What a day for this ride! I don't think we saw a cloud all day and temperatures were between 75 and 80 degrees. It doesn't get more perfect than that. Most of the ride was very straight, which I thought was good for a first ride. There's no need to go careening through canyons on the first time around. OK, so maybe the route was too straight. Sinyeon fell asleep for a little bit. Clearly, she's not afraid of motorcycles in any way.
I wanted to stop in Brainerd, only because it's the place featured in the movie Fargo. If there was any chance of me getting a picture of that big statute of Paul Bunyan, I was all over it. Unfortunately, that statute was made for the movies and I guess they took it with them because the locals said no such statute exists.
Lake Mille Lacs is very pretty. The lake is pretty big and the water very calm. On the North shore, the breeze could be felt pretty strongly and was producing 8" rollers. :-) Definitely very calm. There was even a family headed to the beach for some boogie boarding. Also on the northern shore, we noted a Bald Eagle flying about 20' above us; how majestic! We also saw a crane, plenty of geese and even rescued a turtle.
The turtle was about 9" across the shell and weighed about 25#. He (or she, who knows) was strolling toward the white line on the side of the pavement when I noticed him. We made a U-Turn, then another and came up next to him. He didn't like the idea of me picking him up and putting him on a different course...at least judging by the snapping jaws. He can thank me later for saving him from death by squish.
Other than this, the ride was very uneventful.
