You Don't Leave the Table Until You Have Eaten Your Gloop.

Day 29.    Day Off in the US of A.

We’re here.

To all those people who I do not deserve, who follow my blog from the US, yes they let us in and now you are stuck with us for about 3 weeks as we move south eastwards to negotiate Lake Superior.

Howdy.

We have jumped the border and are now in International Falls Minnesota. The nice customs man said “come on into the land of conspicuous consumption and leave those nasty bitey flies behind”.

He was wrong. The mossies are still biting, but a tad less I feel. The big horse flies have stayed in Fort Francis Ontario for now though.

Customs man was not so welcoming when I took a photo of the Customs Offices. You would have thought I was taking a picture of the Chinese Intelligence Agency. He said delete that photo or I will put you on a one way footpath back to Canada. And there you will suffer a slow death by blood sucking insect! I decided to comply with the request as I will need three weeks of chips, burgers and T bone steaks to replenish what the Canadian black fly has taken from me.

In 2010 Adi and I cycled for 12weeks across the US and lucky for you guys I could not blog about it as I did not then know how to use a computer.

Thanks for letting me in I promise to be good.

Day 30.

A strong and hot headwind today, piss bum. I stopped at morning tea time in Pellan Minnesota for two chocolate cookies, a coffee, and a Gatorade for Adi. She nicked one of my chocolate cookies but that was ok because they were monster ones. It was also ok because everything was so cheap. I’d forgotten how reasonably priced food is in the US compared to good old, lets rip everyone off New Zealand.  I opened my wallet to pay for the cookies, chocolate and drinks and only had a fist full of 20’s and a $5. My disbelief was obvious when she said the total was $3.80 and I got change from the $5 note.

After 80kms of never relenting strong headwind up my nostrils and a temperature of 33C I told Adi I’d had enough and she could keep up with her own schedule. She wanted to go another 80kms but since we had arrived in Big Falls Minnesota during the annual Budweiser River Festival when the river runs amber, I felt it was a good time to stop.

Free to Drink as Much as You Like.

After playing among the frothy rapids it was getting on for dinner time. Big Falls Minnesota is not a big place so we had prepared by packing what would become a dinner of one pot billy gloop.

Billy gloop is that sort of a meal that only real cycle tourers can say they have partaken of.  So far this trip we have had spaghetti meatballs & mossie gloop. We have had my favourite which is cheese lasagne, bacon with mossie gloop and tonight’s is seafood chowder with mossies on the side gloop.

You prepare your gloop carefully outside on the picnic table trying to not get too many mossies in. Mossies aren’t nice in your gloop, the manufacturers don’t recommend them. Once the gloop has been prepared there are three ways to eat it. You can eat it in the tent away from the insects. But eating really hot gloop in a hot tent tends to set you off into a sweat which removes your insect spray. You can eat your gloop on the run briskly walking or running about the camp site while spooning gloop into your mouth all the while being chased by flies. Or finally the really hard boys just eat their billy stodge at the picnic table while being eaten alive.

My Compliments to the Cook.

It’s actually best to eat it in the dark that way you can’t see what’s in it. The cover of darkness also helps you to get rid of the remainder which has solidified in the bottom of the billy. My preferred option here is just to scrape it out and throw it in the bushes. This is the New Zealand way. Unfortunately in countries where there are wild animals about this can be a problem because before your nearby homeless man has finished it off the bears may have arrived. Throwing your gloop in the bushes also gets the park rangerettes in a real tizz as you are not practising your ‘Bear Aware ‘protocols.

‘A fed bear is a dead bear’. A gloop fed bear is a very dangerous bear.