Day 21 Albany, MN -Barrett, MN

Thursday 11 August 2011. Last Day Week 3

The night before each day of riding we go over our route looking at the elevation profile and decide how many miles we will travel. When we go to bed we know all the work is done for the next day and all we have to do is ride.

After eating the free breakfast at the motel Ken was returning to the room when he ran into another two cyclists coming out of their room. The couple, a retired school teacher and his wife were riding from North Dakota to Chicago.  They told Ken of a Rails to Trails route they were riding that may cross our route.  They handed Ken a map to keep and look over.

If you do not know what a Rails to Trails route is I will explain.  It is where an old unused railroad track has been removed and replaced with pavement for people to walk or ride bicycles on.  This peculiar trail is closed to all motorized vehicles….except snowmobiles in the winter.

This trail is called the Wobegon trail and is over 100 miles long.  About 45 miles of it somewhat paralleled our route so in a mad panic we changed all our lodging plans and route to utilize as much of this trail as we could. The only available lodging we could find was Pearls Place in Barrett, MN. We had no idea what it even looked like.  When we called a nice women answered the phone and was happy to answer any questions we had.  She said for $99 we could rent an entire 3 bedroom two bath house.  Ken asked her a few times “is it clean” because we have had some real dumps in the past.  She assured him it was nice and clean so we booked it.

The bicycle trail was fantastic.  No cars and well maintained the 12 foot wide asphalt roadway made for some great cycling.  You did not have to worry about traffic or any other road hazards. It was beautiful.  We even came across a bicycle shop on the trail.  Only the third we have seen and the only one that was open so we went in. Tim bought tubes and some new bar tape. Ken bought a new water bottle and a few other items.  We borrowed their grease gun to lubricate our peals and we were off.

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes and they are not kidding either.There are lakes everywhere. Next to one of these lakes is Barrertt where we will be staying. We pulled into the tiny town and saw three young kids tossing apples into the road for the occasional car to run over. The apples looked good so Tim and Ken went over to grab a couple to eat. The young kids thought the “big kids” may yell at them for tossing apples into the road so they stopped. One boy offered to scale the tree and get Tim and Ken a nice red apple from up high. You could see they were a bit nervous about all the apples in the road and tried to act like they knew nothing of it.  Ken sensed their uneasiness and said hey if the apples are on the ground it is alright to toss them onto the roadway.  Immediately the apple tossing continued as Tim and Ken filed their pockets with the tasty apples.

Just a little further down the road we found “Pearls Place”.  It was a beautiful little house with flowers and a perfectly manicured lawn. Once inside we found a fully furnished home neat as a pin and spotlessly clean.  All this for $99!  The women on the phone was right.

Across the street was a little restaurant/bar/liquor store called the Barrett Inn.  At first we were a bit nervous of the combination. But once inside we could see this was going to be good home cooking and it was. It was an all you can eat fried chicken with all the fixings and a salad bar. Great food, good people and super service for $7.50 each how can you beat it.  We took 3 slices of the homemade pie back to our little pad for an after dinner snack.

Outside the restaurant we met the “coolest dude in town” Jared Lock,  A young boy on  BMX bike who lives next to our rented house.  We hope to hear from him on our blog….Jared??

We only covered 73 miles today because of availability of a place to sleep.  Remember our sleep spots determine our daily mileage.  On the east coast we have many motels and other places to choose from.  But out here in the boonies it is a bit different.  There is nearly nothing to choose from.  Tonight though we did good in that department with Pearls Place.

With our bellies full we retried to our little house for a good nights sleep.

73 Miles

1675 Feet of Climbing

Temperature 60 - 75 degrees

The "View" from the WoBeGon trail..

 

Tunnel

Update from the trail:

Bike Path Albany to Alexandria 45 miles along the highway.

Bike Path