Roam and Ride With Me! Minnesota, June 2016

Last week my guy and I drove up to Minnesota to see an old high school buddy of his, Steve, and Steve's wife, Martina. Steve had been the number one Snap On dealer for a few years and Martina had taught in North Dakota, but a few years ago they decided to retire and got themselves a very nice place on Little Cormorant Lake. Here are a few views of that lake from their house.

Pretty, right? As you can see in the second photo, they have a nice pontoon, so we took a couple rides in that during our short stay. While on the lake, we saw a log full of sunning turtles, an eagle guarding its nest, a bunch of geese with their babies and some loons. 

Having never really been to Minnesota (except for a fast trip to Minneapolis years ago), I wasn't completely surprised to find so many lakes since I've often heard it referred to as the land of 10,000 lakes, but I was still surprised to find so many in a relatively small area. Some are quite large and others smaller like their lake, and then there are even some where not a house is to be seen around them because the lakes are preserved as "ecological." I think that's a good idea; otherwise, the entire area would get too overdeveloped.

We hauled our motorcycles up there in our new trailer and pulled them out one day for a nice ride. Here's our exact route which entailed 135 miles of lovely terrain and lake upon lake: 

We headed south down County 11 from Little Cormorant Lake; we briefly joined up with County 5 until County 9 which we took into Pelican Rapids; from there we headed east on 108 through Dent to highway 78; we drove south into Ottertail where we stopped for a drink and some licorice chip ice cream (yum!) at a cute store; then we continued south past lovely Ottertail Lake to Battle Lake which is both a lake and a town; here we turned around and went north on 78 to Perham where we met up with Steve and Martina and followed them on state highway 10 to Detroit Lakes for supper at Zorbas on the lake before heading back to their house via West Lake Drive to County 6 which took us back to County 11. Here is a photo of my bike at Battle Lake (doesn't it look so happy there?):

The next day we spent with our hosts who took us driving back along some of the route we had covered on our bikes, so I could better get photos of areas I'd seen. It's hard to take a photo while riding a bike! Ha! (Don't worry -- I've never done that.) 

At Pelican Rapids we learned that there actually are some rapids there; hence the name of the town.

I was amazed at some areas where a thin road goes between two lakes and I had to wonder how they manage in the winter. Frankly, I'd be afraid of sliding off into a lake! 

One of our traditions is a selfie everywhere new we go together. We're acquiring quite a few! We consider ourselves very lucky to have found each other after our crappy marriages ended. Neither of us had a person who would share new journeys with us, so that's why we do the selfies -- to celebrate having that with each other now.

As I mentioned before, the loon is popular and important to the state and area. They make a beautiful noise in the evenings out on the lake. Here is a large statue in Vergas:

As Martina said, there is the loon with a couple of real loons posing beside it! Ha ha.

I just love to take photos of nature, especially when water is involved, so here are a few others from that day:

The next, and last full day we spent with them, we took Steve's special "toy" to Two Inlets State Park to do some trail riding.

The trees and foliage are quite dense in there, and there are even bears that live there, so I was a little bit worried, but we only saw some birds. Phew! The guys wanted to see bears, of course! The trails go on for miles and cut all across the woodland. They are mostly set up for snowmobiling during the winter, but we enjoyed getting semi-lost and having a picnic in the middle of the woods.

After our ride, we loaded up the "toy" and drove to Detroit Lakes again to see a traveling tribute to 9/11. There were a couple NYC fire chiefs there giving tours of it and telling their stories. For us, as Legion Riders, it was very moving, and Kim is a former volunteer fireman. Also, one year exactly from the date we were viewing this tribute we will be at the actual memorial in NYC. Even though far too many people, in my opinion, have forgotten about that day, I never will, and I look forward to paying my respects at the site of the tragedy. Here are some photos of the traveling tribute:

One night we sat by the fire pit and had s'mores! Gotta love that. Another selfie to celebrate our fun!

Then we headed for home, on Kim's birthday! We'd seen a sign with his last name on it, so the birthday boy wanted to pose by it. He looks so tiny! You go, Mr. Tanglewood! Ha, ha.

There are many things about this trip that made it great: 1. he got to see an old friend who he hadn't seen much of over the past 40 years, 2. they were wonderful to us and welcomed me right into the fold, having only met me briefly once before, 3. we rode our bikes in totally new terrain instead of over the same old roads, 4. we had new experiences together, 5. I got to read by a body of water which is my favorite reading spot, and 6. we ate some great food! Thanks for the memories!