The Honey Hub

To Gackle, North Dakota -- 57.7 miles, 13.3 mph, 1450 ft

There were a lot of good things about today's ride. It was a beautiful sunny day, the landscape consisted entirely of idyllic farmland on either side with small ponds and stands of trees, the wind was light and from the north (we are going west), and there was a reasonable shoulder for most of it. That didn't mean we weren't happy to roll into the tiny town of Gackle at 2:00. Meg had been dreaming of a cold soda for the last 20 miles and my water was completely out.

To our surprise, the Adventure Cycling maps showed biker-only accommodations in town. We called the number listed to learn that it was a free spot in town called the Honey Hub: beds, shower, washer, and WiFi provided, and no reservations required. Awesome.

Riding into town, we found the only place that seemed to be open, the Tastee Freez, and soon learned from the couple next to us that the Honey Hub was run by Jason and Ginny. They provided a small room on the back of their house for cross-country cyclists to use. Interestingly, they are in the business of raising bees. Most of the year they live in Auburn, California where in late Winter the bees are let loose in the huge Central Valley almond orchards. Later, they are transported

to Washington state to pollinate the apple trees. Finally, they truck out all 12,000 hives so the bees can produce honey from the extensive fields of clover and alfalfa in what is the number one Honey producing state, North Dakota.

It was fantastic to meet Jason and Ginny and their four kids -- Oliver, Max, Hadley, and Torry. Until 2011, Jason had lived in Campbell and, for five years, worked for Apple. It’s a small world as it turned out Jason is friends with Mike Smith, the son of Intuitive’s longtime CEO, Lonnie Smith.

Even better than finding the Honey Hub, was meeting two other cross-country cyclists, the dynamic duo of Bruce and Bob from Vashon Island near Seattle. Lifelong friends, they have been following the complete Northern Tier route starting near where we did in Boston at about the same time. The big difference is that they’ve covered 2,400 miles and we a mere 1,750. However, we have, until two days ago, ignored the published Adventure Cycling routes in favor of the most direct Google maps route. Most significantly, we didn't let a little thing like 82 miles across Lake Michigan get in our way.

Bob

Dex and Bruce

Both Bruce and Bob are artists, Bob, a landscape architect, and Bruce a commercial illustrator for companies and magazines such as GMC, National Geographic's etc. They have been capturing their travels in watercolor paintings, and it was fantastic to watch them work.

With few options in town for dinner, we returned to the trusty Tastee Freez. Our food intake seems to be getting a little out of hand. Together, our family ordered three corn dogs, four cheeseburgers, two sides of fries, jalapeño poppers, fried cauliflower, a grilled cheese, large chocolate shake, bottle of Powerade, and a root beer. Keep in mind, lunch was pretty similar.