Day 23, Tuesday, July 22.
Monticello, MN to Woodbury, MN
Daily Mileage: 63.86 miles
Total Mileage: 2,169.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 5:07 hours
Average Speed: 12.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 23.9 mph
Today was originally planned to be only a half day worth of riding; however, by the time we finished, we had ridden over sixty miles.
We packed up camp and began our journey through the middle of Minneapolis. Our AAA maps left us with a number of questions when it came to the road names. We needed to find out if a certain road was the highway that we were looking for. When we stopped at a gas station to ask if the road was indeed the correct highway, David and I were met with, “So where are you going?” After explaining that we were going to Woodbury, the attendants told us, “You can't get there using that road.” Well aware of this, we again asked them for the road name. After they said, “Woodbury, that's a good fifty miles away,” David had to go outside because he was getting angry with them. Finally, to stop this back and forth, I just had to say, “Look we're biking across the country, we've traveled over 2,000 miles, so we’re not really concerned with another fifty. We just need to know if that's the road we're looking for.” Eventually, we found the right road and made our way through Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We took a direct route straight through town seeing all the sites along the way—the University, the downtown district and all the suburbs. Around three o'clock, we rolled into our friends’ driveway, and were really excited to finally see people we knew (and to have a day off of riding). They had an immaculately decorated home with huge windows in the back of the house looking out onto a golf course. As soon as we stepped in the house we were fed non-stop for the next day and a half. After washing up and changing clothes, we had a bite to eat and then hopped into their car for a tour of Minneapolis and a stop at the Mall of America. This was the first time we had ridden in a car since Rob and Remus dropped us off on the coast. All of this was culture shock to David and I who, for the past three weeks, had seen little more mainstream than the Subway restaurants where we ate dinner. The Mall had four floors of every name-brand store you could think of, an amusement park in the center, and an international airport next door. We walked around the entire mall, non-stop, in two and a half hours. We ate some delicious Cinnabon and bought a few magnets of the states that we had biked through already to send them home (my mom collects them on the refrigerator). When we left the Mall, we went to Dairy Queen for some ice cream and then headed home for more dessert. Best of all, that night we were able to have our clothes washed in a real washing machine.
(Photo: Crossing the Mississippi River once more.)
Daily Mileage: 63.86 miles
Total Mileage: 2,169.6 miles
Daily Time on Bike: 5:07 hours
Average Speed: 12.4 mph
Maximum Speed: 23.9 mph
Today was originally planned to be only a half day worth of riding; however, by the time we finished, we had ridden over sixty miles.
We packed up camp and began our journey through the middle of Minneapolis. Our AAA maps left us with a number of questions when it came to the road names. We needed to find out if a certain road was the highway that we were looking for. When we stopped at a gas station to ask if the road was indeed the correct highway, David and I were met with, “So where are you going?” After explaining that we were going to Woodbury, the attendants told us, “You can't get there using that road.” Well aware of this, we again asked them for the road name. After they said, “Woodbury, that's a good fifty miles away,” David had to go outside because he was getting angry with them. Finally, to stop this back and forth, I just had to say, “Look we're biking across the country, we've traveled over 2,000 miles, so we’re not really concerned with another fifty. We just need to know if that's the road we're looking for.” Eventually, we found the right road and made our way through Minneapolis/St. Paul.
We took a direct route straight through town seeing all the sites along the way—the University, the downtown district and all the suburbs. Around three o'clock, we rolled into our friends’ driveway, and were really excited to finally see people we knew (and to have a day off of riding). They had an immaculately decorated home with huge windows in the back of the house looking out onto a golf course. As soon as we stepped in the house we were fed non-stop for the next day and a half. After washing up and changing clothes, we had a bite to eat and then hopped into their car for a tour of Minneapolis and a stop at the Mall of America. This was the first time we had ridden in a car since Rob and Remus dropped us off on the coast. All of this was culture shock to David and I who, for the past three weeks, had seen little more mainstream than the Subway restaurants where we ate dinner. The Mall had four floors of every name-brand store you could think of, an amusement park in the center, and an international airport next door. We walked around the entire mall, non-stop, in two and a half hours. We ate some delicious Cinnabon and bought a few magnets of the states that we had biked through already to send them home (my mom collects them on the refrigerator). When we left the Mall, we went to Dairy Queen for some ice cream and then headed home for more dessert. Best of all, that night we were able to have our clothes washed in a real washing machine.
(Photo: Crossing the Mississippi River once more.)
