This past weekend my family joined my father, my stepmother, her kids and significant others, and my sister in a fun weekend camping, sightseeing, and biking along the Root River Trail in southeast Minnesota. Some people camped out at The Old Barn Resort a few miles out of Preston, MN, and some of us stayed at The Trail Head Inn inside Preston. Minus the cost of the hotel room (OMG!) and the fact that our bed sheets were covered in hair and semen stains (before we arrived, thank you very much), it was a good time to be had by all. My father cooked his famous meals over the campfire, we did some biking, poking around in Preston and Lanesboro and other towns, and generally unplugged a bit.
One of the big negatives was that Verizon appeared to be the only cellphone provider with any service up there, so my wife’s iWireless phone and my AT&T-powered iPhone were almost useless the entire time, making it incredibly hard to communicate between folks, so a lot of the time we did things by ourselves. But on the whole that wasn’t bad, either, as it gave us time to go our own paces.
One afternoon, after riding 9.5 miles with my wife and kiddo, while they took a nap I took off for more trail riding and ended up doing about 16.5 miles along the trail going from Preston to Harmony. I decided to take a video as I was riding to share with you the experience of it:
In short, a good weekend to unplug a bit and spend some time with family. If you have the inclination to bike and are ever in southeastern Minnesota, I highly recommend the trails; they are all paved, the small towns are pretty and cute and full of shops, the people are uber-friendly, and the lack of technology might frustrate you but it will definitely encourage you to do something else with your time.
