Day #73 - 5/24/2011 - Tracy, MN to New Ulm, MN - 63 miles

The 63 miles from Tracy, Minnesota to New Ulm, Minnesota took us this way.


We enjoyed our night at the Wilder Inn, so much so that it would make me want to return to Tracy.

The room was spacious, modern, nicely tiled with contemporary furniture, sporting a flat
screen TV, microfridge and microwave.  Critical points: the bathroom could use ventilation
and a coffeemaker would be nice, though the office had a fresh pot available (as well as
fresh fruit.)  The family that ran it was friendly, too.

I’m great at sleeping terribly (largely due to the hourly hot flashes.)  We were up at 4am and on our bikes by 5:10am.  The sky was already light, which was comforting.  I had wanted a slightly earlier wake up time, regardless, to catch the sunrise over the plains.  Under the cloudy sky, the colors were brilliant.  While I missed it from a photographic standpoint, it was still beautiful.


A few miles from Tracy, we entered Walnut Grove, home to the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum. Population=871, Walnut Grove's population increased by 40% by 2001 and 2006 when 250 Hmong immigrants and their families settled. (The Hmong are an ethnic Southeast Asian people who fought against the communist Pathet Lao during the Laotian Civil War.)  42% of the students in the local school district are Hmong.  Wow.  I'm sure no one was culturally shocked.


It turns out that there is an amazing story behind why Hmong immigrants would end up in this part of the country.  The answer was provided to me by MarySees, one of the faithful followers of the blog, and the answer is right here...check it out.

I had never heard of Ms. Wilder before this trip but ever since South Dakota, her name has been

everywhere.  We biked on the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway from South Dakota to Minnesota,
we passed her original homestead in De Smet, SD, and now, her museum was just ahead.  If it wasn't 5:30am,
I might have felt compelled to stop.  But, it was, so I didn't. Sorry, Laura...next time.  Maybe I'll even read
Little House on the Prairie.

We biked on, looking for the next small town and finding it just a few miles past Walnut Creek.

First platted by  the Chicago and North Western Railway land company in 1886 (another town created by the railroad) and named after Paul Revere, Revere has been losing population steadily for several decades. 

A post office, a grain elevator adjacent to the railroad track, and a city that was 4 blocks by 4 blocks...that was it for Revere.

This building was on the outskirts of Revere and, in spite of my attempts to harness the power of the Google, I could not find out what it was.  Here it is in Google street view, in case you're really curious.

The air was fairly still for the first two hours of the day, then: it was like someone turned on a switch to a giant fan.  The next 40 miles were with a steady headwind of 15mph…it just makes you want to stop, as well as make me not want to take pictures. In truth, there wasn't a whole lot to photograph.

I had to admire Doug's honesty, as opposed to this one car dealer we saw near Tallahassee.

 Ever since returning to the bikes in Pierre, South Dakota, I had been impressed by the amount of farmland.  Aside from the city centers we passed, we had traversed over 350 miles of farm land.  

Even though farming employs 1% of Minnesotans, the states agricultural output ranks it 6th in the nation.  This scene caught my eye only because I had been used to seeing grain and corn-based ethanol being carried by rail.  That's all.

While the day started out nicely enough, the wind turned it into a real grind.  It was a relief to finally make it to New Ulm.  New Ulm was founded in 1854 by German immigrants and was named after the city of Ulm in southern Germany. Ulm and Neu-Ulm are New Ulm's sister cities.

Related to its German heritage, New Ulm is home to the August Schell Brewing Company, the second largest family-owned brewery in the country.  Our motel (SuperDuper 8, of course, was right by the brewery.)

It was dreary with light rain when we finally pulled in to the New Ulm Super 8.  Unfortunately, the weather/wind forecast for tomorrow was even worse with gusts to 37mph.  We’ll be up at 3:30 to get an even earlier start and hope to beat the bad weather.