Day 20 – Webster, S Dakota to Montevideo, Minnesota

Today I left behind the Dakotas and entered my seventh state of this coast to coast ride. It has taken three weeks to reach Minnesota and I was reflecting today how the first two weeks were quite different every day and full of changing scenery and things to remember, while the last week since Helena has really been nothing but miles and miles of empty space and mostly very long, straight roads, in some form. It feels like it is now starting to change again, although it is a gradual process. The border between South Dakota and Minnesota was not at all a fancy affair and might easily have been missed if you were not expecting it. I crossed the small Minnesota River just as it flows out of the bottom of Big Stone Lake, through which runs the dotted line on the map. It was quite a pretty place. On the Minnesota side was the small, rather quaint town of Ortonville, which had a pleasant lake front park, where I sat and watched a group of twenty or so pelicans.

This was also the place where I said goodbye to Route 12, my companion since Washington state. We have spend many days together and it brought me hundreds of miles. This has been a cycling experience like no other for me so far, and route 12 has played a big part, for which I am grateful. But my way now took me along a different path, to Milan and Montevideo, where I am spending the night in a cheap motel.

Milbank, SD

The landscape hasn’t really altered greatly and the road, state route 7, while smaller and less busy than route 12 this morning, is still straight and mostly flat. But the towns today have been interesting on either side of the border. I liked Milbank, SD, where I had my best lunch in a long time. As well as its cheese factory, there is a real surviving windmill here: Hollands Grist Mill, built in 1884 (and completely reconstructed in 2009). It looks the part.

Watson, MN

Milan, MN was a small, sleepy rural place with a wide, empty Main Street. It is the self-proclaimed Norwegian capital of the USA and a sign says “Velkommen til Milan”. Today, however, around half of its residents are from Micronesia, 3,500 miles across the Pacific Ocean. More specifically from one island, Romanum, which is less than a square mile in size. The first immigrants arrived in 2000 and over time have offset the decline in the native born population. There can’t be many places like this in the world!

Spot the geese

Just down the road and past a large lake, even smaller Watson, MN, is the self-proclaimed Goose Capital of the USA. I did see evidence of this. It was that golden hour between 6pm and 7pm, the road was quiet and I was cycling fast and enjoying the conditions when, several times, large numbers of geese flew overhead in V-formation, honking as they went. It all added to the generally wonderful atmosphere in the summer evening calm of a beautiful day. I knew I was almost there, and sometimes being on a bike in a moment like this can be truly rewarding.