Friday morning was an early departure (6:00) from Ashland, WI because I'm still on Eastern time.  I thought brekky in Duluth, MN sounded good.  It was refreshingly cool riding beside Lk. Superior.  It's really a wild and beautiful corner of the country.  Much looks untouched and some of it hasn't been touched in a while...

There are no photos from Duluth, but an amazing thing happened.  I was ambling into the city when I happened to pass a pickup truck with an AJS in the back.  An AJS is a classic motorcycle...and it had a sidecar!  I waived positively at the couple in the truck, not noticing that they had Ontario plates.  Unknowingly, they followed me into the McDs as they saw my ADV sticker...and loaded down with luggage was I.  We got to chatting, they asked me if I was going to Aerostich...a famous clothing and farkels provider to the motorcycling community.  I had completely overlooked that as a possible stop.  I mean, what more could I need or buy??  (Note, never say that to a motorcyclist...apparently as I learned later, you should have as many bikes as shoes!).  They said they'd show me where it was, but I needed breakfast, so they proceeded there and I googled the address as I Skyped and such from McDs.  Then made my way over.

If you're going to use a GPS, look up every once in while.  I drove past the place twice, because I was busy trying to decipher what the GPS was telling me.

Anyway, there's the AJS owner, Dan Goertzen, standing outside...half expecting me.  I had a brief stop, chat, and glance around.  It's worth going back.  But, really, I don't need anything and I don't think I could fit anymore in the luggage.  I picked up a catalogue for a rainy day.  Then, Dan mentioned a rally of old bikes just south of Winnipeg and suggests I come by.  I thought, well, I don't have a plan, but I'm not sure.  I'd just attended the CVMG rally in Paris, ON just a few weeks ago.  In the end I just went for it.  I got into Niverville, MB about dinner time and had a great evening.  Read more below.

But, on the way, I went to see Paul Bunyan in Bemidji...it's almost July 4th!  It's party central.

And for lunch this day...deep-fried walleye "chunks"...

Then, riding north from there around Red Lake...an amazingly large lake in the middle of not very much, I happened upon a channel with bridge that drains the lake to the north...[note:  I crossed the Mississippi in Bemidji...Atlantic drainage and then this river I'm referring to, flowing north to the Red River system, I presume, Arctic drainage.  There was no marker, but I'm sure I'm right that the divide was somewhere in there].

What caught my eye was this big bird, a crane, a heron, something that dove under the bridge.

And what would you expect to see in the middle of MN standing along a river shore?  Yes!  Pelicans!?!  The lady fishing under the bridge said they're usually there in the hundreds.  Pelicans?  Aren't they in Florida?

So, I crossed into MB, as you have to do if you want to get back into Canada for Canada Day ;-).

My first civic duty, besides telling the truth to the nice, bilingual CBSA agent at Piney (no line-ups!!), was to pull over on the way to Steinbach to attend to a scene where a drunk had gone off the road.

I had the keys to her car at one point, but I couldn't honestly decide what I should do.  Someone else had already called the cops (RCMP in MB), but they hadn't arrived.  She took the keys back and took off...they would have caught her in the next 5 km, I expect.  What's my legal obligation in this case?

Then to Niverville and the Bison Rally...

The featured mark is Indian...

...and my favourite British bike, the BSA Lightning 650.

The site, the local arena/park was right beside an elevator and train track.  About 40 "wings" went by...

Yes, that's a grain elevator behind that wing.

In Manitoba, you take mosquito pest control seriously.  This is a bin (!) full of repellant devices and concoctions!

A toast to the bikes...

...and the campfire and goodnight.

Many thanks to Greg, Tim, Ross, Ross, etc. who made it a great event for me.  They fed me, gave me a campsite, and some doo-daws to remember the rally by.  Lots of fun and good stories!