Testing the Mettle of the Pedal (August 4, 2012)

The day started off well enough.  It was cloudy and rain was forecast, but when we started off from La Crosse, WI across the Mississippi river to La Crescent, MN it was not raining.  We went to the post office where I picked up a care package sent to me by my dear friends Susan and Catherine.  (To be honest, it made me a bit homesick for my peeps.)  

Pata gets her package sent by her friends.

It was great to get things like chamois cream that we needed and some more “calling” cards that have my blog site on it to give to folks along the way.  I also got surprise chocolate covered berries which were a real treat! (DW: later on these berries were eaten by raccoons while we slept in our tent.)

After the post office, big, dark clouds were rolling in so we sought shelter at the library.  There were benches shaped like books so we sat and the rain started.  The sky was full of lightning and thunder which makes me nervous.  We waited until it let up a bit and then decided to head off.  We put our rain gear on and soon it was too hot and not raining enough to warrant it. Off came our rain jackets, pants, etc.

Then as we pulled into Nodine, MN we noticed more menacing clouds.  David said let’s find shelter and I said maybe the church would have an overhang.  We went to the back of the church to find an overhang at the rear doorway.  I tried the door and it was open and David tried the inside one and it too was open.  In the foyer were two chairs and there was a restroom.  

Stopped into a church we passed along the way....

The church bathroom is mighty nice!

Any port in a storm I always say.

Very peaceful in here.

Stained glass is nice even when rainy outside...

Who could ask for more?  It was empty and no one came and said anything to us.  We sat for about an hour watching it pour rain.  I went over to the little store across the street from the church to get something for lunch.  All they had was chips and hostess pies and such.  I wonder how people live on this, but that’s what we had for lunch.  It was raining steadily and we decided that we should just brave the wet, as there was no place to stay in Nodine and nothing too close. 

We put on full rain gear which we needed in the downpour.  We descended a huge hill and at the bottom of it where it should have been County Road 7, it said County Road 8!  I felt defeated.  I wasn’t sure where I had gone wrong or where we turned or didn’t turn as the case may be.  To top it off, when I tried to use Google Maps, I couldn’t get any signal on my Iphone (we were at the bottom of a very long hill).  We were lost with out technology to help us out.  We flagged down a truck, and asked directions from the two young men in it.  They told us to go up route 125 and turn left and go under the highway to the frontage road.  A bit later we then stopped a postal carrier who gave us different directions.  We were a bit confused and asked again and were told to go left – which we did.  Amazingly enough, we ended up on County Road 7!  Thank goodness, I thought, we are back on route.  Then we saw a sign: Road Closed Ahead. 

Now we have gone on closed roads before and made it through (simply because a bicycle can go many places a car cannot).  We were also without my phone to guide us to a new route, so we decided to risk it.  It started out kind of muddy and it was downhill – very downhill.  Once we had gone about a mile there was really no turning back, and where would we go if we did?  So we continued on, and as we did the worse it got. 

Descent into mud hell (and this was the nicer part!)

Riding was no longer an option.

 It was one huge muddy trough and we were slogging through it.  There were huge puddles and we were literally ankle deep in mud.  The mud was oozing out the fenders and causing the wheels to get stuck. As we passed one house we heard dogs.  We both thought that Fido could just chew us up now, and get it over with.  Luckily, we didn’t actually see them.

Just as David’s fenders got so stuck with mud that he could not move at all, a truck came up. (DW: the driver looked at me and I looked at him and I said, “There’s no cure for stupid.” The three occupants of the truck, two men in the front and a woman in the back, broke into laughter.  I asked if we gave him twenty dollars would he haul us down the road out of the mud.  The driver agreed and we hoisted our bikes and our muddy selves into the back of the 4WD Ford pickup truck.  The engine labored as it went along – a few hundred pounds heavier – through the deep nasty mud.  He must have taken us at least five miles.  We both realized that we would have been walking our bikes through that mud for three or four hours more had he not saved us.  

Stan didn't wear his super-hero uniform, but he still saved our day!

What a super-hero drives.

He drove us to highway 61 where we could make it to Winona). 

As we got out, David said, “After we give you your twenty, could I take your picture?”  The man, whose name was Stan, said, “You are not giving me anything.”  We protested that we had made a mess of his truck and he just said that it could be washed and he was going down anyway.  We took his picture and thanked him profusely. 

Mud sweat and tears.

So goodbye muddy yuck road....

We used a stick to get some mud off the fenders and then got onto the highway and headed to Winona.  We made it to Winona and were trying to find the inexpensive motel that I had booked knowing we were at least going to be wet, but not knowing that the day was going to be quite as harrowing as it was.  We ended up getting a bit lost in Winona and asked a policeman for directions.  It turned out that he was a cyclist and had done a 700 mile, 12 day trip last year.  We chatted a bit about the town and cycling and we were on our way. 

We were going down the main street when David pulls off into the empty parking lot of an insurance company.  I think, “What now?”   He goes on the side of the building where there is a hose!  What an eye!  I couldn’t believe it.  We used the hose to wash the worst of the mud off the bikes.  It was truly amazing.

We pull into the motel finally around 4 PM.  The bikes still needed cleaning and lubing and tending to.  David started right in on that.  (The bathroom was odd, a fifties-style green and white tiled floor and huge and he could put the wheels in the tub and not get mud on the carpet.)  I decided to do laundry at a local laundry mat.  We had a pile of muddy clothes as well as the dirty ones from before the ordeal.  It was odd to be in the laundry mat after being stuck in mud just hours earlier.  The whole day was surreal and we were glad it was over.  But as David said to me, it was satisfying in a strange way.  It tested our mettle and we survived.  The Universe came through at key moments and we felt oddly blessed.