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Back on the Prairie

My whip(s) in front of the parent's house.

Hello all! I am writing this from the kitchen table of at my parents house in Aberdeen, SD. I've been on the road for 6 days. 1,400 miles down, 375 to go. Custer or bust(er)!


I made the trip from suburban Milwaukee to Minneapolis on Wednesday. I had some pretty good luck on the road until I made a stop in Eau Claire, Wisconsin to use the bathroom. Shortly after I arrived in said bathroom, I heard the door open and the voices of a dad and two small children. I looked to my left and through the crack in the stall door, I see a girl, maybe 4 years old, staring right into my eyes. I was understandably creeped out and uncomfortable They stood in the bathroom until I was done, the little girl staring at me the entire time. I needed to get the fuck outta there. In my frazzled state, I backed into a pole in the parking lot and bent the crap out of the front tire of my bike.

That thing sticking out of my bumper is the screw that held my reflector onto the spokes. It's lodged in there pretty well.

I got to Minneapolis without further incident and headed out to meet my friends Tanya and Rachel. The bar we met up at was doing trivia and was super loud, but it was otherwise a very nice time. Rachel had to head home, so Tanya and I went out for a couple more drinks. It snowed a little bit on the walk back to her place, where we watched a documentary on M*A*S*H.

Thursday I wandered around town to find a mailbox to mail a few postcards. I got some tacos from a taco truck and made a trip the mall of america. My friend Rob called the bike co-op to see if they had a wheel that would work for me. They did, so I went out there to get it. As it turned out, the skewer was bent, so I spent 2 1/2 hours finding workable parts and rebuilding the innards of the wheel. Not a total loss though, the volunteers there were awesome and it was a valuable learning experience.

Later that evening I watched My Own Private Idaho (starring River Phoenix and Keneau Reeves), ordered a "Fuck Nasty" Philly (Philly cheesesteak +horseradish and bacon), drank tasty beer, had some wine out of a bag and stayed up too late.

"Who ordered all this white shit?" Ice covered lake at 80 degrees. I saw some dude ice fishing on it today.

The next morning I was off to Sioux Falls to eat dinner with my little sister and hang out with some friends. We went out to a few of my old haunts. It was fun. Very nice to see the Sioux Falls crew.


I woke up on my friend Shane's couch, watched half of Bloodsport, ate some Taco Johns and began the trip to my parent's house in Aberdeen. I made a stop in Brookings (home of the South Dakota State University Jackrabbits and city where I delivered a million pizzas) to drive through campus and look at the scummy houses I used to live in. Made it to Aberdeen where I've been hanging at my parents house since.

Here is some random stuff:

Frank Dukes!

Powderhorn Park, Minneapolis. Still got some ice.

Blue Earth, MN. Home of the 50 ft. tall Jolly Green Giant

Home At Last

On The Road.

Hello everyone! I'm writing you from a seedy hotel in suburban Milwaukee. I had a long, super detailed post written out, but I somehow deleted it. I will attempt to do it again.

I left part of my heart at the intersection of Warder and Otis NW.

I woke up Sunday morning with a wicked hangover and attempted to finish packing. I quickly realized that I had way too much stuff to fit in my car, so we filled it to the brim and Franny was nice enough to ship a bunch of heavy boxes to my parents house. Thank you so much, Franny!

I left DC around 3pm Sunday, headed for Cleveland. I pulled over around 5:30 to use the ladies room and realized that I couldn't find my bike lock anywhere. I searched the car for a good 20 minutes before I realized that I had left it on top of my trunk when I made a stop at the Georgia Ave. Yes! to pick up some DC Brau to bring out West. I'm really lucky this didn't end badly:

I made it to Cleveland around 9pm. My friend Adam and I grabbed a few drinks and I slept on the most comfortable air mattress I've ever slept on. We woke up the next morning and went to the West 3rd St. Market to get some very tasty ramen from a place called Noodlecat. If you're ever in Cleveland, you should definitely check out the market. There's tons of great food and it's a beautiful building. A super hip dude with a curly mustache will make you crepes.

From there we made our way to the Great Lakes Brewpub. I had a taster of everything they had available. The Commodore Perry and their Rye IPA offering were worth the trip alone. I've had them both from the shelves in DC, but fresh from the brewery was something special.

We eventually made our way to a place called Happy Dog, a bar that lets you build your own hot dogs and offers 50 toppings. I got the Jamaican Jerk Mustard, "alien" relish and habanero pickled red onions. It doesn't look like much, but  it was a fine hot dog!

Note the Fruit Loops option.

We ended up at an open mic comedy night at some other place. They were offering $3 pints of Stone IPA. It was a great night.

My whip(s), Lake Erie and the Cleveland skyline, as seen from Wendy Park.

I left Cleveland around 2pm this afternoon. It was 77 degrees. By the time I hit the Indiana border, it was 45 and pouring rain. I drove white-knuckled with semi trucks spitting water at me for several hours until I made it to 3 Floyds in Munster, Indiana. (I feel like I should also note that I paid $7.70 in tolls to drive through the state on some of the worst roads ever. It was like driving on the surface of the Moon. Get your shit together, Indiana).

The 3 Floyds Brewpub might be the coolest place on earth. It's in this weird business park in the middle of nowhere. They have a turntable set up with a collection of metal LPs blasting throughout the bar (they were also projecting "Over The Top" onto one of the walls). I sat down next to a beer-loving 62 year old accountant from California who was in town to visit his brother in Chicago. We quickly became friends due to our love of West Coast IPAs and mutual admiration of bassist Victor Wooten.  I had a the Bloodlust burger, their Alpha King Pale Ale  (abv 6.66%)and a pilsner called "Jinx Proof," which is named after the tattoo shop in DC with the same name. How about that?

I had planned on booking a room at a hotel a mile and a half away, riding my bike to the brewpub, hanging out and riding back to the hotel, but the hotel was complete booked up and it was pouring rain. I made the executive decision to buy a ton of beer there and drive as far as I could. It was still super shitty outside, but I trudged on. The drive through Chicago in the pouring rain was very stressful, At the very worst of it, Chicago's own Ghosts and Vodka popped up on shuffle and all was well. I made it  to suburban Milwaukee and tomorrow I will head to Minneapolis. I have been unemployed for a week and I've never felt better. Fuck work. Foam dome.

Goodnight all. Here are a few stray pictures:

My poor bike got so wet today. Also pictured: The Kev

MAPness

Going to make this trip over the span of 10 days, spending a couple nights in Minneapolis and a couple more at my parent's house in Aberdeen, SD. I should be packing, but it's hard to do anything but relax with this new Kurt Vile on.

If anyone is curious as to why I'll be stopping in Munster, IN of all places, it's because 3 Floyds Brewery is there. I've never had any of their brews because they don't distribute very far outside of that area, but they have an amazing reputation. Really looking forward to spending the evening sampling their wares. Fingers crossed that I'm able to bike back to my hotel afterwards.

Pretty rad, huh?

Farewell

This is as clean as it's gonna get.