What a woman!  Friday’s I normally get off work at 5:30 and get home around 6:45. This Friday I had to stay late and arrived home at 7:15. Deb had already pulled the rig out of the barn, backed it up to the house, and loaded it with supplies so we could get in one more camping trip in 2017.  At 7:30 we headed south to Preston, MN.  In the dark Siri guided us on a route we had not taken before.  She too did a good job.  We landed in a campsite at the Fillmore county campground in Preston, MN. By 10:00 we were all plugged in with the stabilizers down, had paid $20 to a drop box, and in bed by 10:00.

It had been four years since we last camped in Preston.  I remember it as being infested with small biting insects.  We didn’t stay long on that outing. We camped overnight and left the next day.

Preston is located on the Root River and connects with the Root River Bike Trail. The Root River Trail is about 60 miles in length.  Deb and I have biked different portions of it many times over the years.

The weather forecast for Saturday and Sunday is sunny and in the 70’s.  The metro and northern MN was forecasted to have rain on Sunday. That is what prompted our southern get away.

It was cold waking up. The inside temperature was 40 degrees.  That’s good, I can leave my coffee creamer out and not worry about it going bad.

Saturday we rode bike to Lanesboro, MN (23 miles) total.  In Lanesboro we found a camp ground next to a dam and relocated to that site later in the day. Sunday we rode (20) miles and felt satisfied with our weekend outing and returned home late afternoon.

My friend Earl turned me onto an app called maps.me. If you do not have cell service and need a map, this is the app for you. https://www.maps.me/download/ The Root River trail for the most part is in a valley dotted with small towns. Cell service is spotty. I wasn’t lost by any means, heck the trail either went one way to a town, or the other way to a town. To test the maps.me app I opened it and sure enough it located me right next to Raaen Creak. The map showed the bike trail, creek crossing, roads, and the whole dang state if you zoomed out. It must somehow use the phone GPS. There was “No Service” yet I had my location on a MN state map. Fantastic.