Last night Tracee and I had a great dinner at the Shorelunch Cafe' in International Falls. Tracee had a 'bucket' of soup and toast while I had the special of a 16oz steak, baked potato, coleslaw, toast, onions and sauteed mushrooms - big meal for a big appetite. I have always maintained that chewing food is optional - sometimes when you are really hungry you just have to throw your head back and be a gannet!
It was great chatting to Hailee, Chantill and Libby. Hailee said that they had some New Zealander's come in sometime ago - and we chose the same table they did to sit at....spooky! The meal and service was so good we went back for breakfast this morning before we left. I promised the ladies they would get a mention in this blog - so I have gone one better and put a photo in as well.
We were on the road just after 8:30am and rode out on Highway 71 South. There was hardly any traffic around, on average we probably only saw a car every 5 km or so. We stopped for fuel at the small community of Blackduck and then turned on to Highway 2 West soon after. There was a noticible change in the landscape the further West we traveled. The terrain was becoming less pine forest and rivers, and increasingly flat and rural.
If we hadn't been thinking too much about Sturgis before - there was a noticible increase in motorcycle traffic to remind us after we turned on to highway 2. We saw a number of groups of riders with camping gear and packs strapped to bikes making their way West.
It is the 70th anniversary of the Sturgis Rally this year and some people we have talked to have said it has been 'going off' there for a couple of weeks now. We were asked if we had accommodation booked (which we have). This made me think about the days leading up to our arrival and I didn't want to risk not finding accommodation the closer we got to Rapid City - so I went on-line and after a lot of searching managed to get motels at a reasonable price around North & South Dakota booked for the next few days. I find the 'Motel 6' chain the cheapest on-line booking, you can get deals as cheap as $36 - $40 (plus tax) for good quality accommodation.
After about 4 hours of riding time and 377 km, we crossed over the Red River and into the city of Grand Forks in the state of North Dakota - our stop for the day.
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