Left Minneapolis this morning definitely feeling the effects of the previous evening's excesses. Still, there's nothing better than a ride in the brisk, fresh air to clear the cobwebs. Even so, I was feeling fortunate that the ride I had scheduled was only about 100 miles. Took a pretty fair chunk of time, as it was, as I had put together a route on lots of rural back roads with 40 mph speed limits. Bike started and, with the exception of that annoying stumble at 3200 rpm in first gear, ran fine once again. Also, once again, I got app. 15% better gas mileage than I had been getting before the ignition problems in Fargo. In contrast to what I've been experiencing the last couple of weeks, the temperature today reached a balmy 61 degrees in Red Wing, MN where I stopped for lunch. I didn't notice when I parked the bike that I had done so in front of a photography studio. Good thing I wasn't in any hurry today as, when I returned from lunch, the photographer was waiting for me with his camera. Took awhile to get the shots he wanted as the angle he was looking for positioned him in the middle of US-61 which was pretty busy with lunch time traffic. Another 40 or so miles from Red Wing took me to Alma, WI on the other side of the mighty Mississippi. Really quaint and quiet little town with loads of charm. Unfortunately, the reason I was stopping in Alma, to visit the bar at the Burlington Inn, would not be possible as I was informed that it had shut down about a year ago. I was also unable to find a motel with internet access in Alma but I was told that the motel in Fountain City, about 15 miles south, had WiFi. It didn't. The proprietress did not know of any place in town that did. But, the clouds were getting darker so I took a room. I had resigned myself to not being able to post tonight but, as luck would have it, the Irish pub/restaurant where I stopped for dinner had internet access. It's not raining now but it did earlier and the forcast is for more tonight and tomorrow morning. I head for Boone, IA tomorrow where there is steam driven train on which one can take passenger rides. Boone also has an electric trolley that runs on weekends so I'm looking forward to spending a little time there. Especially if the temperature gets up to 80 as predicted. Talk to you later.