My friends and I have always talked about how great it would be to have one of us own a lake cabin. Since I got the opportunity to live and work in Germany I knew I wouldn't be able to buy the lake cabin. :) Once my friends found out I was leaving them for a year we all decided to rent a lake cabin in northern Minnesota. My good friends Claire and Steve took the lead and searched the internet for places. Since we are all just out of college none of us expected much. The place they found was [View Full Entry]

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I can't believe I'm here, at this point. After months of planning and dreaming, it's really happening. And I'm so excited and nervous and stressed I think I'm going to explode into a million pieces while doing a happy dance. The Big and Exciting News of the Day: I turned in my 2 weeks notice at work!!!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it. Oh, how I dreamed of this moment for years.... ahhh. At first my boss didn't believe me. Then he did. Then he smiled and congratulated me. And asked about what I was going to be [View Full Entry]

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"Over the river and through the corn to Grandma's house we go!" We finally made it to my parents house this afternoon. First though, we stopped at the world's largest 6-pack and fortunately ran into a brewmeister while taking pictures. His information was very interesting. He told us that this was the largest US owned brewery in the states, since Budweiser was recently sold. Our next stop was Lock and Dam #7. We did not get to see any boats/barges go through the lock which was a disappointment. Our final stop of the day was Ed's Museum in Wykoff, MN. This [View Full Entry]

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These last few days have been such a nice change after being on the open road for so many days. I guess it was only a week of traveling every single day, but after a while I felt like I didn't have any time to rest. I have decided from here on out I need to travel shorter distances per day. Sometimes it is easy to just jump on the bike and keep putting the miles down, when really I should be stopping more to nourish my body, see the sights, and meet the people. Basically I need to stop and [View Full Entry]

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I stayed with an older couple in Dolton, South Dakota, and had a great time with them. I didn’t arrive until later in the evening, so we only had a couple hours to hang out. It was a rural farm house, and it was just so peaceful out there. I got up fairly early the next morning to get a head start on the day. One thing that drives me nuts is driving around in big cities. And it makes it especially worse when I am on a motorcycle, because sometimes I feel like everyone on the road is trying to [View Full Entry]

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The following is a direct transcription of a page dated 6/19/08 bearing the title "Truth in Advertising" and was written somewhere between Minneapolis and London. I have an idea. NWA should change it's name to GFYPA, or Go Fuck Yourself, Passenger Airlines. For starters, there are children, CHILDREN in bulkheads and the (I assume) lonely Asian lady at check in basically ignored me when I asked about exit rows. First things first though. So, my flight lands, does all the taxi bullshit for WAAAAAYYYY TOO LONG and left me less than 30 minutes to reach my plane. No biggie, because they [View Full Entry]

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Matt & I had a blast driving across the U.S. It took us 3 days to travel from Massachusetts to New York to Pennsylvania to Ohio to Indiana to Wisconsin and then on up to Minnesota! We made a point of spending our first night at The Riverside Inn in Cambridge Springs, PA., which is an Inn built in the early 1800's. Just so happens that my Grandparents met there in the 1930's. We checked in pretty late, but still had time to grab a couple beers at the bar and met some cool locals. The next morning we met up [View Full Entry]

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We drove north on MN 61, the "North Shore Scenic Drive." And scenic it is with views of the north woods, Lake Superior, waterfalls and rivers emptying into Lake Superior. We drove all the way to the border stopping now and then to take pictures. At Grand Portage Natl Monument we walked through a recreated stockade, used by fur traders and an Ojibwe village. It was all very interesting. On the way back, we stopped at Grand Marais and wandered through an art fair, then got ice cream and headed back to the campground. Another beautiful day. [View Full Entry]

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From Rolling Meadow, IL to Worthington, MN What's hot: Windmills turning on the prairie What's also hot: The bicycles in Madison, WI What's not: The fury of a surprise prairie storm. The road so far: Over 1500 miles behind us. Heavy traffic around the cornfields. Travel lesson of the day: Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore. from Kathy: “The dullest part of the trip is from Chicago to South Dakota.” That’s what the people say. Not true for the Floonian Roadster! Our first side trip was Madison, WI, where I wanted to see firsthand what a real bicycle-friendly town looks like. [View Full Entry]

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This morning we took the Hwy 71 Loop around Bemidji to Northome where we expected to pick up MN Hwy 1. Somehow at Northome we got onto Hwy 46 instead and ended up taking about an hour and a half detour before finding our way back to Hwy 1. After that, it was fairly uneventful (woods, lakes, wildflowers, repeat) except for the road itself. For a state highway if was more like a country road, with 10 mph 90 degree turns . This road was along the edge of the wilderness, few towns, few houses, no hills to go around. [View Full Entry]

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