Day 66 Pelican Lake to Dawson MN 114km

Kerstin's journal entry for her 38th birthday, published with permission :) Everytime an eventful day comes to an end I find it difficult to get the appropriate entry into my journal writing. Often I am still too excited about the happenings that it is hard to sit still and reflect on them all. I will start by categorising today into the drawer marked 'what are the chances?...' and I start with Ed. Today's bicycle hero who we meet and greet at the Minnesota border after he just finished a charity ride of 412 miles, non-stop from one state border to the other, all the way across South Dakota in just a little over 26 hours!



Now to put this in perspective, it took us 5.5 hours to complete today's stage of 70.5 miles. But what are the chances that we would reach the state border and cross into Minnesota exactly in time to a) have our lunch break while chatting to the race organisers, a lovely couple from eastern South Dakota, avid bicycle promoters, b) get to enjoy some comfortable camping chairs, a port-a-loo and some homemade bikkies, and c) be there when Ed, only the third solo rider to complete this years race, arrives at the finish line? We timed it pretty well I must say, and all that after a relatively late start into a long ride. We leave the cycling hot spot of the border behind us after taking the obligatory border crossing photo and donating $20 to the charity for which these riders race.



The twenty dollars which we would have spent on breakfast at the Wheel Inn in Watertown if it hadn't been for a generous and unknown benefactor who shared only a few words with us but never the less secretly paid our breakfast bill! I mean, what are the chances?! This breakfast experience was also one to remember from a culinary perspective, we got to enjoy our first American homefries and the cinnamon roll was to die for. To top the whole scenario off, the regular cafe crowd sang happy birthday to Troy, a newly 15yo local diner. I spontaneously popped over to congratulate him and let him know that we share the same birthday, this automatically leads to some laughter and high fives with the ladies sitting at the neighboring table. What are the chances on such a start into the day? We take a ride through the lovely town centre and stop for groceries at an employee owned supermarket called HyVee. An adorable elderly couple approach us, they want to know what cyclists eat, the gentleman (carrying his oxygen bottle) says he is asking for his wife... We exchange a laugh and a giggle and get confirmation the we will be included in their prayers (every little bit helps). With so much good blessing Louise forgets our valuable handlebar bag at the fresh bagel stand, and our charming gentleman comes to the rescue and suggests we should not leave without our map bag otherwise we would be lost. By the time we hit the road and head for the border crossing it is 11:30 and we still have 60 miles to ride! But as we learned at the beginning of this journal entry; it was all meant to be timed this way. The crappiest stretch of road we have seen in a long time farewells us from South Dakota, and we bump along for the final 10 miles into Minnesota. Our first host town in the state of 10,000 lakes is Dawson. A small town where not much seems to happen but with a nice community charm, and a chamber of commerce website of a world class city! Advertising their, really quite impressive, collection of garden gnomes. Who line up at the entrance to town, right under the welcome sign. Now the day is complete, what are the chances that I would close my 38th birthday eye to eye with a gnome?



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