Pretty dicey day. Radar shows rain all over, beginning with Minneapolis, like starting at 7am! So quick pack up, coffee, conti and full rain gear, locked and loaded. It started raining before we hit the starters and it poured for the next 2-3 hours as we headed due west to duck under the storm. It did finally let up and it was just overcast and threatening, so I left my rain gear on most of the day. It did sprinkle mid afternoon but it was a poor showing. We slowed down a lot today, sticking to the speed limits so it was enourmously more enjoyable with less wind noise. We stopped at Ortonville, which is the perfect small town you hope to find. Nice brick downtown with lots of shops and no chain franchise places. So I say a woman walking down the sidewalk and asked where the coffee shop was and she pointed to the place down the block, coffee and bakery, PERFECT!
The nice lady behind the counter took my order, asked about all the rain gear and I gave her all the gory details. I just got coffee and chatted up a woman about crops, local history, etc and sure enough we ended up talking for a half hour. She grew up on a farm that grew barley, flax, corn, hay as well as pigs, sheep, etc so she was the perfect resurce for what all this stuff was we were driving by.
Meanwhile the woman behind the counter got a break and looked up the weather radar for me on her iPad and it looked clear the rest of the day. This is the magic of stopping in little towns. People love to help you out and they love to share their little towns and stories.
The rest of the afternoon we spent going 58-60 mph on Rt 12 with almost no traffic, 70-80 degF temps and lots of open grasslands, corn and soy. I did see what looked like a wheat attachment at one point but no wheat (assuming I knew what it looks like). he ladies this morning talked about wheat so there must be some here somewhere.
Nice little tail wind all day so very Zen afternoon..
Ended the day in Mobridge SD, right on the Missouri River. There is a Lewis & Clark walk along the river with all the history of he and his men stopping here in 1804 on their way to the Pacific. There was reference to Sitting Bull being burried here somewhere but I couldn't find it, maybe in the morning.
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