Muggy, but no severe storms

Thursday, 17 July: I rode south today, to my cousin's house kinda near St. Cloud. The day started out cloudy and super muggy, so I was dripping with sweat in about two seconds. There were a few sprinkles of rain, and then the clouds broke and the sun came out. This seemed to make it a bit more bearable.

Just south of Little Falls, I got a whiff of one of the foulest (fowlest?) odors I have ever been forced to breathe. I looked around for a livestock truck or some roadkill, but I didn't see anything that could be causing that smell, and it continued too long to be some small thing I had passed. Then I saw the sign for the "poultry processing plant." Processing. Way to sugar coat it. If any of you are ever given the option of either riding by a "processing plant" on a hot day or taking a ten mile detour, I would suggest the latter.

A few miles south of there, I found the new Soo Line trail, thanks to some information from the helpful people at the Brainerd Lakes rest stop. This is another rails-to-trails trail. It is pretty new, and is not a state trail, which is why I had a tough time finding info about it on the net. If it wasn't for that woman on the Paul Bunyan trail, I never would have known it existed. It was serendipitous, because it cut across diagonally toward where I wanted to go. It was pleasant and car-free, and I think it saved me a couple of miles because of the angle. It also went across the Mississippi River and I got a view of Blanchard Dam. I haven't spent much time on this trip looking at the industrial side of our country, and for some reason I got all excited to see it. It's not the biggest dam ever, but it's pretty large, and from my perspective out on the lovely tree-lined bike trail, it seemed like this giant thing that man built, just plunked down in the middle of nature. I got to thinking about how many of these there are all over the country, providing power for us to light up the parking lot at the car dealership and the mall. Every now and then I check my Garmin for all points of interest surrounding my current location, and there is nearly always a dam or two within ten miles. And it's not as if dams are our only source of electricity.

I made it to my cousin's house during dinner (my timing is exquisite!) and met her family. It has been a pathetically long time since we've seen each other. But it's never too late to reconnect.