For all the german readers out there: Imagine to ride your bicycle all the way from Hanover to Oldenburg. You ride along one single straight road. The landscape is the same like between Hanover and Oldenburg – except there are not dozens of villages. Actually there are only five small townships. 4 gas-stations. 1 McDonalds (Water-Refill). 1 Burger King (Burger and Water-Refill). 1 Food-Store (rice, beans, bananas and Water-Refill). Imagine – you ride 100 miles, 10 hours – to your left and to your right is nothing but corn, windmills, corn, very few cattle and much more corn. Every 2-4 minutes a pickup- or semi-truck passes you.

Got it? Then you know how my last day(s) was/were 😉

Today I got a good signal from the local rock-radio-broadcast (106.5 sent from Fairmont, MN) – that together with the scenery described above helped me into phases of real trance and I got the “flow”.

People I met:

Dave, Tyler and Cole are farmers and live in a big farmhouse only 20 miles from Rochester. They helped me out with some compressed air and a sink for washing my hands after I changed the tube of my rear-wheel. Yes – I got my first puncture with a “Schwalbe Marathon” ever (caused by a very fine scale of metal)!

Carla gave me a warm welcome, made me sign her world-map and did not charge for my campsite after I arrived at dusk on Brookside Campground.

At the post office in Clarkes Grove (Gary and Shawn: your maps are currently on their way home!) I met Charles who was about to give the church a fresh paintjob. He asked me if I needed something and if he could help me somehow. The same asked Shane and Denise who joined me during my lunch in Black River Falls two days before. They told me about their bike-experiences in Glacier National Park.

The most drivers (oncoming and passing) wave at me with a friendly smile.

Everything continues to go smoothly – life is good 🙂