Day Two

Russ rode down to the Mississippi River in Bemidji this morning and we stopped at the visitor Center to take pictures with Paul Bunyan and Babe.  Russ biked south from there at 7 am to find the Paul Bunyan Trail.  We could not find where to join the trail so he ended up climbing up a hill to an overpass and climbing over a fence to reach the trail, what determination!!!   We enjoyed another beautiful, sunny day with temperatures starting out in the lower 60's.

Gene and Carol drove down to LaPorte to meet him after the first 20 or so miles.  After a break, we got on the tandem bike and rode 35 miles to Hackensack. It was a beautiful ride with most of it going through woods by lakes on a fairly level trail.  A portion of our tandem ride was some winding trails with many hills.  We saw a deer and a family of swans along the way.

In Hackensack we enjoyed a picnic lunch, took a picture with the statue of Paul Bunyan's wife and visited with several people in the nice park there.  We have a wood cross on top of our trailer and a lady asked, "what's with the stick up there?" It was a good opportunity to share about the cross.  Russ rode his bike on from there to Backus where we met him to make sure everything was going smoothly.  The next point to meet was in Pine River where we enjoyed visiting with John at the visitor center there.  He was helpful with our plans to find our way in Brainerd at the end of the Paul Bunyan Trail. 

We met again in Jenkins, then Pequot Lakes.  At Nisswa the trail separated from the highway that Gene & Carol had traveled on most of the day, so Russ rode on the trail around a lake on the east side, with the car we went around that lake on the west side and met at the trail head in Brainerd at 5 pm.
It was a fabulous day with a wonderful and enjoyable trail with a total of 110 miles.  God is so good!  We enjoyed a dip in the pool and hot tub tonight and bed looks pretty comfortable.  I think we will sleep well!

Thank you so much for your continued prayers! There is no doubt that we feel the Lord's blessing and protection over us.  Until tomorrow...
Russ (the pedaling pastor) & Carol (his lovely and helpful assistant)...(guess who wrote this!)