To Minnieapolis, pllaying cowboys then Lake Superior

The ride from Bismark was warm but pretty boring, we stopped for the night at Alexandria before making our way into Minneapolis to pick up filters & oil at the bike dealers. The staff and the people we met there were super friendly and a big change from most of the shops we have stopped at so far. Then onto Kevin Stratton’s house who we’d originally met (riding with his son Kale) in Alaska. Kevin invited us to stay if we were passing. His friend John was there already in party mode as Kevin had laid on a bit of a party for us. We met his lovely wife Carol and son Conor and proceeded to have a fantastic night partying and chatting with his friends and neighbours, An apology here, we were having such a good time we never took photos! Sunday, Carol dropped Conor off at his pals while we serviced Fi’s bike and then went out to Kevin & Carols farm to have some fun shooting handguns, something I’d never get to do in the UK. Kevin was super careful to explain the guns and the safety rules, then he even managed to coach us well enough to hit the various targets he’d set up, a Jedi master indeed. We stopped for lunch on the way back and Carol took a call that Conor and his friend had been in a car accident whist being driven back from the park by his friends father, some 16 year old kid driving a Jeep Cherokee had T boned them after running a light. We were an hour away, I’m surprised how calm Carol stayed, we got back to find Conor was basically OK, a swollen ear and some bruising but his pal had been cut when the side window imploded. The good news is he should be OK, a night in ER having glass removed from his face but high stress for both sets of parents. We left on Monday once again humbled by the warmth and generosity of people we have met on this adventure, that’s two weekends we have been hosted by two Kevin’s, can we make it three? Only joking, we intend being in the tent near Niagra falls by next weekend. Mondays ride was nice, back North to Lake Superior, only problem was getting pulled by the Sherriff for running a stop sign that caught us unawares on Highway B we actually thought we’d been stopped for speeding (which we were). He was a grumpy sod and wouldn’t take my feigned ignorance of US law as an excuse, at one point asking if we really wanted the two of us cited, I backed off and he went to write me a ticket, all those miles and countries and we get fined here. After 5 minutes he appeared from his car, it appears they have a new computer system and he couldn’t get it to take my postcode (zip code) so it was taking too long to write me up (I think he needed to go get his doughnut fix) so I got off with a warning, woo hoo hooray for computers and computer illiteracy!

Kevin's artistic breakfast pancakes

Down on the farm

Kevin's great grandfather parked this here

Danger, man with gun

More Danger

Pretty pleased after expert tuition

Carol shows us how its done 

Jedi master Kevin overlooks dumb pupil

Good shot by Fiona got the cartridge ejecting

Conor, still smiling aafter the crash

Our great hosts for the weekend

Waiting to find out our fate