{"id":914,"date":"2021-08-24T21:59:37","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T01:59:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/?page_id=914"},"modified":"2021-08-24T21:59:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-25T01:59:37","slug":"day-22-fargo-north-dakota-to-alexandria-minnesota","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/day-by-day-trip-log\/day-22-fargo-north-dakota-to-alexandria-minnesota\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 22: Fargo, North Dakota to Alexandria, Minnesota"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Not long ago I visited Istanbul.\u00a0 While in Turkey my wife suggested we see the \u201cwhirling dervishes.\u201d\u00a0 These are Sufi Muslims who meditate while spinning in circles.\u00a0 If I spin myself around a few times I get dizzy and fall down.\u00a0 They can spin, dance and be lost in thought for what seems like hours.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s ride reminded me of watching the \u201cwhirling dervishes.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 In the morning I pedaled about 40 miles on Minnesota route 52.\u00a0\u00a0 Dervishes keep spinning until the music changes and then move to a different position.\u00a0 On route 52 I didn\u2019t spin my whole body in circles, only my legs.<\/p>\n

There was very little traffic, the scenery didn\u2019t change much and most of the ride was a hypnotic blur of legs going up and down.\u00a0 Occasionally, the music of a car or truck\u00a0 coming up the road would change my body to a different position. Otherwise\u00a0 there seemed little difference between people spinning in circles and what I was doing this morning.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\"Coming<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Crossing<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Even<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Start<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"The<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"View<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"Alexandria<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n
\n
\"At<\/a><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

At the 45 mile marker I met my wife at the world\u2019s largest statue of a \u201cprairie chicken.\u201d\u00a0 Scattered across the country are bizarre statues.\u00a0 A few days ago I took a picture of the world\u2019s largest sand crane (a type of bird) and the largest buffalo.\u00a0 Today it is the largest chicken.\u00a0 Each small town seems to want to outdo the others with a special claim to fame.<\/p>\n

Having my wife here for a few days is amazing.\u00a0 I left my backpack in her rental car and pedaled without 15 pounds strapped to my body.\u00a0 Instead of my searching for a place to buy lunch, she picked up food at a supermarket and met me at the \u201cchicken.\u201d\u00a0 Having some support made the day much easier.<\/p>\n

After lunch I pedaled to Fergus Falls.\u00a0 As I pedaled into town a sign proudly announced that\u00a0Fergus Falls had a population of over 13,000 people.\u00a0 I was expecting another dying town but was shocked.\u00a0 It had a huge main street and almost every building was in use.\u00a0 People were shopping and the town had life, unlike some of the dying towns further west.<\/p>\n

At the end of Fergus Falls, Google Maps decided to go crazy again.\u00a0 It kept telling me to get on the Central Lakes Trail, but I didn\u2019t see a trail, much less how to get on it.\u00a0 When I saw the sign for the trail I was amazed.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0 Central Lakes Trail was another railroad line that had been abandoned.\u00a0 The trail is 14 feet wide and smoothly paved all the way to Alexandria.\u00a0 The trail was not as beautiful as the paved railroad trail I took in Idaho, which had mountain vistas at almost every turn.\u00a0 Nevertheless, the Central Lakes Trail has its own beauty.<\/p>\n

I pedaled a bit less than 50 miles of the trail, most of it in the same meditative state as I had this morning.\u00a0 The trail was empty except for the occasional rabbit\u00a0 and quiet.\u00a0 It was the perfect place to pedal.<\/p>\n

The first three weeks of the trip had some very hard sections.\u00a0 I will not say today\u2019s 112 miles were easy.\u00a0 My legs hurt and my bottom hurts even more.\u00a0 Yet while today was physically demanding, there was no crisis, craziness or complications.\u00a0 It was a simple day; just move each leg up and down for hours.\u00a0 I could get used to this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not long ago I visited Istanbul.\u00a0 While in Turkey my wife suggested we see the \u201cwhirling dervishes.\u201d\u00a0 These are Sufi Muslims who meditate while spinning in circles.\u00a0 If I spin myself around a few times I get dizzy and fall down.\u00a0 They can spin, dance and be lost in thought for what seems like hours. … Continue reading Day 22: Fargo, North Dakota to Alexandria, Minnesota<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5335,"featured_media":0,"parent":766,"menu_order":22,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5335"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=914"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":915,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/914\/revisions\/915"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/zagorsky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}