Iron Roamer, Brian Thiessen, at the start of the Mississippi River in Minnesota.

Rain Heading South

The KOA campground at Bemidji was quite good. My campsite was big with lots of grass. My only neighbour was an older woman living out of her car. The I was hesitant to leave. But the forecast for the next day was rain. Today was suppose to be good and I wanted to get out ahead of the bad weather.

I spend a lot of time looking at the weather forecasts. Being on a motorcycle and camping, the weather plays a big part in the planning.

It was nice to pack up in the warmth and when everything was dry. I was out of the campground by 7 am. The Great River Road heading south was well marked and really nice.

Mississippi River

I was amazed how the Mississippi River gets big so fast. A lot of rivers drain into it.

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Rain

By noon I could see dark clouds on the horizons. But the forecast was for no rain! I tried to outrun it. I thought I was doing it. Soon, however, the clouds surrounded me outside of St. Cloud, Minnesota. I wanted to go further than this.

I stopped for gas. As I did the torrential rains hit, as did the lightening. I stalled as long as I could under the canopy without the gas station telling me I had to leave. The torrential rain turned to just rain for a second. I made my break.

Motels

I punched in my GPS possible lodging locations. There was a Motel 6 nearby. When I got there it had changed ownership into some other name. It didn’t look appealing.

I tried a couple other places that also didn’t look great. By this time the rain was getting to me as I worked my way through St. Cloud.

I finally found Nights Inn. It looked clean. It was cheap. And the clerk was really nice.

So there I held up for the rest of the day.

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Secretly, it was actually quite nice to be in a hotel. Even if it was still above my budget. I had been camping for quite a while now. I took full advantage of a nice bed, air conditioning, and TV.

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Route for August 18, 2016

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