A CHALLENGE FOR NO OTHER WOMAN

 

100 DAYS

20,598 MILES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 29, 2005

 

Lunch break on the upper Mississippi River.  While I enjoyed the relaxing scenery and the cool breeze off the river, I caught up on my e-mail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another view of the Mississippi River from the deck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 29, 2005

 

St. Paul, MN

Mile 3038

 

Yes, all this crap came off our bikes.  This does not include the one saddlebag on my bike full of kitchen items nor the tool contents of Ralph’s saddlebag.  It’s amazing that the bikes would hold all of this and still move down the road, but the bikes handled the load with ease.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  May 30, 2005

 

Checking the route at a rest stop somewhere in northern Minnesota.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 30, 2005

Karlstad, MN

Mile 3367

 

In this small town close to the Canadian boarder we stopped at the only campground in town which was actually the city park.  We were told by the only other camper in the park that we could pay the $5 camping fee to anyone in town.  We walked back to the main road, went into a pizza place and paid the waitress the $5 for our nights stay.  She wrote out a receipt for us for our documentation.  We got back to the campsite just in time to see the sunset.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

May 31, 2005

 

Waiting our turn at the Canadian border 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 1, 2006

Lloydminster, Alberta Canada

Mile 4138

 

This photo was taken about 20 miles east of Lloydminster.  We were riding between two huge storms, one on each side of this road.  The wind was blowing so swiftly that just after taking this picture and we got back on the bikes, the sky opened up.  Buckets of cold rain hit us as well as thunder and lightening all around us.  It was at that moment that Ralph’s bike quit running, leaving him (and of course me) stranded on the side of the road in a torrential storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After spending some scary moments in the pouring rain, Ralph’s bike started just as magically at it had quit.  Ralph left me on the side of the road as I watched the rooster tail of water from his back tire get smaller and smaller.  I caught up with him a few miles down the road and we pulled into the first hotel.  The storm had passed.  Ralph, determined to find out why his bike had stopped, took his bike completely apart.  Bike parts were lined up inside the hotel room along the walls and beds with orders for me “not to touch anything”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After dumping gallons and gallons of water on the bike, trying to duplicate the water from the storm, the bike continued to run like a champ.  Ralph reassembled his bike and declared the bike “fixed”.  He never figured it out, but assumed that the rain that had been blowing sideways back on the road must have hit some sensor underneath the bike causing the failure.  It never happened again.