July 10 - Tuesday - Grand Forks ND to Thunder Bay ON - 463 miles

No sleep last night so I got up at 4:30 and checked the radar. Holy mackerel, where did that storm come from! I usually stay on top of the weather forecast but this was right on top of me to the west and south. I was planning to go south east today to Duluth MN, nit it was going to be a wet mess. The only way out was to go north east toward Thunder Bay ON and over the lake.
I had already started to rain as I packed the bike and so I did the full suit thing, grabbed a cu of coffee just as they opened at 6:00 (yuck), and promised myself a better cup later on.
First stop was Thief River Falls to see a company called Digikey who Dave and I have been buying parts from for probably 40 years. They used to have these little ads in magazines for electronics part and now they are huge. I was expecting something flashy, but was pleased at how they spent their money on customers, not buildings. Thief River Falls is actually a pretty small town and I saw a billboard for Digikey Careers coming into town. I asked a guy going in if they gave tours and he said he thought they used to and might still by special appointment so I'll skip that, and I have a long way to go today.
I did not appreciate how much nothing there was going to be today. This corner of Minnesota, and Ontario are vast swampy affairs. But there are also some pretty spectacular lakes up here. I bumbled along all day at about 55 mph (90kph) and as soon as I got to Thief River Falls the rain had stopped and I had beat the storm. And the temps were perfect with 70-85 all day, probably because it was still a bit cloudy for the first 2/3 of the day.

You need to plan your gas up here and I bought my first tank (1/2 tank, no chances) on a reservation. It had no octane marked on the pump so I asked an old indian man filling his truck up what octane this was. He said he didn't know but his truck runs fine, and so did my Kawasaki. It looked the right color.
The reservation got lonelier and lonelier as the morning went on with no cars to speak of. Kinda creepy being out here by yourself. I got a tent and sleeping bag and water so not to worry.
International Falls came up and what a nice, pretty big, modern, tidy town this is kinda all by itself up here. This is the town you hear about reporting the coldest temp in the US. A guy told me the Smokey Bear in the park was adorned with a fur hat in the winter.

The Canadian border crossing was easy and since nobody was there, the border guy wanted to know all about my trip, so we chatted until another car came. There is a job for me! He said there was only one gas stop between International Falls and Thunder Bay and it was 160km away so I stopped there. The bike has and easy changeover to metric, but metric takes a bit to get used to.

Long haul to Thunder Bay with beautiful sunny skies (good call Miller). I hit another time zone change and realized I did not have a place to stay in Thunder Bay. Not enough internet to get a webpage to load so I texted Deb and she got me a room (thanks sweetie). Good thing she did because all the motels were full. When I got to the Nites Inn, the guy behind the counter said he was full and was trying to find me a room in another motel (sweet!). He did and it was only a block away. He gave me $20 for the screwup. Wow, these Canadians!!
A couple phone calls and bed.

Odometer = 28,667