2025 Eastbound Trip 1 - Day 3

June 1, 2025

I slept well during the night except when, about 1:30am, I woke up with something crawling on my right eye.  I brushed it away and then it was crawling on my arm.  I got my light out and, sure enough, it was a tick.  Yuck.  

After dispensing with it I slept well until about 6:15am (on Central time now) when I got up, put on my running clothes, and went for a very nice trail run.  The trail loops the east side of the state park and follows the Buffalo River.  I crossed a bridge and followed the trail on the south side of the river until I found the next bridge and came back on the north side.  It was a perfect 5k by the time I got back.  It was quite scenic.

Continued from earlier today….

Now that today’s ride is over, I’ll have to admit that it was not the most interesting ride I’ve done.

When I specified a route with “Avoid Highways” it does that but a “highway” is something part of the interstate system and many roads in Minnesota are county or state road and are 4-lane and divided.  That makes them pretty much like an interstate road except that they do have less traffic and almost no semis.

We got on the road about 8:30am CTZ and headed in our separate directions.  She’s headed to I-94 and I’m taking US 10.  My ride was fast, doing about 65 most of the way until I got on a county road and traveled at 55 through miles and miles of farm land.  Stopped for a photo of this elevator operation.

I stopped outside Arlington for this photo.

I stopped in St. Cloud for gas and to get a snack, a couple of fig bars.

Eventually I arrived at the Tesla Supercharger station in St. Peter.  This is where she was headed and we thought it would be a good place to meet up since from here we are on the same route.  It was really warm out so I got my riding pants off, which I had on over my Levis, and switched to a lighter, short-sleeved shirt.  There was a grocery store right there so I bought a bag of snacks and sat under a shady tree and waited for her and Bart the Dog to arrive.  

Since I had cell service, I looked up the town of Winsted, MN where I’d seen a large factory of some kind which was unusual after miles of farmland.  It turned out to be the Millerbernd company which makes poles for street lights, flag, traffic signals as well as all sorts of other round things.  There is a lake right in town so it could provide a very nice lifestyle.

It was only a 40 minute wait for the Tesla to show up.  While the car charged we chatted and played fetch with the dog.

After the charge was done we moved out the way so these people could charge.  There is something discussion in the Tesla world about this and many feel that people should drop their trailer and back into a charging space rather than take up so many.

She left and finished getting my gear on and headed out about 10 minutes behind her.  I stopped for gas in Dodge Center.

I rode through the center of Rochester, my first time in that city.  For all the times I’ve been to this state I’d missed this city and it is quite impressive with its large footprint of the Mayo Clinic.

It was only a few short miles to the Whitewater State Park.  I found our campsite where she had arrived about 10 minutes ahead of me and helped get the tent up and unloaded the bike.  

Dinner was a most excellent salad and some pesto pasta.

After we ate we went for a nice hike through the wood.  We looped through the other side of the river and crossed back over at this bridge.  A fine evening.

It was a 399.5 mile day.