Originally we had not planned on riding in North Dakota on this trip. We got up Sunday morning and saw that Fargo, North Dakota was only 3 hours away to the Northwest so we said WTH let's knock off another state on our Quest to ride in all 50 States!(MAP)
So we looked up and found the Red River Trail ran along the Red River as it passes through Moorhead Minnesota on the East side and Fargo ND on the West side. The Trails we rode consisted of the Red River Trail on the North Dakota side and the Viking Ship Park Trail on the Minnesota side. Both very nice trails.
Gotta capture that prototypical State Welcome Sign! or you weren't there!
Just getting started on our ride. Always look to find a Trail sign.
Having a little fun on a dock out over the Red River along the trail!
Another angle of our Fun!
A newer section they had opened along downtown
Bridge we crossed to take us over to the Minnesota side of the Red River
We packed up after the ride and headed back home. Was close to midnight before we got home. Was a fun trip overall even though the Royals were boys amongst men in their game.
When looking for ideas on somewhere to go ride our bikes over Labor day weekend, we considered returning to the trails we love in Iowa. I got to looking around and discovered that the Royals were going to be playing the Twins in Minneapolis that weekend. So I surprised my sweetie with tickets to the game for our anniversary. This would allow us to mark Minnesota off our list of states we have ridden our bikes in with the bonus of getting to see the Royals play(Also mark that off the list of seeing a Royals game in every MLB stadium).
So Friday afternoon we packed up the Outback and headed north!
We drove to the northern edge of Des Moines Friday night and got up early morning on Saturday and drove the rest of the way to Minneapolis. It was about 8 hours of drive time. So overall not bad. Had very little construction delays which is always good!
The prototypical State Welcome sign!
The Minneapolis skyline as we drove into town. Not much traffic on this Saturday Morning.
We decided to ride the West River Parkway Trail which follows along the southwestern side of the Mississippi River as it passes through Minneapolis. I had marked out to park in the Bohemian Flats park((Link)) where they have riverboat rides depart. Below is a map of the trail. We did not ride all of the trail marked on the Map. We rode pretty much all of the portion that was along the river. We were limited in time in that we needed to check in to our hotel and eat before going to the game.
Had no idea Minneapolis had been such a Flour Mill mecca!
Map of the Loop we rode around when we crossed the Stone Arch Bridge
Far north end of the Trails we rode. Had many named sections.
Headed back South!
Our delicious carb loaded lunch that we had after our ride. Before our event planned for the evening. We tried a new place across the street from our hotel called Blaze Pizza((Link)) It was a very interesting concept and was quite tasty!
Video and Lowlights of the Twins/Floyals Baseball game to come!
