Century Ride

Minnesota bills itself as the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I seriously doubt anyone took the time to count them all, but based on what I saw yesterday, they exaggerated by at least one. About 40 miles north of Winona, you come to the city of Lake City. It seems that the Mississippi River naturally widens in this spot and the locals refer to this as Lake Pepin. A lake is defined as a “considerable inland body of standing water”. While it is considerable and inland, it is definitely not standing. All the semantics aside, Lake City and Lake Pepin also claim to be the birthplace of water skiing. Best I can figure, it happened something like this:

One typical May morning, Ollie Bjorn Svennson was cross country skiing into town to get some pickled herring. Because the snow and the frozen river looked very similar in the gray, he misjudged by a little and skied onto the river. It was at that moment that the river thawed and poor Ollie went in, skis still on. Gunther Bjorn Johansson saw him go in, grabbed his boat and a rope and while cutting through the thawing ice, pulled Ollie to safety and inventing the sport of water skiing at the same time. Nothing else comes close to making sense.

Yesterday was the first day since June 5th that I rode unsupported and unaccompanied. The first week after I got back from Germany, I had the rental car to make up time and cover a few states that I had planned on visiting pre-Europe. Then, after meeting up with Dan in Springfield, we rode together for the next 5 days, including some unexpected “sagging” from his son after the credit card debacle.

After bidding farewell to Dan in Winona yesterday morning, I set out with hopes of getting all the way to the Twin Cities. The ride went as well as I could have wanted. There were three well-timed stops. The first was at 32 miles in Wabasha for a nice “second breakfast”. The hotel breakfast lacked for any form of protein, so a nice plate of pancakes, eggs, and sausage refilled the tank. The second was in Red Wing at mile 65 for a drink, and the last was just past Hastings at mile 89 for more liquid. The total for the day was just over 106 miles. I haven’t done that many century rides in my life, but if ever there was a day to do one, yesterday was it. The road was basically flat along the river all the way until the last 3 miles. There was a good shoulder the entire way and there was a slight tailwind and just enough places to stop for food and beverages. I know a lot of people feel like they would have a hard time riding to the end of their street and back, but if you can ride a bike at all and you weren’t in a hurry to get anywhere, you could have made that ride yesterday. The hardest thing about this journey isn’t riding up big hills or doing a lot of miles, it’s simply doing it again and again (and having a sore butt from time to time). That part of it has been made much easier by all the friends and family I have seen for the past 3 months.

I’m taking a couple days here in the Twin Cities as this is the last city of any size, probably until Reno, Nevada in about 6 weeks. I’m enjoying a Twins game as I write this, then am heading to dinner with Courtney Hutton (Joe and Donna’s daughter) and her husband, Will Pospick. Tomorrow, I’m meeting Will Sutton, an old high school friend from Pittsford and spending the day with him. Tuesday will be a lazy day with Will and then I start heading west.

Who knew the heart of this 2,340 mile river was a podunk little town of 111 people? It wouldn’t have made my top 10 guesses.

We could have used this warning on Friday before Dan’s accident

Wouldn’t have made my top 10 guesses for this either.

The Great River Road - Minnesota style and a glimpse of “Lake” Pepin

World HQ of your favorite (?) work boot maker. There are at least two factories in town as well. Starting pay is $22+ per hour.

My final bridge crossing over the Mississippi River, just south of Saint Paul. Final tally was 4x on a bike and 2x in a car, not including the 2x in the car to go back and get my credit card in Moline.

Really?!?

This is the ENTIRE breakfast at the hotel. The coffee machine is broken and the juice machine wasn’t plugged in. That’s it. Period. There is no more. The bonus is there’s nothing near the hotel either, so walking to get some food is a no-go.

Beautiful day at the park, unless you’re a Twins fan. They trail 10-0 going to the 8th inning and they have pounded out a total of 1 hit so far.