS man kindly directed us to Main street, where we quickly found three of our favorite things. A supermarket, for food, to fuel the legs, a post office, for mail, to lighten the load, and a library, for wifi and books (and usually a friendly lady behind the counter). The combination of these three things made us pretty content, and we enjoyed a leisurely lunch on the grass outside the library. This wifi experience would deliver a shock, when we discovered that one of our travel cards had been skimmed, and was in use by a stranger! But if this is the travel drama we had to have on this trip, then I would choose this drama over say... being attacked by a bear, bitten by a rattlesnake, crashing the bike, etc... And as Kerstin says I've got pretty good crisis management skills (thank you Westmead ED), which came in handy again before the day was over. It was much later than expected when we left Redfield, thank you ANZ for your ridiculous paperwork, and we pedaled as fast as our legs would carry us the last 8 miles with a big, black thunderstorm gaining on us the whole way. We beat the storm to the State Park, but not the flood, with most of the park underwater, or covered in debris and fallen trees. The higher ground in front of the park was a well manicured golf course, and our tent quickly went up under the protection of a big, beautiful elm tree behind the clubhouse. The young woman working behind the bar was kind enough to refill our drink bottles and give us the heads up on the severe thunderstorm warning for the county, which were predicted to pass within a hour or so. With the golfers gone we soon had the place to ourselves, that beautiful tree protected us from the worst of the rain and the wind. And when the storm had passed dinner under her branches after such a day was better than eating at any exclusive restaurant you can think of. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad