September 2, 2026 - Little Falls, Minnesota to Clearwater, Minnesota

Tobey left Little Falls from Kiwanis Park on the Mississippi River this morning about 8:30 and we planned to meet at Sauk Rapids Municipal Park for lunch - about 32 miles down the road.

The park was beautiful and right on the river. Before he got there, I took a walk down the trail which ran through the park and arrived at the Bridge of Hope.

The foundation of the bridge was amazing!
I saw lots the Canada geese and ducks enjoying the river, too!

Tobey had a fun journey to meet me. These are some of the sites he saw as he was leaving Little Falls.

This section of highway was pretty good as he was rolling along. Looking to one side were fields of beans.


On the other side of the road were fields of corn.

Then the road changed again to not quite as good.

To really terrible!

He also went by a pretty church on his route.

And of course ... the Mississippi River!

He also saw some unusual signs as he was riding and tried to figure out if that was supposed to be the bike trail. He was not having any part of it!@

He finally decided they must be for a snowmobile route. As he got close to the park, he also went under the Bridge of Hope.

Tobey arrived a few minutes later and was still smiling!

We had some lunch and he rested for a while before heading out heading to Clearwater.

I walked again to get some exercise and he rode on. He spotted this Lion as he was leaving town, and of course, us being Lions, he stopped to take a picture.


We both spotted herons along the river but he managed to get a good picture.

And further along his route there was another dam.

As I headed out I passed by this house and had to stop and take pictures. One could only wish for gas prices as cheap as these!!

I wasn't too far from here when he called me and told me to stop at the Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud a little further down the road. WOW! It was a great stop. I spent more than a half hour walking around and taking pictures - even though the temperature had risen into the mid-80s.



It's not a great picture but there are gray and black squirrels here - and they are fast.

I was back on the road and caught up to Tobey when he was just a few miles outside of Clearwater. The trail in this area is new and had lots of shade - and kept him off the road.

Rounding a bend I saw this but I couldn't stop to get a picture of this - but Tobey did on his bike! It always amazes me what some people collect and keep as yard art!

We met at the library in Clearwater and are able to use their internet - yeah! He has about a mile to go to our camp spot which he will do after a rest and we will settle in for the night. Today's ride was 54 miles.

September 1, 2026 - Aitkin, Minnesota to Little Falls, Minnesota

It got chilly last night and we had the vents open - 59!! Fortunately, that made the ride today a bit better - not too hot. The day started off sunny then some cloud cover as the day went on. Tobey said, "nice riding weather!"

Tobey took this picture for me as we was on the trail since he knows I love quilts!

We're not sure what kind of bird this was that he spotted, maybe an osprey?

We met in Brainerd at the Kiwanis Park for lunch before I joined him for part of the ride. This is Tobey rolling in.

We took off on the MRT/Paul Bunyan Trail from the parking lot and I rode with him about 8 miles before I turned back to the RV and he went on his way. The dreaded Japanese beetles are in Minnesota, too. There were wild grapes growing on one of the bridges and they were covered in beetles!

Crossing the Mississippi

This was one of the bridges we went under along our ride.

On this portion of the trail we were treated to the "Fairy Door Trail" with lots of interesting carvings and surprises along the way.




It was a great ride together, but I headed back to the RV to load up and drive on to Little Falls. Fortunately, I felt much better about loading the bike and driving today. WOOHOO!

Tobey saw some new things along his way. His trail switched back and forth from the highway to trail, then turned to sand! He walked his bike back to the highway and made his way into town!

We arrived in Little Falls almost at the same time. After loading Tobey's bike we walked over to the river and saw the dam. This is the down-river side.

This is the Mississippi River up-river side of the dam!

We stopped at a laundromat to wash bike clothes and they are line-drying all over the RV tonight! We had dinner at the Tavern on 1st tonight. We both got the burger basket since that was the Tuesday special. They were quite tasty, the fries were great, the onion rings were okay, the service was really good, and the prices were very reasonable. 

We are spending the night in Little Falls. Tobey's ride was 63 miles today. 

August 31, 2026 - Pine Ridge Forest Road, Savana State Forest to St. John’s Lutheran Church, Aitkin, Minnesota

Well, it poured last night! Both of our weather apps were wrong, but thank goodness, I covered the seat on Tobey’s bike anyway. Fortunately, it was just a bit foggy when we got up this morning and headed out of the forest to get Tobey on the road. We took time for him to clean and re-lube his chain after his ride yesterday which took on lots of road dirt. He finally got going about 9:30 this morning.

We both saw wild turkeys today.


Tobey saw deer, eagles, red-headed woodpeckers and even a tortoise today. The tortoise was the only one slow enough for him to catch a picture!
We both took pictures of old barns today, too! This was Tobey's barn.

This was my barn hear Berglund Park in Palisade where we took a short break for him.

I walked down and had a nice view of a trestle bridge over the Mississippi.

By noon, the clouds had pretty much disappeared and it turned hot (mid-80s) and sunny. Onward we went and had lunch about 12 miles down the road near Waldeck where he was able to rest longer after his first 40 miles. His route took him on about 8 miles of gravel before coming back to the highway.

He also saw this police car in the distance and tried to warn some drivers coming up behind him to be careful!

I guess it wasn't anything to be too worried about!

He crossed over the Mississippi River again.

We had our “Service Engine Soon” light come on yesterday, so I went on to Aitkin to the O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store to have them check it out. Nice guys. They ran a diagnostic test and couldn’t find anything wrong. (I would have hoped not since we had lots of service done on this RV beast before leaving Colorado!) Anyway, they said I should be good to go – so I did!

As Tobey made his way through Aitkin to our camp spot for the night, he spotted this store.

We’re spending the night at St. John’s Lutheran Church just outside of Aitkin. I managed to find a relatively level spot and get the rig up on boards so we are totally level before Tobey got here. Tobey met a couple of the church members who were here to do some work on the church and by a weird coincidence, one of them used to live in Fort Collins! It’s a small world.

We had a beautiful sunset.

Tobey's ride was 58 miles today. We are looking forward to another quiet night before we head to Little Falls tomorrow.