Coast2Coast Day 7 - Tail Winds Good

Breaking news: There's nothing in North Dakota. I hate to break it to you, but as far as I can tell, there's really nothing going on in that state. Once I left Bismarck I went 100 miles east before I hit a single gas station.

And the 100 miles in between... Nothing. Just prairie.

But there is good news. I had a kick ass tail wind of about 30 mph all day. It made the riding today so easy and enjoyable. The miles just melted away. North Dakota sucks, but about 5 minutes after you cross the border into Minnesota the landscape changes from prairie to lush wooded hills and lakes. Lots of lakes. 10000 is what they claim.

While life in North Dakota seems to be focused on, well... nothing (maybe country music and drinking beer) life in Minnesota revolves around water sports. There are beaches and swim docks everywhere and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. The little towns are a lot cooler too. I went through a town called Walker that had a great feel to it.

I really like Minnesota.

This evening I'm staying in Duluth, right along the River Walk in downtown. It's vibrant and hip with tons of great restaurants. Speaking of restaurants, the food on the road is awful. Big chains occupy every rest stop and the food is killing me. Literally. I tried a place today called Taco John's. Trust me, this is a place you can avoid. I ordered a burrito. It was basically hamburger, or maybe dog food in a tortilla. And do you know what it was served with? Tater tots.

Who eats tater tots with Mexican food? Yuk. It was disgusting. I find myself eating less and less on the road. I skipped breakfast today and had only a few bites of Taco John's dog food burrito and tots for lunch. I was really stoked to see that Duluth had a bunch of great restaurants. I had Famous Dave's BBQ! Ummm sampler platter. I grubbed.

There's a draw bridge down along the river walk and I had the pleasure of seeing a "Great Lakes Vessel" pass between the lighthouses through the canal. A Great Lakes Vessel is the term they use for any of the cargo ships that are built to the largest allowable size in the great lakes. So it's 735 feet long and 75 feet wide. It basically looks like the Exxon Valdez... except err not sunk. But the ship is fricking gigantic and it pass about 100 feet away from you standing on the sidewalk. The boats is probably 80 or a 100 feet tall. On each end of the ship there are crew quarters that are about the same size as a four story apartment building. Pretty cool.

There's an area at the beginning of the river walk where all the altie kids hang out. I hung out there for about 20 minutes watching a few kids skateboard. They were trying flat ground tricks, just simple ollie kick flips and stuff. For the duration of my watching, not a single trick was pulled.

Note to self... kids in Duluth SUCK at skateboarding.

The cops eventually came and broke things up. Dicks. They're just kids.

OK, tomorrow I'm off to Sault St. Marie Canada!!

By the numbers:
States today: 2 ND & MN
Miles today: 447.5
Miles total: 2550.7


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