51.1 miles, 653′ of climbing, 803′ down (1260.8 tot) – to read from the beginning, click here.
From the last post you know that we had an early morning thunderstorm which delayed our start, but we had a real nice snooze and a chance to have coffee and donuts with Don & Sandy.
The forecast was for lower temps in the 70s, morning cloud cover, and sun in the afternoon. That may have happened where we WERE, but as we moved along the Central Lakes Trail (it and the Lake Wobegon Trail are on the same rail path) the clouds persisted. But, like I forgot to mention yesterday, the day was accompanied by SSE winds. Since we were going NNW, we had a lovely tailwind.
Our goal today was a campground in Fergus Falls, but when we got there, everything was locked up and under construction. No Plan B, so we scarfed some wi-fi from a Subway and located a hotel in the Wyndham group (we get points for that) and made a reservation as it was starting to drizzle, and a full onslaught of rain was expected.
We got to the Days Inn and checked in, showered, changed and headed out to the Social bar for a Social Happy Hour. Had cocktails and then headed back to the motel and walked across the street to the Pizza Ranch. That was a new experience for us, AND we got the senior discount. Pizza Ranch is a chain that serves buffet style pizza and fried chicken. We got the buffet, but the only thing meatless was a cheese pizza so Dana called the host over and asked for a veggie pizza — their advertising said to ask if we didn’t see something on the buffet. He then asked, “A pizza with just vegetables? “Yes”, Dana replied, just veggies, no meat. Like mushrooms, onions…” Then a light bulb went of and he added, “and pepper and olives. OK. We can do that.” He came back in a few minutes and announced that it was coming and he also put in an order for a taco pizza without beef. A server brought both out to us and gaves us as many slices as we wanted. He then put the rest out on the pizza bar. Dana noticed later that both were taken very quickly — something that’s happened to her often — people eat the veggie ones first even if they’re meat eaters. Drives her nuts.
But tonight there was no wailing as we were both sufficiently full of pizza, and chicken (well, only me for the chicken), and salads, and mashed potatoes, and…
Tomorrow we make Fargo, ND. We have a backup Warmshowers host who won’t be home but offered camping in his backyard, but that’s 13 miles from Fargo. We’ll try to get a campground nearer to town, but they’re all full at the moment.
