Friday, May 29, 2009

Pedal Day 25 - Green!











"Love is a better teacher than duty."
-Albert Einstein, texted to me by Ericka Warren

"You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth."
-Michael Shane Ash

"A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."
-Mark Twain, texted to me by Ericka Warren

Ottertail, Minnesota is where we are this evening. We just pigged out at a Taco Buffet here and I am full! I really should have said Jonathan and I pigged out. Margaret was a perfect lady and didn't embarrass us like we did her!
We pedaled 81.9 miles today through rolling hills, lots of wind, a thunder storm, sunshine, farmland, and about seventeen of the 10,000 lakes Minnesota has to offer! Even with the rain, it was a beautiful day.
There sure is a lot of green in Minnesota. It's like each state has been very different and green was the first thing that struck me when we came into the state. The trees are much greener than North Dakota. Green is growing in the fields already and it's working the fields as well. This is John Deere country. Nothing runs like a deere! I have a Farmall H, which is red, and I see only small spots of red out here from time to time. So for those of you who give me a hard time about the color of my tractor, this is your place to be. It's green country! But no matter what color the tractors are, I am still standing in awe of the farm equipment and the bigness of it! It is very, very big stuff!
As we pedaled today we saw shoes and boots on fence posts. We also saw shoes attached to telephone or power poles. I'm not sure what's going on with that but I am going to ask someone. I wonder if it's just a midwestern version of the basketball shoes over the power lines!
We also saw a steeple on a chapel and I think the steeple may be on steroids. BIG steeple, tiny chapel. I'm not sure if it's a memorial type of building or what. It is in a cemetery. That's another mystery.
We pedaled through Cormorant (pop. 60) and ate lunch at the Roadhouse Bar & Grill. We also pedaled through Edwards (pop. 4, according to the sign in Ye Old School House Bar & Grill). Jonathan and I found safe harbor at Ye Old School House during the thunder storm that caught us off guard. We bought two root beers from the bar: they were on tap.
Our favorite stop for the day was Pelican Rapids (pop. 1,886). We pulled into town, parked our bikes next to the Explorer when a man came up to us and asked about the Georgia tags. We told him about our ride and talked for about twenty minutes. We soon learned that we were talking with Mr. Arlan Stangeland. Arlan was a Republican congressman from Minnesota (of course) who served from 1977 to 1991. I told him that it seems like congressmen today just seem to lack common sense and asked him what he thought. He told me, "They not only lack common sense but they are power hungry and greedy. Most of them are very rich too. They look out for themselves." I told him that it's not everyday we get to talk to a congressman and thanked him for his time. He said, "That's okay, I just love being with people." After we talked we shook hands and he hopped into his pick-up truck and slowly drove away. I feel like we met a celebrity!
The rest of our stay at Pelican Rapids was spent on the deck of Riverside Coffee, along the Pelican River, in the sunshine, trying to be lazy! It sure worked for me.
It's been a great day. Full of variety, full of the unexpected, full of surprises. God does that. He surprises us from day to day. He always has and he always will. But he does it in his time!
"But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, subject to the law. God sent him to buy freedom for us who were slaves to the law, so that he could adopt us as his very own children" (Galatians 4:4). That was a surprise!
"And this is his plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ -- everything in heaven and on earth" (Ephesians 1:10). That will be a surprise too! 
At the right time . . .

8 comments:

  1. Well brother, I was thinking of you today and how you are getting closer to the finish each time the tires roll. Then it struck me, with each revolution you're getting closer to the beginning of the next Great Adventure!

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  2. Love the green---grass and trees that is. I'm not much of a tractor girl! Looks like y'all had a good day--81 miles!! I'm counting down the days until I touch down in Minneapolis--2 days!!!! I can't wait. Have a good day tomorrow. Praying for tailwinds. Love you tons--mom, too!

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  3. i'm oddly fascinated by the extra-large steeple on that white church. i think there's something sweetly artistic about the it...

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  4. I am completely fascinated by that super-tall church steeple. Ours is also tall, but at least it's proportional. Then, there are all those tombstones...since that steeple is so big and not proportional to the church, perhaps the freakishly large steeple collapsed into the old auditorium and crushed some parishioners to their unfortuante and untimely death, but the person who donated the original steeple controls the church purse strings and insisted that it be reattached to the remaining children's wing of the old church complex. Yes, watching too much NCIS on TV with Jules while she is down with ye ole knee surgery is making me quite the sleuth these days. ;-) Sure love & pray for ye all!

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  5. I see this has gone from the Geriatric Knee Update to Agricultural Digest. The difference is hardly discernible. The shoes hung over things are classic signs of alien abduction. Most of your alien abductees always report that before they were taken, the aliens in question took their shoes off and flung them over power lines, signs, etc. I like the big steeple. I think Mike's explanation is a likely one. Unless the aliens who abducted all the Minnesotans and left their shoes over the power lines and telephone poles and what-not accidentally aimed their shrinker/de-shrinker ray at that church. That is also a possibility.

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  6. It is plausible Todd Anders.
    Here are your MN facts:
    nickname: North Star State, Gopher State
    flower: pink lady slipper
    bird: common loon
    muffin: blueberry
    drink: milk
    fruit: honeycrisp apple
    exports (what the heck are they growin on all those farms?!): apples, blueberries and barley
    acheived statehood: 1858
    famous quote from a Minnesotan: "No man is big enough to be independant of others." Dr. W.W. Mayo ( of Mayo clinic fame)
    Famous Minnesotans: Charles Schultz, Bob Dylan, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charles Lindbergh, Judy Garland, Hubert Humphrey
    Lake of the Woods is the northern-most point in the continental U.S.

    Just glad to help educate you. 10.2 million

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  7. ok, in an effort to educate you, i have included a misspelling in my previous post just to see if you can find it.... also, I didn't want to re-type the whole thing. so i guess laziness wins over education.
    you're welcome. 10.35 million

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  8. Really, there are two: independent and achieved. I before E except after C! 12.27 M 13 K 145

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