Minus points for Anoka county, plus points for Mille Lacs county

(Susan here, writing from Milaca, MN. 75 miles today.)

Somehow, we’d managed to go about 1600 miles as of this morning without a single “Get on the sidewalk!” comment hurled from some ignoramus in a passing car. Given the frequency of high-speed commentary from passing drivers in DC, I’m surprised we’d made it this far without any. But it did catch me somewhat off-guard for it to happen just outside of the Twin Cities, a place not just full of bike lanes but also with “BICYCLES MAY USE FULL LANE” stenciled all over just about every other street.

Anyway, this morning somewhere in the strip mall land of suburban Anoka county, two cars full of bros within just a couple blocks of each other(!) decided to let me know out the passenger-side window that I was inconveniencing them by preventing them from occupying the full width of the right north-bound lane. Needless to say, the sidewalk that was along the side of the road was a passing aberration, sprinkled with pedestrians to boot, that no one going any distance should have been riding on. To their credit, both dudes spoke in normal, if irritated, tones of voice, rather than the spittle-flecked expressions of pure rage that I’m used to getting from drivers on 16th St. NW in DC.

However, the weather was awesome, not too hot and little wind, with a great blue sky, the roads were overall pretty good and we didn’t get lost, AND here in Mille Lacs county we saw an adorable little girl with her Shetland pony, which towered over her and, if I overheard her correctly, was named Tigger. We also made friends with our motel manager’s 3-year-old daughter, who was showing off her sparkly pink bike and bike helmet to us. Ignorant bros in cars ALWAYS lose out to 3 year olds’ ponies and sparkles.