Dang, We Missed It

I’ll be honest with you, there’s not much of interest to report on in South Central Minnesota between Currie and Mankato. I can report that the crops appear to be largely in the ground and beginning to grow. I’m not sure how much of this is corn, but it looks like it will be knee high by the Fourth of July.

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By the way, that is better than South Dakota. Many of the fields we saw in South Dakota were still very wet, and there was little evidence that they had been planted. The ducks were very happy; I suspect the farmers are not.

The terrain this morning was somewhat rolling, giving some contour to the ride through a beautiful morning.

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About half way through the ride, we passed through the tiny town of Darfur, Minnesota (population 108; area about one quarter square mile). Apparently the big event of the year is the annual smelt dinner, the last Saturday in April.

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Dang, we missed it.

We also missed the opportunity to pick up some (very) cheap real estate in town.

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We did catch the lilacs, which were in bloom in Darfur and several other places along the route, as well as some wildflowers I encountered later today.

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And we were happy to miss (or at least beat) the thunderstorms that passed through the area after I finished riding. The riding was beautiful in the morning, but by early afternoon the temperature was approaching 90 and the humidity was high (at least by midwest standards). I’m looking forward to drier cooler air tomorrow after this evening’s storms.

Today’s top two barns follow.

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The technical stuff:

Currie to Mankato, Minnesota

92.7 miles

1,523 feet of climbing

Average speed 15.8 miles per hour

Weather: A few high clouds, building in the afternoon as storms approached. Temperature 60 at the start to upper 80s at the end with 60+% humidity. Cross winds of 10-15 MPH.

You can see the entire route to date here.