Across America Trekkers are Minnesota Celebrities

July 27- Upon waking up in the Chandler Community Center, we were graced with the presence of the town's fire chief. He asked us about our trip and excitedly let us know we should be expecting another guest shortly. About ten minutes later, a reporter from the town over rolled up on her ATV and started interviewing us about our trip. We felt like celebrities! While we ate our oatmeal and started preparing for our day, she slipped away and came back minutes later with hot sausage egg and cheese sandwiches, a gift from the local cafe! We happily abandoned our oatmeal and scarfed down our breakfast sandwiches. Once we were all packed and ready to go, we took one final snapshot with the reporter and headed out to experience more of the Minnesota countryside. We spent the day riding along mostly flat and traffic free county roads, a welcome respite from the hills of Wyoming and the mountain passes of weeks past. We had a late lunch of chicken ceasar salad, and pedaled on through the humidity to our campground for the night. We stopped alongside a cornfield, where Branton and Tyler scored some sweet corn from a local farmer.

Instead of eating the corn, they proceeded to have an epic sword fight whilst riding down the road-- a truly hilarious spectacle for the rest of the crew. We pulled into our campsite and cracked out maple and brown sugar bratwurst and paired it with angel hair pasta, adding some fresh tomato to spruce it up. Fortunately, we finally had the opportunity to make s'mores, much to Katie's delight!!

Minnesota - The Land of 10,000 Lakes for the Across America Trekkers

July 26- We started our day with biscuits and a delicious egg, cheese, and meat casserole made by the lovely Mrs Gier. Today's goal: reaching Minnesota, the land of 10,000 lakes! Trip leader Lydia rode over to the only bike shop in town that was open on a Sunday to get some problems sorted out while the rest of the crew made their way out of the city. We met up about 15 miles down the road, where we stopped to do some grocery shopping and rerouting. We met a lot of lovely people as we ate our lunch in town, one of whom gave Tyler, Katie, and Branton hand carved Bambi trinkets! We left the town with encouraging words and boosted confidence and made our way through the beautiful countryside to the border. A short 20 miles later we arrived at the coveted Minnesota state line, where we stopped for a photo. We rode into the town just over the border, where Tyler and Katie managed to find a great little camp spot that was not on the maps where we had our 2nd lunch of the day. We left soon after to squeeze the last of our day's miles in before dark, and ended up enjoying a gorgeous sunset while riding through the postcard-worthy farmland of Minnesota. Upon arriving to our destination, we struck up a conversation with a kind Minnesotan who pointed us to Chandler city park, where he opened the door to the community center for us. No tents!! We made a meat, rice, onion and broccoli dish for dinner and fell asleep soundly, looking forward to another day of beautiful Minnesota biking.