Once again, winds were out of the SE, but it was cool and a good day for riding. My goal was Dalbo and I got here so early that I thought I should continue riding for a couple more hours. However, camping and lodging is scarce in the next 40 miles and besides, if I continued, I'd miss the Cyclists' Bunkhouse.
The Cyclists Bunkhouse is well known by riders on the Northern Tier. The owner, Donn Olson, has set up a free bunkhouse for touring cyclists.
Besides offering a place to sleep and get out of the weather, the Bunkhouse has food and cooking appliances. Donn only asks for a contribution for any food that is consumed ($3 for a pizza, 25 cents for a soft drink, etc.) It even has Wi-Fi.
I'm in the Bunkhouse by myself right now, but it is still early and so perhaps some other riders will show up later.
As the title implies, I saw 2000 miles on the odometer today. Today is my 29th day on the road and I'm averaging 70 miles per day. Tomorrow the winds are supposed to shift to the NW and I plan to cross the WI border.
Since this has been an early stop today, let me comment on some things that have worked and other things that I wish I had thought of:
1) Burley Nomad: The trailer has worked very well. It is not watertight, but since I put everything in plastic bags, everything has stayed dry. The low center of gravity and swivel connector on the hitch makes riding the bike feel no different than if I were riding without the trailer. The only annoyance is that the axel width sometimes makes it impossible to avoid the rumble ruts that are on the shoulders of many hiways. If the shoulder is too narrow, I ride on the roadway and just keep an eye out for traffic in my mirror.
2) Helmet Mirror: I'm glad I bought this several hundred miles ago. It's now easy to look back and check for traffic.
3) Business Cards: I wish I would have made up some business cards with my name and blog address on it. Many people have expressed interest in my ride and it would be nice to be able to give them a card with the blog address and some other information.
4) Mobile Hot Spot: I got this thinking that wi-fi might be hard to access, especially in some of the small towns. It turns out that wi-fi is almost everywhere. While the Hot Spot has been nice to have in city campgrounds, the benefit does not justify the cost.
5) Tires: Those Western roads chew up tires. Fortunately, I've not been in a situation where I needed a new tire (just tubes). However, keeping an extra one on the bike adds to peace of mind.
6) Seat-Shorts. I can't decide whether sore, tired legs or a sore butt is the primary reason to call it a day. There's not much I can do about tired legs; butt comfort is another story. My shorts are kinda old and so the padding doesn't pad so well anymore. I should have started with new shorts. As it is, I'm "double-shorting" on some days and that helps. I'm not sure if a different seat would be any better; my butt is just not used to riding 6+ hours everyday.
7) Gearing. I'm not sure of what the gear inches are on the bike, but they are pretty low. I can pedal with a good strong cadence down to about 3.5 mph and max is about 30 mph. While I used the small ring extensively in the mountains, I've also used it for some of the short steep hills. I've talked to some bikers who occasionally walk their bikes up hills. I've never had to do that with this gearing. I like it!
That's it for now.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Dalbo, MN
Mike,Congratulations on reaching 2K! I've enjoyed reading your blog. Sounds like you're having a great ride. Lou
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