[25/09/2024 – 02/10/2024[

Our Last Week – Whenever You Read IT

This will come as no surprise to either of you, but the U.S. are a nation of drivers. Why is it important to state the obvious, well as Stefan and myself are frequently walking, we have noticed the way people look at us, out of their cars. Mostly with pitty, sometimes even with a hint of disgust, or at least that is how i feel about it. Fun thing though as soon as you start jogging, the pitty or disgust goes away and people are actually cheering you on from inside there little and not so little castles aka cars.
Of course there is not really infrastructure for pedestrians, except for maybe the most inner parts of towns and cities. I mean at home, walking sometimes is more troublesome then just taking your car, as you cannot take the direct route to your destination, but here this is much worse.
Once last thing, Stefan found an article, that talks about ah bicycle path from Washington to Washington, so from the state to the capital of which 55% percent are already built. Cool thing once it is fully done. Still dont know how you cope with these strong winds you have in the flatlands, but that is another topic.
Ok one more, as today is the first debate of the running mates, Stefan and I are thinking about whether or not we are going to use the TV which we have at the house.

Wednesday: Cedar Pass Campground – Huron

From the badlands into the flatland. Whether or not this can still be called the mid-west or just the mid of the U.S. is a different matter, but it is now flat at an elevation of about 560m, with corn-, grain-, sunflower fields and prairie as far as the eye can see. Stefan said, so when it is harvesting season you see a field like that Monday morning and you just know that most likely you will not be finished with harvesting by the end of the week.
We are in the midst of what commonly is referred to as fly-over-country and honestly i totally enjoy it, people are nice landscape still offers enough to see, and prices are much more reasonable then in the other parts of the country we have been to. Oh yes and the burgers are really good. Of course you see quite a lot of billboards whith questionable messages. Abortion being one big topic – well rather anti-abortion really – but as well, on green energy like “if windmills are the answer, how stupid was the question” and so on. On the other hand, some things you see at the countryside back home, are more then questionable as well. One more thing, both of us have been brought up in the countryside, but compared to the US countryside ours is overcrowded ;-).

Thursday: Huron

As we were sheer out of luck booking accommodation for Minneapolis for a not outrages price tag, we decided to stay one more day in Huron before moving onward towards Appleton. There our bikes will get the last service before they will be shipped home, some-when beginning of November. Ah and of course videos and images need to be edited and a blogpost needs to be written, so that you our dear readers have something new to enjoy. Well that was a bust as once again i ran into trouble. Trouble is fixed, but the post is not yet online as the pictures and videos still need to be uploaded.

Friday: Huron – Minneopa State Park Campground

Long straights, where you actually had to be careful not to overlook the bends that were coming. Thinking back to our first time driving in Patagonia, we made fun of the signs that warned you before the even slightest bend. Well I appreciate them a little more now.
The Minneopa State Park would have a rather pretty water fall, but currently it is more of a drop fall. The campground however has one of the best showers we have encountered throughout the US and Canada. You can regulate warm and cold water, there is enogh pressure and a proper shower head. However it is as well a rather crowded campground aka. it is fully booked and it seems like we have left the empty midwest behind.

Saturday: Minneopa State Park Campground – Eau Claire

Good morning, as usual (at least since a while) i moved from the tent into the hammock at around 06:00 am. Having a cup of coffee and the stars on top of me is a very nice way of watching the first glimmer of light. And this time it was not as cold as at the Dutch George Campground. And at this time of year Orion is not yet visible in the evening but rather in the early morning hours. Well starts to be visible around 01:00 am if memory serves. This day we did not really have a plan where to go, except that we did not want to venture of the route towards Appleton to far. I had an idea of where to go. So back on to the long straights. Well today they were not that long and on top of that the landscape changed again. More trees, the fields became smaller (somewhat) and in general it had more of a feeling of driving at home. Most probably one of the reasons why the first settlers liked this place. By the end of the day we eneded up in Eau Claire. Smaller town with a University and on Saturday night it was Homecoming. Young people in dresses and suits around town. The bar we selected for dinner added automatically 18% to the tap you are running, with the promise to use those 18% solely to provide a living wage to their employees. On the other hand in that particular establishment, they do not even offer paid vacation.

Sunday: Eau Claire – Appleton

Last leg for this week. The landscape just became more and more hilly, not mountainous but then again i believe we have seen the last of the mountains, when we left the Rocky Mountain National Park. Currently it is Indian Summer at its best. Colorful trees, meadows really nice. Autumn is a rather special season. Well if it is not rainy or foggy :-).
The ride towards Appleton was uneventful and we took our sweet time to reach the house, we have rented for a few nights. Pretty place, not far from downtown. Not that there was too much crowd out on a Sunday night but that was to be expected.

Monday: Appleton

The first item on the list, after breakfast, was to bring our bikes to the shop. Let´s see if we get them back tomorrow, and if the price indication holds true. The rest of the day was slow, with the exception of blogging and laundry neither Stefan nor myself did do much. Went shopping at Aldi, and the meat we bought for the BBQ was really good.

Tuesday: Appleton

Next blog entry for the last week and a few thoughts on what we do with the last 4 weeks of our journey. Interestingly it is only 3000km towards New York and that is already with deviations of the path like the crow flies. Alright today only one bike (Stefan´s) got finished, so i have to get mine tomorrow morning, this is a bit of a hassle as we as well have to vacate our current accomodation by 10:00 am. Anyway, Stefan´s thinks that by the first feeling a good job was done and that is the most important.

This concludes week #44
Till next time
Happy Hacking Everyone