July 17th Monday day 21 Grafton to Thief River Falls

The day started out great with cooler weather, lower humidity and a clear sky. 

Rod and I left Grafton about 8:30 and went down two or three straight county roads that got us to the bridge going into Oslo, Minnesota.  We got there about 10:00 and hooked up with four great guys from Arctic Cat along with the new president of the All Terrain Vehicle Association of Minnesota  ATVAM.  Phil Morud lead all of us down numerous legal county roads and about 1.5 hours later we were at the front door of Arctic Cat Inc.

Phil, Mike and Kale gave us a tour of the plant and while we were drooling over new machines coming off the assembly line, the service department changed my oil, front and rear differential grease, checked alignment on the front end and set me up with some new tires.  It was a very interesting and impressive tour.  The coolest thing was listening to the snowmobiles running around the secluded test track at about 100mph.  They run them 8 hours a day on asphalt for quality and endurance testing.  It actually sounded like time trails at the Indy 500.

Earlier in the day after crossing the border at Oslo, I could tell I had reached Minnesota.  The first three mail boxes I saw had the name Knutson on them.  Arnie Knutson was first, Mert Knutson was down the road a bit and The Knutsons were a few miles further.  And there were no more Budweiser light cans discarded in ditches.  The few cans that I did see (which I’m sure fell out of a car by accident), were Hamms, Schmidt and Grain Belt-----beers that are real beer, not some down stream stuff.  And of course, every other driveway had a Lund ready to head out at the end of the work day or for the weekend.

Once again something came along that reminded me of my childhood and the wonderful fishing trips I had with my family on Bass Lake in Cohasset, Minnesota.  I was fishing with my Dad and a guy named Charlie and I remember the exact moment and place on the lake when my dad winked at Charlie and said, “Jim would you like some beer?”  I think I was about 13 or 14.  It was a can of Grain Belt, the old bronze-gold cans with the grain across the front of the can and I’ll never forget it said “strong” on the can.  In that instant, my dad was the coolest of all dads in the world and I became one of the fishing guys from that day forward.  The only stipulation was that I could never tell my mom about it. 

I haven’t caught the scent of walleye in the air yet as there aren’t many lakes in this part of Minnesota.  But I know I’m getting closer to them when I look at the map.  I’m thinking Bemidji or Cass Lake might be a good place to get my fishing license and spend a few hours on a dock.  I’m looking forward to getting around Bemidji so I can hook up with the old Soo Rail Line heading to Moose Lake.  It will be nice to have one day that I don’t have to make any corner decisions. 

I Can’t think of anything else that happened today, it’s 11:30, Rod is snoring and I need to shuffle off for the night.  I think I’ll dream of hundreds of new snowmobiles and atvs coming off the assembly line. 
 
 

Click Here Photos from Today!!!