“Headwinds are strong vexations” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ever since I rode in Georgia in 2018
and scored my 10th “gateway” state to the American Explorer award, I
have been thinking how I could get more
states. I’m pretty well pinned down here
on the west coast and already have the Pacific Ocean states – and the rest I
need are more than a day’s drive away. A short summary of previous states is here.
Having done two multi-state rides in 2016 - a 3 state ride to bag VA, DC and MD, and a two state ride for NJ and PA, I figured a trip of a few days, carefully planned, could be “profitable” but still had some work to do to come up with a “Grand Plan”.
I had borrowed and rented bikes to ride most remote states, but wanted something I could bring to avoid the time and bother (not to mention liability) of dealing with both. In 1999 I spotted a Raleigh bike with a Ritchie breakaway frame on Craigslist and it turned out to be a good deal. Inspection showed it to be in mint condition to boot. Frame was borderline too big, but with the seat post fully inserted, it would work.
I then started planning a spring trip to visit my sister in Ohio, with some side trips west to pick up IN, IL and KS. Sadly, however, Covid-19 derailed that trip (airline ticket fully refunded) and everything stopped for two years.
Fast forward to February, 2022, I was browsing Facebook. A friend whose
family owns and operates a lumber yard in Rock Port, MO had posted a video of
her cat roaming high up in the lumber barn, and I thought "I really want to visit them sometime -
but when will I have a reason to travel to Missouri? And then it dawned on me: What about the Grand
Plan?
Thanks to Lynne Fitzsimmons who had recently compiled a list of multi-state rides, I determined that I could get 6 Midwestern states in 3 rides, or 5 in two rides, with a "bit" of driving between each ride (3-4 hrs = a bit). I called a buddy, Rick, who had indicated he’d be interested in coming along (he could drive sag and just hang out), and he was on board. I immediately booked airfare, reserved a car and motel rooms, and we were set for a late April trip to the Midwest. Itinerary included Omaha, NE, Rock Port, MO , Luverne, MN and Sisseton, SD, then back to Omaha.
We left Seattle on Thursday April
21, and arrived in Omaha late afternoon.
Got our bags, the bike, and our spacious Jeep Grand Cherokee (plenty of
room in back for a bike) and immediately drove to the motel in Rock Port,
MO. Not really trying, I had managed to secure a room yards from the route
start! The bike arrived in mostly good shape with just one small broken cable
fitting on the rear derailleur. Fortunately it didn’t seem to affect shifting.
Before going to bed, I checked “Epic ride weather” and it was a mixed forecast: Warm temps 65-70, no rain but strong WSW winds – 15-25 mph with gusts to 30+. I wasn’t experienced with such strong, sustained winds but I was going to GET experienced pretty fast. The first route was the Missouri River Populaire (4133), a mostly “square”116k route that heads West, North, East, and South and gets MO, NE and IA along the way.
Friday, I am up early; eat a motel “complimentary breakfast”, dress, and head out at 8am sharp – only to find right off that my new Wahoo Bolt that worked FINE in Washington state has lost its mind and doesn’t seem to know where I am! Speed is 0, distance is 0, but it seems to know where the turns on the route are. I set my phone to RideWithGPS and it’ll have to be the route tracker today. As I start to roll again I realize my little front bag is rubbing on the front tire! I spend a futile few minutes of fiddling with it, try to find something to tie it up, but nothing works. I give up and throw it and its contents in my backpack. The travel bike has no luggage capabilities yet, so I have a small backpack for tubes, pump, and everything else.
Between fussing with the Wahoo and the front bag, I have now wasted a good 15-20 min so far and not gone 100 yards from the start, so I roll back to the beginning and restart my trip recorder. I have no idea how I will come out but I will NOT start with a 15 minute deficit.
The first westbound leg goes well, I have a bit of a tailwind/crosswind, and I’m making very good time. For the first few miles in Missouri, the road has little shoulder but the traffic is low so taking the lane is fine. I cross the Missouri river, and now in Nebraska, the roads are better. I’ve turned north and the crosswind/tailwind is pushing me along – I’m making excellent time. All I see around me are open fields, with nothing growing on them at this time of year. The road is alternately flat, or gently rolling with mild to moderate (up to 4%) grades.
With the favorable winds I manage to get to the halfway point in just
over 2 hours! A pit stop at the C-store
for food, water and bathroom and I’m now
on my way east – and my friend the wind now
becomes a crosswind/headwind. And I slow
down – a LOT. Where I was making 15 mph
plus, now I’m going 7 mph. And the wind
keeps blowing, non-stop. Nothing to do
but just gear down and “spin” as best I can and try to not worry about speed.
This eastbound leg east on route 2 is brutal -- just a long straight flat road that
stretches out in front of you mile after
mile, with the wind fighting you every yard. Julie from the lumberyard had mentioned to me (having seen my route) that she and her husband rode their motorcycle on Rt 2 and hated every minute. I was right with them on that.
Finally it’s time to turn to the south. And the roads that were formerly generally flat to rolling are now more uphill than downhill – with multi-stage “ups”. And of course, I still have the headwind that won’t quit. I have to pedal on the downhills to keep going, and on the steepest parts of the uphills (5%) I have to get off and walk 50 yards or so now and then. I think fighting the wind is roughly the same effort as riding up a 4% grade, which added to 5% makes 9% - walkable for me and the Raleigh. The bike is just a double chainring and I miss the triple on my Fuji touring on these climbs. I don’t want to risk getting out of breath or triggering cramps by over-exertion. Walking is slow-- but not by much on the hardest grades and it mitigates the risks of pushing too hard.
I get to a small town, Hamburg - and there isn't much going on. The wind is strong, but at least the route is sheltered for a short way by houses and trees. Later I found out why not much was going on, it had been flooded by the nearby Missouri river recently and suffered much damage. Flags were flying in the center of town:
And now 6 hrs in or so, I am starting to do the math - over and over again. “so many miles to go, at such and so pace with so many minutes left, divide -- and will I make it?” and every time I do it, it looks like it’s going to be close. I rue having to walk each time I hit a steeper grade, but it’s all I can do. I resign myself to whatever fate awaits me but I'm not quitting. If I make it, I make it. Just have to keep going as best I can.
This last southbound leg took a good two hours and compared to how much progress I made in the first 2 hrs, it was crazy how much longer it took. The wind is constantly pushing against you, pushing, and aside from a copse of trees or house to serve as a break, it does not stop. It takes a certain mindset to deal with it, and I was only about halfway “there” at this point.
I knew there was a downhill near the end of the route, and when I made the right turn onto US 136, with just a couple miles to go, I was ready for it. Surprise! Headwind still! 5% downhill grade and I am still plugging along at barely 10 mph. I had 20 minutes left on the clock and I am still wondering if I’m going to finish in time. I can’t see the finish up ahead -- it’s down and around a curve. Then Rick, who had been tracking my progress on his phone, me passes me going the other way in the car – he didn’t know about my 20 minute start delay, so he figures I’m DNF and headed out looking for me.
But fortunately, I manage to get to the finish with 15 minutes to spare! One ride in the bank and 3 states done!
After catching a shower and changing clothes at the motel (I had paid extra for a late late checkout) we headed over to the Burke and Sons lumber yard where I had a very pleasant visit with the owner’s wife, who showed me around, - got to visit both Momma Cat and Rusty (Hoover the Lumberyard Cat’s successor). Here's Rusty, chilling:
Next stop: Luverne, MN for night 2 of the expedition, a few hours drive north up I-29.
That evening in the motel, I pondered the wisdom
of doing ride #2, Sioux Falls SD to
Luverne MN. and back – east west. Turned
out I had booked a room at the “wrong
end” of the 122 k perm. The weather
looked similar to what we had before, a bit cooler but still windy. I had been researching ‘riding in windy
conditions” and the general consensus
was “headwind out, tailwind back.” That
hadn’t been practical on day 1, but might entail some extra driving on day
2. Plus I wasn’t confident Wahoo would
adapt to starting a route in the middle.
And finally, I figured if I rested
Saturday, I should be recovered enough to ride Sunday – but if I rode
Saturday and DNF, then prospects for Sunday DNF were increased. The routes overlapped on SD, so missing one
ride would only lose 1 state. Two DNF was not an option I wanted to consider.
As I went to bed I resolved “I’ll just not set my alarm and see if I wake up in time on Saturday.” And although I did wake up on time, I immediately said “Today is a rest day, let’s see what there is to see around here.” We got breakfast, and found that there were some interesting geological features at a nearby park – a quartz uplifted cliff. And on top was “the alignment” – 1750 foot long line of large boulders that had been placed on an east-west line by unknown people at an unknown time for unknown purpose(s). The wind was plenty strong as usual and I wasn’t missing riding against it today.
We headed over to Sioux Falls for some lunch, and also to buy another bottom layer for the next day’s ride. The forecast was wind – of course – but much colder. Where I had been wearing full summer gear on Friday, Sunday needed full WINTER gear with wind chill temps into the low 30s.
Sious Falls was a delight! Nice diner, good food, friendly people and staff. We asked a worker at Duluth Trading Company “what’s there to see around here” told us that “there’s shopping -- and the falls” so we did some shopping . Turns out downtown Sioux Falls has been gentrified over the past 10 years and had great shopping. Toy store, variety store, and we were set with gifts to bring home. Then we visited the falls, where we saw the brick foundation of what had been an ambitious flour mill, built at great expense and abandoned after just two years in operation, due to low river flow to run the machinery. You’d think they would have researched that a bit before going to the bother of building the mill, right?
Our time for being tourists having ended, we are back in the car and on our way north again on I-29 to Sisseton, SD. We got there in time for me to take the car and scout the route, which goes mostly straight north 34 miles, and then retraces the route south. Halfway is a small town with a café, bar/restaurant, and a church. I asked at the bar/restaurant “who might be open on Sunday?” wondering where I might buy some water, and the answer was “nobody on Sunday AM is open” so I bought 4 500ml bottles of water and cached them across the street in a rusted out Tin Lizzy that was on display in a vacant lot.
Sunday AM, I ate a microwaved breakfast sandwich I had bought at the grocery the night before, for a more substantial breakfast than Super-8 provides, put on all my winter gear, and rode 50 yards to the start of the ride.
Today, Wahoo was behaving (mostly) and the wind was now a WNW headwind/crosswind to start with. It slowed me down to 7-8 mph on the flats. Occasionally I would pass a copse of trees or some houses that would give a few seconds of relief, but for the most part, it was NON STOP.
Wondering if that headwind would REALLY be a tailwind on the return, I reversed course for 100 yards. Having confirmed that it would be a tailwind, I made a U-turn again and continued. Now my Wahoo is completely confused, and keeps prompting me to take side roads to “get me back on the route” even though I AM on the route. The double U-turn really confused it.
Prrevious inquiries about the route on the RUSA facebook group indicated that this route was scenic. When I had driven it the day before, all I saw was FLAT farmland and an occasional house/farm. Today, at a slower pace I noticed the many small ponds on either side of the road with numerous and varied waterfowl. Lots of birds slowly moving on the ponds, but when I got within 50 yards, they’d all lift up and move on.
Two hours in and wind was really getting to me. Every half hour or so I’d find a wind break, pull over have a bit to eat and think “OK, this isn't any fun. I kinda want it to end." To keep myself going, I would also say "I can quit any time I want – but not just yet” and after resting a few minutes out of the wind, I'd get back on the bike and start moving again. There was one spot where the northbound road turned west, and that WNW wind was even stronger against me, but I persevered and was relieved to turn north again. Lots of straight mostly flat road with nothing but the rushing wind to keep me company:
Then I started to get philosophical. I thought, “I’m not really thrilled having to work so hard for so little forward movement – but I’m doing this voluntarily, so I must LIKE doing it” And it seemed odd to me that I had to reason with myself to come to the conclusion that even though fighting the wind wasn’t very enjoyable, it was still something I liked to do.
It wasn't until days later that I finally concluded: Do I
like riding into a headwind? No -- but I
like riding “in general” enough that I am willing to put up with it.
To keep my spirits up a little, I was also banking on my experience the other day. I wasn’t too worried about the time it was taking me to get to the top of the route. As it turned out, I made it in good enough time to sit down and enjoy eating a chicken finger – a nice respite in the gas station C store. Families with lots of kids came in for the same (they actually had a wide variety of fried snacks).
After I had finished one, I had the strong impression it time to head back. Suited up, a very light drizzle had started, and I headed south with a GREAT TAILWIND. I was cruising at 15-17 mph mile after mile. It was awesome. The wind was no longer an enemy, it was an ally and now the hills I had to walk before I just flew up (sometimes in low gear but still, no more walking). I noticed that there were some long slow grades I had ridden down that had been invisible to me with the headwind. They were not a problem now, but I did slow to 12 mph going up them. The wind would at times throw the small raindrops into my face sideways so hard they’d sting a bit, but it was fine. Just keep pushing, buddy.
When I got to my water cache, there were 2 bottles left, I poured one into a frame bottle and threw the other in my backpack.
There isn’t a lot more to say about the return trip, it was just a blur of fields that I had passed before but now I cruising almost effortlessly to the finish. When I arrived, Rick said “You were going a LOT faster on the return trip!” and I agreed.
The 2nd ride was in the bag with about 20 minutes to spare. I now had 5 states to add to my American Explorer plaque, and well earned they were.
We threw the bike into the back of our Jeep SUV, and drove just 10 miles south to a truck stop where I bought a shower for $10 and got every penny worth. If/when I do another one of these expeditions, that will be part of the Grand Plan.
Our final road trip was back to Omaha, and for dinner along the way we found a restaurant somewhat “off” the highway. “Wimps” and they serve steaks, etc. After missing a turn, we wound up on a 2 lane road with nothing but farmland in every direction . GPS assures us it’s just ahead, and it IS – a small building like a rambler house in an equally small town. It's just like the restaurant where I got water - small place, with a few tables, a bar, and a pool table, where most people eating there know each other. We both had a good meal topped with a huge serving of ice cream.
Epilogue:
My short trip to the Midwest has been the highlight of 2022 so far. The effort extended to finish those two rides in the face of a serious obstacle has paid dividends to my attitude to obstacles in general. I'm sure future rides will have other challenges, and I can approach them with increased confidence and resolve.
I also found I like the Midwest much more than I would have predicted. The friendliness of the people and respect I found on the road - virtually all the vehicles that passed crossed the center line and gave me the full lane -- makes me quite willing to go back for more.
Postscript: My equipment
I brought two knapsacks, one small one that a middle school kid would use for a book bag (which is what it was) and a larger one made for work to carry a laptop and other gear. I rode day 1 with the first one and just halfway through, it was digging into my shoulders like crazy. I was suffering with the backpack almost as much as suffering fighting the headwind. On ride 2, I substituted the larger bag with wider and better padded straps and also a front snap to keep it positioned properly. Made a huge difference, almost no suffering. I will make sure I have on-bike luggage capabilities next time.
I was concerned about a taillight for the travel bike (which needed one) and among the suggestions was a Varia radar light. Not cheap at $200 but some people swore by it, so I got one. It did pair nicely with the Wahoo Bolt, but what I found was that on the wide open roads, I would get just a few seconds notice of a vehicle behind before I’d hear it, and then seconds later it would zoom past in the other lane at 60 mph. The “notice” of a vehicle behind seemed rather useless. However, I also understood that the light would flash differently when it detected a vehicle so I had Rick follow me a short distance and tell me what he saw. He said “When I got closer to you, the light ‘went crazy’” OK, that’s good enough for me. Battery life was good IF fully charged, it had almost 50% left after day 1, but although I charged it for a few hrs for day 2 ride, and the app SAID it was full, it wasn’t full and died 6 hrs into the ride. I will be sure to charge it overnight next time.
The other taillight was a Princeton Tec Swerve Taillight that had been recommended by a friend and I was pleased with its attachment to the seat stay as well as its performance. Bright and long lasting. And no charging issues, it uses AA batteries.
PPS: Cats and how this all started
My wife and I are cat people, and 5 years ago got two litter mate kittens: Hoover (male) and Bella (female). Hoover was so cute I thought of getting him a Facebook page, but found that spot was taken by Hoover the Lumberyard Cat, who lived at Burke and Sons Lumberyard in Rock Port, MO. I've followed that Hoover ever since, until his demise in 2017. They subsequently got Rusty to take his place and I've been wanting to visit them every since I "met" their Hoover. They posted a video of Rusty wandering on the rafters of one of the outbuildings and he was so confident, my urge to visit got very strong, and -- and this trip is what came of all that. The original Hoover:
