The Rolling Hills of Nelson Wisconsin

 On the second to the last day of September, I went on a fairly “local” ride, riding a round trip of under 200 miles.  I’m in The Funnel now, that meaning that fall is happening and winter is on fast on it’s heels, so I find my self in a yearly crunch for time to ride during nice weather.  On this day, I set out to explore the many interesting and lesser-travelled roads in and around Nelson Wisconsin.  I have travelled many of these roads before but, not surprisingly, I was able to find a few that I had not previously experienced.  I hope you enjoy the photos from this ride.

A field that has been harvested.  Proof for those who wish to deny the inevitable that winter will come soon.

The beautiful valleys between Nelson Wisconsin and Alma are sometimes breathtaking. The roads are sometimes paved and sometimes dirt or gravel.  They’re worth a visit.

This is on Wisconsin Rustic Road 51, found just south of Maiden Rock, which includes 6 semi-challenging stream crossings on an otherwise scenic and tree canopied dirt and gravel road.  

Just south of Nelson Wisconsin, on an unfamiliar dirt track, I find this interesting item at the side of the road.  

An old clothes washing machine at the roadside marked with “Beer Cans In Here, Thanks”.  Alas, I didn’t have any beer cans on me, so I cannot be considered a contributor.

Many of these scenic valleys contain wonderful looking old farm homesteads and actively farmed land. They make for beautiful scenery.

A short distance further up this road, I came across an older-than-me gentleman walking down a steep hill with his assistive walker.  I wished my Dad were able to be as adventurous as this man.  

One sign of fall: Dried fields.  This picture also represents, to some degree, that I’m in fly-over land.

Thanks for looking at these photos!

A Grand Tour Complete

I woke up promptly at O-Dark-Thirty in my motel in Bemidji.  That translates to “way before 6 am” in my book, and yet I smiled just a little.  My alarm for the day was a work truck parked outside my window.  I smiled because I didn’t have to go to work.  Today, I was able to get the last two photos I needed to complete this year’s Grand Tour of Minnesota motorcycling event.  Here are a few photos and thoughts from today’s ride.

The temp was a cool 56 degrees when I set out, and there were an abundance of heavy bottomed clouds filling the sky.  Despite rain being absent from the radar app on my phone, I found myself zig-zagging through and around showers between Bemidji and Garrison.  Here, I stopped to put a rain jacket on because there was a downpour occurring up the road a piece.  Of course, in the time it took me to dig the rain jacket out and put it on, the rain had moved on.  Later, when I decided to take the rain jacket off, it rained on me.  Such is riding a motorcycle.  People often ask me, “What do you do when it rains?”.  My answer is always, “Get wet”.  It’s part of the adventure.

Remer Minnesota, the alleged home of Bigfoot.  Unbeknownst to the powers-that-be in Remer, it is/was one of the 20 locations we Grand Tour of MN riders had to visit and get a photo of their wooden Bigfoot carving at their town sign.  If they had known dozens of motorcyclists would visit their town for this sign, they may have asked a city employee to spend about 30 minutes to fix the broken frame that held their town mascot upright.  Alas, they didn’t.  

Pro traveler tip for those who apparently don’t know:  That little trough on the wall of every porta-potty you’ll ever encounter is not, I repeat, NOT a shelf to set things, such as hand sanitizer, in. It’s also not a good idea to set your purse, keys, or anything that you may touch, in there.  But it’s especially not for a bottle of hand sanitizer.  You’re welcome.

During my travels, I usually look for a sticker to add to my sticker boards in my garage to commemorate my rides.  Remer didn’t fail to disappoint me here either.  I was hoping to find any kind of sticker that said “Remer” and had some sort of depiction of the town mascot.  I thought for sure I’d find one at the local store/gas station, which had signs all over the exterior advertising just about anything a guy would want: Pizza, pop, beer, gas, gifts, souvenirs, etc.  Got any stickers?  Nope.  “Lot’s of people asking for them though”.  Turns out, their bathrooms were out of order too, hence my visit to the porta-potty in the parking lot.  Free hand sanitizer though.  Anyways, so I stopped into this place, the Remer Trading Post.  I chatted with the guys working inside, and they gave me a sticker they usually put on coolers and such that are bought there. It made my day. Part of the adventure.

The Log Cabin Bar in Emily Minnesota.  I think this is the bar my Dad has told me about from back in the Before-Me way back days, when my parents and grandparents, and maybe an uncle & aunt or two, would stay at cabins, fish Emily Lake, and have a beer or two at this local tavern.

My final Grand Tour photo, the walleye in Garrison.  

This mural, found on the side of a building in Crosby Minnesota, depicts USAF major David Simmons who, in 1957, rode a balloon 101,516 feet into the sky as part of the Project Man High II mission to research the effect of sending a human into space.  The mission lasted 32 hours.  The research is said to have benefited space travel as we know it today.  The balloon is said to have been about the same thickness as a produce bag in our grocery stores today.  That’s a long time, and a long ways above the ground, to be dependent on a balloon the thickness of a plastic bag, in my humble opinion.

Thanks for sharing my adventure!

On The Road Again

Recently, I fired up my Suzuki V-Strom and set off into our great State looking to collect the remaining 6 locations I must photograph to successfully finish the Grand Tour of Minnesota motorcycle challenge I’m participating in this year.  My first stop was Little Falls where Charles Lindbergh’s boyhood home still stands, nestled along the banks of the Mississippi River.  What you don’t see in this picture are the swarms of ravenous mosquitoes that descended upon me in search of my sweet, sweet type “O” nectar.  Despite my wearing a full riding suit, full faced helmet, and having a neck gaiter pulled up over my nose, three of the blood-thirsty platelet thieves got inside of my helmet and found the only sliver of flesh available: around my right eye.

The scene of the attack

The aftermath.  Yes, I tend to react badly to mosquito bites.  I wouldn’t survive 5 minutes in the Boundary Waters.

As I was riding to my next stop, I rode past this church.  It just looked so… picturesque, that I had to turn around and take this photo.  

Our Lady of The Hills statue.  Located in Ottertail County, near Inspiration Peak, the second highest point in Minnesota.  (Eagle Mountain, a destination I visited last month, is the highest point in Minnesota).

The sculptor, Bill Danelke, was diagnosed with cancer in a gland under his jawbone as a child.  His mother told him he could get help if he prayed to the Virgin Mary.  He did, and his surgery was successful.  Bill promised to thank the Virgin Mary by building a statue on Leaf Mountain.  50 years later, his vow became a reality. 

Disregard the finger in this photo.  My hand was probably still swollen, and about as worthless as a club, because of a mosquito bite.

Inspiration Peak - The second highest point in Minnesota.

Nyberg Park - A collection of sculptures by Ken Nyberg are scattered around the town of Vining.  The park is located just off the parking lot of Big Foot Gas and Grocery, where they had no stickers for my sticker boards at home, but they had a pretty decent two-piece broasted chicken with mashed potatoes and corn special.

They don’t have to make sense to be interesting.

Mac the Knife takes a shine to the silver spoon.  The fork is forever not famous.

They have a yearly watermelon festival out here, and it’s kind of a big deal, hence his motivation for this sculpture.

Full disclosure:  One of my Grand Tour of MN locations is the Bigfoot thing in Remer MN, the alleged home of Bigfoot.  This is not Bigfoot.  This is Big Foot.  There is a difference.  Another sculpture by Ken Nyberg in Vining.

Self portrait sculpture of Ken Nyberg by Ken Nyberg.

Ken Nyberg’s daughter was an actual astronaut.

The broasted chicken special I mentioned previously.  Would I ride over 200 miles again solely for this?  Probably not.  But honestly, it wasn’t bad.

When you ride into Ottertail, it is required that you visit the Otter.  

When you ride where friends live, its nice to reconnect with a friend you haven’t seen in years.  It’s just good for the soul.

Collecting another location for the Grand Tour of MN.  One of the popcorn showers caught up with me here, and gave me a good soaking as I walked back to the bike.

More storm showers blooming all around me.

Sometimes it’s okay to stop and let a downpour blow across the road a half mile or so in front of you.  Better to appreciate from a distance than to experience from within. 

If you’re looking for pizza in Bemidji, look no further than Dave’s. Been serving good pizza since 1958.

This is why I can’t sleep tonight.

Thanks for looking!

 

A Three Day Adventure: Day 3

I woke up in Ely Minnesota, bright and early this morning.  My first stop would be in Chisholm, about an hour SW.

The Iron Men statue is the third largest free-standing memorial in the United States.  It is a memorial dedicated to the miners who, during the Industrial Age, “dug the mines and contributed to the building and expansion of this country”.  The memorial was built to honor the miners and keep the memory of their accomplishments alive while acknowledging that the Industrial Age is ebbing and the Technological Age is advancing.  

Prior to my three day adventure, I discovered that The Wall That Heals, a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D.C., would be in Chisholm when I was going to be in the area.  The Wall That Heals is a traveling memorial that is hauled around the United States by semi truck.  The wall itself is displayed here on a football field, and is made of a material that allows for etchings of names on paper, just like the wall in D.C.  The memorial also includes several displays on a semi trailer, including letters from soldiers, uniforms, and historical information about the Vietnam war.  There were numerous volunteers present, providing information and assisting people in finding the names of loved ones on the wall.

The displays in the trailer were very hard to photograph because they are behind plexiglass, so its very hard to read the text, but this display includes the helmet of a helicopter pilot who flew in-country in 1966-1967 and again in 1968-1969. I couldn’t help but think of my friend who also flew helicopter in Vietnam.  

“What was it like to serve in Vietnam”.  Several years ago, I sat down in a McDonald’s with another friend and a friend of his, both who had fought in Vietnam in 1966-1967, and listened as they told me what it was like.  Their stories have left a permanent mark on my soul, and I will never forget them.  

Some pretty staggering numbers here.

My next stop was, in my opinion, much less impactful, and it happened to be on my list of stops for the Grand Tour of Minnesota.  

Where it all started for Greyhound. In 1914, two people offered free test drives of this car in an attempt to sell this car.  It turned out that more people wanted rides as opposed to wanting to buy the car.  This spawned an idea: Charge people for rides.  From there, somehow, Greyhound bus services were created.

1927 Greyhound bus.

1936 Greyhound bus.

This Bull Eye on some 1947 Greyhound buses, dubbed the “Battle of Britain Design”, was put on buses to honor the Royal Air Force for its part in saving Britain from invasion by Germany. 

Lady Greyhound, the living trademark for Greyhound for many years.

An impressive collection of Greyhound bus models.  I think I may have had one of these when I was a kid.

The Hull-Rust open pit iron mine in Hibbing.  While I was at the observation point here, I heard a couple of women talking to their kids about one of the dump trucks off in the distance.  “There’s daddy”, one of them said, so I asked if their husband or boyfriend worked in the pit.  Both women said “yes”, confirming that one woman’s husband was there and the other woman’s boyfriend was also working there.  Cool.

After Hibbing, I made my way south to an old school near Cromwell.  The building appears abandoned, but the grounds are still mowed.  It says “Eagle Lake School” in the wood above the entry, but I couldn’t find any historical information about this building.  My Sister-in-law, who lives in the area, said she’s talked to some people in the area who said it may also have been some sort of hospital or medical institution at some point.

There appears to be clothing on racks visible through the windows.  Your guess is as good as mine here.

The steps were heavily worn in in need of repair.  As I walked up the steps I noticed a sign laying in the grass alongside the railing: “Private Property - No Trespassing”.  It was time to leave.

The grounds of Eagle Lake School. In disrepair, but mowed.  Somebody still owns the property.

I rode my motorcycle 950 miles during this three day adventure, experiencing temps from 55 degrees to 94 degrees, and meeting nice people along the way, including the relatively new owner of the motel in Ely, the server at the family restaurant in the otherwise sketchy city of Superior Wisconsin, and the sweet volunteer lady manning the counter at the Greyhound Bus Museum.  The beauty that surrounds us, whether it be abandoned or in nature, and the importance of remembering the good, the bad, and even the ugly, is not lost on me, even if those experiences are uncomfortable.  Life is a journey - or should I say an adventure.

Thanks for looking!