Day Thirty Two - Travel to BMW MOA Rally in the Twin Cities

So, here we are on Day 32 - less than a days ride to the BMW MOA Rally in the Twin Cities. We had planned on getting there all along but it isn't simple to plan exactly how long it will take to ride 11,000 miles. There are so many variables but we did pretty good. We will be arriving 2 days earlier than planned.

This morning, we slept in until 6:15 AM We did our usual routine and were almost ready to go by about 8:15 AM. It was then that I realized that I did not know where my wallet was. I didn't see it in the room when I did my usual final scan to make sure I didn't leave anything behind. Then I got to thinking maybe it was still in my pants pocket from the evening before so opened my bag and pulled out the pants - no joy. I now started searching every piece of luggage on the bike and still no joy. Now I had to go get another key for the room and I searched it again. Finally, as I was pulling the curtains aside to see if I had left it on the window sill, I spotted it on the floor where it had been obscured by the curtains.Whew!

 Back at the bike I re-packed everything and we pulled out at 8:31 AM. It was warm, with the temp at 72 and looking to be a really nice day. We headed eastbound on US-10 which would be a 110 mile leg over to Motley MN where it would turn into Hwy 210.

Day 32 track

The road was  nothing remarkable. Just a standard 4 lane divided highway mostly, except when going through some towns/cities where it would collapse into a two-lane undivided road for some distance before opening up again. I do get a kick out of seeing the town signs which usually list the population. Some in the tens of thousands to one I recall this morning of 48.  After about 45 minutes on the road we noticed darkening skies ahead and by the hour we ran into a bank of fog which was a mixed blessing. On the one hand, it kept the sun from heating the air much so it made for comfortable riding. On the other hand was the potential threat of turning into rain.

Foggy - but will it rain?

Larry's XM Weather did alert that there was rain "in the area" but when he checked the radar it was to our north. Soon enough though we were seeing wet roads, meaning it had rained recently. Despite all that we eventually ran out from under the fog/clouds and into a sunny, albeit hot late morning/early afternoon.

Since we only had 250 miles to make today, we were trying to string it out so we wouldn't arrive so early at the hotel that they wouldn't have any rooms ready yet. We made a coffee break stop at the 106 mile mark in Staples, MN where we would manage to blow off about 40 minutes at a Burger King.

Back on the road we continued down US-10 through Motley where 10 turned south so we continued easterly on 210 which would take us down through Brainerd, MN (and our first crossing of the Mississippi River) where we would then pick up Hwy 18 to take us over to Mille Lacs Lake where 18 joined US-169 and snaked along the lakeside for 15 miles or so.

Mille Lacs Lake from US-169

This is a pretty large lake as you can see from the above photo. Though the day was heating up, it was nice and cool along the lakeside with the wind coming off the water. That didn't last too long though. Soon, we were heading south and away from the lake. The sun was getting high, the clouds all gone and the temps climbing.

We would stop for lunch in the town of Becker, MN at a place names "Cafe Pawz". It turned out to be an very upscale cafe located inside a HUGE furniture store. Quite interesting, though I didn't get any photos.

We were only about 10 miles from our destination of Monticello, MN where we will be staying for two nights before the start of the BMW MOA Rally when we will change hotels to a Twin Cities suburb of Roseville for the duration of the rally.

Here in Monticello is a motorcycle dealer (Moon Motorsports) where we will be getting oil changes, tire changes and cleaning up the bikes from the 5 weeks on the road. For the duration of the rally we will be putting our Team Strange Grand Tours on hold. Therefor, I won't be updating this blog again until the end of the rally and we start up the tours again - unless I win a bike at the rally in which case I might make an exception ;-)

Today's Stats: 244.5 miles in 6:30 elapsed time, 4:28 saddle time.

Tour Stats to date:

32 consecutive days on the road, covering 10,936 miles in 204 hours of saddle time.

TS30GT Tour to Break