Category Archives: Minnesota
70s this weekend!
I never thought I’d be a motorcycle mama, but here I am at nearly 60, early awaiting a 70-degree high on Saturday so Ralph and I can take the bike somewhere. It doesn’t matter where. Just as long as we go, explore, discover, and share our discoveries. That’s what Ride Minnesota is all about. Sharing our discoveries about our home state with others.
The idea for the book came from a visit to the Minnesota History Center
Apple Blossom Scenic Byway
in St. Paul. A good friend of mine, also a writer, had to interview someone for a magazine article and asked me to go along. While she conducted her interview, I poked along in the museum and looked at the exhibits (always good, highly recommended!). I can never resist a bookstore, so it was natural that I wound up there. I found several books about various types of Minnesota tourism–hiking in Minnesota, biking in Minnesota, paddling a canoe in Minnesota. There were no books about motorcycling in Minnesota! The lightbulb came on.
That’s how Ralph and I came to spend every available good-weather weekend cruising the highways on our Victory, looking for hills, curves, unique scenery. That’s how Ride Minnesota was born.
One of the more interesting rides is the Apple Blossom Scenie Byway, south of Winona. As the photo shows, there are curves ahead!
Afraid of my own shadow
When I first began riding behind Ralph, I clung to him for dear life. It made me nauseous to look down and to the side and see my shadow racing alongside me at 65 mph. I noticed passengers on other motorcycles were more relaxed. Some held onto the bars on the seat rest. Others simply sat with their hands in their laps.
After a trip to the Grand Canyon via Rte. 66, I can look at my shadow now. And more often than not, I ride with a small digital camera in one hand. I still reach for Ralph when we hit a bump, but most of the time it’s “Look, Ma, no hands!” You have to have a certain amount of fatalism to sit on the back. If I leave the bike, I leave it. I’d rather be flung from it, I think, than trapped beneath it.
Since I’m not distracted by having to keep the bike safely on the road, I have plenty of time to think, plan and pray (not out of fear, mind you, mostly I tell God thanks for the beautiful day). I planned Ride Minnesota on the back of our Victory. That’s where the book took shape. On the back of a motorcycle, in Minnesota.
It’s “in the mail!”
The physical proof of Ride Minnesota is on its way to Minnesota! It’s been a longer process than I anticipated. There must be a lot of self-publishers out there.
CreateSpace works differently than what I’m accustomed to. I’ve always marked up the layout and passed it back to the graphics person to make the corrections. With CreateSpace, you make the corrections yourself and re-submit the manuscript each time you make a correction (I was allowed two rounds because the first round included making an index from the first set of proofs.). I now have multiple copies of the “final” manuscript and a couple of PDF proofs filed in my computer.
It’s certainly not motorcycle weather here in Minnesota today. After receiving 7 inches of snow this week (15 in some parts of the state!), we’re still waiting for spring and riding weather. Here’s a photo from last summer, taken at the Cascade River pullout along the North Shore. This photo is in the book, but it looks very different in black and white.
Cascade River pullout, North Shore Drive
Getting Closer
Ride Minnesota got a little closer to publication today. I received the sample chapters from CreateSpace (Amazon’s self-publishing service). The book’s interior looks much like I imagined it. The black-and-white photos also look like they’ll print well. Crisp, not muddy.
Watching the snow sift down today and looking at the calendar, I see it’s only about a month and a half until the the “possible motorcycling season” in Minnesota. Last year, on March 17, (St. Patrick’s Day), Ralph and I rode the motorcycle north past Mille Lacs Lake and around the Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway. It was warm–in the 60s–and most of the snow was gone. The lakes still had ice on them, however. When we rode near a lake, the air temperature dropped about 30 degrees, and fog drifted across the road.
This photo of Hawk’s Bay on Mille Lacs didn’t make it into Ride Minnesota. It was too subtle for black-and-white presentation.
Ride Minnesota 