Avon, Minnesota

We tried to get an early start from Lake Elmo because of the really HOT weather. It was 9:30 am when we left the campground. Our plan was to ride across the northern edge of Minneapolis/St Paul to Elk River. We knew that we would be riding in some traffic, which we did. But the roads were all very wide with good shoulders. There were alot of rolling hills as we rode through the towns. We road on Rice Creek Trail for awhile and then got lost. We stopped some cyclists on the trail and asked for directions. Eventually we found our way to Anoka. We stopped at a gas station for some cold drinks. Did I mention how hot it was??? We got some directions to Rt 10 so that we could get to Elk River. As we headed on to Rt 10 there was one of those signs that say something like "no bicycles or non motorized vehicles". Mmmmmmmm.....well there's a frontage road and it's going the right direction, let's see where that goes! Yes you guessed it, the frontage road ended in a couple of miles, but thankfully by that time we were no longer on a limited access highway and could ride on Rt 10. The bad news was that by now it is 5pm and everyone in the world is going the same way we are. We are riding on a four lane highway, but at least it had a big shoulder. We rode into Elk River to the Watiki Campground. It was the worst campground that we have stayed in. But we found a nice grassy site so it was ok. For dinner we had a salad with salmon in it. We got chased into the tent by mosquitos.
The next morning we tried to get an early start again because once again it was super hot. I thought it was supposed to be cooler up north! We got back on Rt 10 and headed toward Avon, MN where we had planned to spend the night with some friends. The traffic wasn't quite as bad on Rt 10. At Becker we got on Rt 8, which was a two lane highway with alot less traffic. When we got to St Cloud we stopped at Riverside Park and watched kids playing in a splash pool. The traffic in St Cloud was pretty heavy. We stopped at Walgreens to pick up a prescription and then headed to a bike shop. It was a really nice bike shop. They gave us some directions to Avon. We rode part of the Wobegon Trail from St Joseph to Avon.