Scenic Bypass

One of these vehicles drastically reduced the amount of time it takes
to cross the nation and revolutionized inter-state travel with it's capacity
for previously unimaginable speed.  The other is a train.

On a fine spring day earlier this year, the weather was tolerably warm, the sun was shining, and so far as I could tell, there weren't any road closures to prevent me from taking a ride along the Minnesota River Valley Scenic Byway.

So I rolled Triumph out of the garage and got moving.

One of the nice things about living on the Middle Coast is that it never takes more than about twenty minutes to get into the middle of nowhere. It's fantastic feeling like I have the road entirely to myself, and I couldn't have been more than ten miles outside of town before traffic disappeared.

That's not to say that there weren't other people out. A lot of other bikes passed by, along with a handful of cars. But most of the time I felt like I was on my own.

While there weren't many sections of road that I would call twisty, the road was pleasantly curvy and, of course, full of interesting things to see and explore. I'm sure it would be possible to make a day of the ride, stopping in the small towns along the way for coffee, ice cream and other essentials.

I should probably revisit this spot in the fall, when the leaves change.

Despite how it looks in these photos, I didn't really ride any distance on gravel roads, except to park and take photos. It struck me how many gravel roads there were, just waiting to be explored, however. I'll have to go back and check them out, eventually. Though, between you and me, Triumph doesn't particularly like loose gravel.

"I could tear this road up if I wanted to. I just don't want to."
"I know, Triumph."