Day4 (Ride: 405 KM / 251Miles)
The Lounge on Big Lake Shores MN - Grand Forks ND
Just a little return to the previous day ride to MN through Wisconsin to Duluth. Here are a few pics I took along the way that I found came out ok.
This might also be a good time to explain my earlier complaints about my sleeping bag. So here I am, alone. It’s late. I hear some rustling of leaves outside. Seems pretty small. My 1st guess..maybe a squirrel or some other very small rodent, either way I’m up and can’t seem to fall back asleep. I reach for the home button on my iPhone, the display informs me that its only 03h05. So I figure I might as well try and record my impressions of my first few days out on this journey. So I locate the Voice Memo app on the iPhone and start dictating. Trying to recount names and places I’ve just seen, so I can seem like I know what I’m doing when I come to type all this up for this Blog! I sound like zombie as I try recounting the last days events. I’m surprised to see that I’ve been blabbering into my phone for 35 minutes! I’m just about ready to sign out when I’m hit with a very intense cramp in my calf. I drop the phone, its still recording. I need to jump out of bed to get my weight on my foot so I can be rid of this cramp..Oh Crap! I’m not in bed, I’m zipped up to the chin in a sleeping bag that I’ve come to learn has a manufacturing defect in the zipper. It’s snagged TIGHT and won’t budge - I’m trapped! The cramp is not going anywhere. It’s just getting more intense. I’m like a big hotdog that’s super glued to its bun. I’m doing my best to wiggle out, but it’s somewhat difficult with one leg that will not execute my simple commands to straighten out. Ok, so now my cramp went from defcon4 to defcon3, If I don’t get out soon I fear I will lose my leg! Somehow after what seems like a many minutes, I manage to free myself from the grips of my sleepingbag-tomb, and out comes my phone with me..I try and stand-up! Wrong!! I’m still in the friggin tent...defcon2 sets in! 2 sets of zipper’s to get out of my lovely tent. More coarse language - I’m glad I have no immediate neighbors and I’m sure any little rodents have fled the scene hearing the defcon countdown coming from inside my little green command centre. I’m out! I’m up. All is well. Back to defcon5 - Low readiness.
Carefully I go back into my tent. It’s cold. I find my Stupid sleeping bag bundled up in the corner of the tent. I find the phone still recording at the other end of the tent, this should make for good listening later, but 1st I need to get back INTO that stupid tomb of a sleeping bag to get warm. Get the headlamp on. 15 minutes to un-snag the zipper and I finally crawl back into it. It’s almost 4am. I look at the phone. Got a little over 40 minutes of audio - Hit play to see what it sounds like..nothing - silence. Somehow I never thought to test the audio input to see if it would/could pick up my voice so my 35 minutes of dictation was never captured and neither the 5 minutes of my Defcon countdown..Doh! I’m tired now. Sleep comes with little giggles escaping me as remember the moments that just transpired..I will never tell this story I’m sure ;)
So 05:30 my alarm goes off. Already forgotten the nights events! Time to shower.
Now for 25$ a night I thought you’d all like to see the amenities of luxury RV campground can offer to us campers -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z44TtLZwsrI
Now its not the Hilton you might say but it slightly beats out a port-a-potty...barely! All other campgrounds I stayed at offered way better facilities - As an example CottonInn’s in Montana (that will be my last video’s of a bathroom I promise).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGMbHiZwazk
Here’s the view from camp site of the lake and from the lake to my camp site - It really is a nice place if you can get pass that tin can of a restroom.
My friend HUNGER joins me now as well as his partner THIRST. For some reason, I just could not bring myself to drink from the sink at my current locations amenities. Now when I tried to take advantage of the main building’s dinning room I found it to be still closed at 7am. Hunger is not happy and Thirst is telling me to get busy or suffer the wrath of dehydration. No kidding I’m starving. I pulled into the 1st McDonald’s I saw. Ordered not one but two breakfasts, one bottle of water and 1 large coffee. Down the whole bottle of water as soon as it’s put down in from of me, then wolfed down breakfast number one then finally start on my coffee and savor breakfast number 2.
My next stop is Andy’s Harley Davidson in Grand Forks ND. My bikes needs its 1st oil change and I want to see what they think about my tires and how much use I can get out of them.
Turns out the service guy says I got 50% thread left. He see’s no problems for me getting to Vancouver and possibly all the way back home on the same set (turns out he was going to be right - got just a little over 17K miles on them when I did get home). Also had to explain how to clean my re-usable oil filter. The HD mechanic was not impressed with it and it seems this has not really caught on yet in the Harley World and I’m always having to explain why I use it and its advantages. I like it and I’ll be damned if I care that I don’t follow HD etiquette or trends.
Now this night I feel that a change of pace is required so I check in to the local Ramada Hotel - No camping tonight. I need the use of their guess laundry room. My first disappointment is that Ramada Hotel’s won’t let me leave my bike under their IMMENSE front covered entrance. I explain how I would like to keep it out of the rain but I fall on deaf ears. Guess this place is a little to upscale to have motorcycles laundering in the front of their fine establishment. That was enough for me to make a mental note never to come back to this hotel chain. Next disappointment..no elevators and I have to haul my gear up to the second floor! I don’t mean to complain...but its a lot of gear, even if I have gotten good at loading and unloading it - it’s still nice to have some proximity from room to bike. I’m sure I have a lot of supporters here on that front.
This evening I eat in a nice place just over the State line back into Grand Forks Wisconsin. I have what is to be my last Drink. Went off the wagon since my father passed and this day seems like good one to get back on.
Silent toast to my father, to my brother’s and as I take my last sip a special thought of my late uncle Dan.
Cheers!
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