Day 4 - Grand Rapids, MN to Minot, ND

Even though the radar didn’t show any inclement weather for today, we put on our rain pants before heading out so as to take the chill off – it wasn’t as cool as yesterday, but it was partly cloudy and only about 11 C when we headed back into town for a quick breakfast.

We were on the road at about 7:15 and started the trek west on US2. The first destination was to be Bemidji and Paul Bunyan Park, but before we got there, some ominous looking clouds were off in the horizon, so we put on the rest of our rain gear and wound up wearing

it for the rest of the day. However, we never really did get rained on – just a drizzle here and a drizzle there to dirty up the bikes.

Just before Cass Lake, we thought we’d get off of US2 for a bit, so we took a more scenic route out to Pennington and then on to Bemidji along Power Dam road. There was some construction taking place on one of the roads that I had originally planned on taking, but Power Dam was a nice enough ride.

After a stop at the park to see Paul Bunyan and his ox (Babe), we fueled up and got back on US2 for the rest of the day. Just inside the North Dakota border, we popped in to see the folks at Andy’s Harley

Davidson. On Saturday, Brian had noticed that I was leaking some oil from the derby cover, and typically this means that I need a new gasket. As it turns out, I actually needed a new derby cover because the old one was warped. Andy’s took my bike right in, replaced the derby cover and had us back on our way in no time at all!

While in Grand Forks, we stopped for lunch at the Long Haul Saloon – a truck stop/bar/casino style place and then continued on westward towards Rugby and the geographical centre of North America. While getting fuel in Rugby, I noticed a lot of oil on the back of the saddlebags. At first I thought it might just be left over from the derby cover issue, but the derby cover was in good shape and was

showing no leaks.

So, when we got to our destination – Minot, ND – we stopped in to see the folks at Magic City HD. We got there at 5, they close at 6. The service manager came out to look at the bike, we popped off one of the saddle bags and found that the left side shock was leaking badly. Well, to make a long story short, they took the bike right in, slapped a new shock on there and we were out of there before 6.

So, we did visit our 2 planned HD dealers today, but I don’t think I want to have to spend any more time in the service departments of the other shops that we have left to visit. I am very thankful though for how both dealerships were extremely accommodating of my needs!

It was a short ride from there to the hotel, The Sierra Inn, and after unloading all the gear and freshening up we walked next door to Kroll’s Diner for dinner.

All in all, we logged 681 kms today, bringing the total for the trip so far to just over 2,544 kms