Woke at about 7:30 a.m. feeling warm and well rested. Yahoo! Last night by the time we made our last walk to the bathroom the rain/drizzle had stopped but when I went out this morning it was back. Not intense but it was enough to make me think we might be setting up our tent in the rain after all. Update: Turns out we set up in a drizzle not in a full on rain.
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I find that my arms,
shoulders and neck get all knotted up when I ride in the rain. Comes from tensing up. I become aware of a dull ache in my shoulders
and have to remind myself to relax…doesn’t take long before I’m right back to
feeling the ache. The last 3 hours of Thursday night's ride into Bemidji was no
exception; I was still trying to loosen up my neck and shoulders for a couple
of hours after being off the bike. But sleeping
in a warm cabin and taking a hot shower this morning seems to have done the
trick to unknotting my shoulders. Very
grateful for that. Makes riding a lot
more enjoyable.
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11:45 a.m.:
Kim had gone over to check out our tent site about 10 a.m. then went
to the office to change it. Seems the
one they were going to put us in wasn’t up to his level standards.😎 Then he took his bike
and trailer over to the new site BEFORE we had repacked the items brought into
the cabin last night. That meant that we schlepped everything over by
hand. True, it wasn’t very far and Kim
carried the heavy stuff but it still seemed silly to me not to use the trailer
for transport. But regardless of the
manner in which it was transferred, all our stuff was out of the cabin and over
in the tent by 11 a.m. and that’s what matters.
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Noon: We’re currently up at
the laundry room assessing our activity options. Still a light drizzle coming down but the sky
seems to brightening up. I think we’re
going to go adventuring, fully expecting to get a little damp.
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Left camp about 12:45 to find
the headwaters of the Mississippi River at Itasca State Park. Rain had stopped so we stayed dry which is
always more comfortable when sightseeing.
Coming into the park we crossed the Mississippi which looked more like
the Jordan River back home than the Mighty Mississippi.
At the Mary Gibbs Headwaters Center we looked at the displays, checked out the gift shop, squished a penny and ate lunch. Then we wandered down to see the marker. It was a very busy place so the selfie at the marker had to be quick. Before we left Kim wandered out into the middle of the stream so he could say that he stood in the middle of the Mississippi. Most of the kids doing that took their shoes off; Kim left his on. 😏
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Next up was trying to catch
our supper. Headed over to Douglas Lodge
area in the state park where there is a public fishing pier. I was going to be
the rule book checker to see if whatever he caught was legal to keep but that’s
a fairly boring job if nothing gets on the line. I had tucked my computer into my saddlebag so
I’d have something to do while he fished…I played Solitaire and organized some
pictures. But the thought of stretching
out on the bench and taking a nap was fairly appealing also. Thankfully there were no bugs bothering us.
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We packed it in at about 6
p.m. The fish simply weren’t biting and
we had about a 40 minute ride back to our can of Spam.
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I honestly cannot remember
the last time I ate Spam. I’m sure I ate
it somewhere along my life's journey but it certainly didn’t leave an impression
like Jif peanut butter, mac n cheese or Cheerios. So I felt kind of like a rookie and had to
take advice from Kim on how to prepare my Spamwich: put the grilled Spam on
lightly buttered bread smeared with mustard.
I have to say that I’m kind of ambivalent about the Spam experience. Apart from the mustard I don’t think it had
much taste. I tried a piece plain…definitely needed the mustard.
Because I was curious Kim did a Google search
about the content of Spam. First of all
it consists of pork shoulder which in and of itself wasn’t a popular cut of
meat. Secondly, it’s been around since before WWII and thirdly it’s a world-wide
phenomenon. There’s so much more
information out there about how beloved it is in various countries, favorite
ways to prepare it and where the Spam festivals are held. Here’s a fascinating fact: over 8 billion
cans of Spam have been sold worldwide with Hawaii being the biggest
consumer per capita. Who keeps track of this stuff?
There you have it…more
information that you ever needed to know about Spam.
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We saw the sun peek out a
couple of times today…not for long but enough to give a person hope that the
rain clouds would be moving on. The camp
owner said that this area has been in a drought so they’re very grateful for
the precipitation. Grateful is not the
word that came to my mind.
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We basically made about an 80
mile loop today…headed west and then south to get to the Headwaters and
continued south to get to fishing hole.
To get back to camp Rapunzel had us go east and north. Rapunzel is usually a thorn in my side but
today she did good…I like taking different routes because I get to see more of
the area.
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Friday’s miles: 88
Total miles: 744
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