College Tours and College Friends

With Jeff.

On Wednesday the winds had thankfully subsided. We rode into Red Wing, MN, where Dad did a lot of reminiscing of his college internship days in that cute little town. At Red Wing, we got on the Cannon Valley Trail, a paved path that took us 20 more miles into the town of Cannon Falls. At this point we left the Adventure Cycling route to carve our own path across South Dakota. Right as we neared the end of the trail, we saw another guy who looked like a bike tourist, complete with an American flag flying from a back pannier. We stopped and talked with him at the trailhead for a while. He was Jeff, the retired railroad conductor from California. He was also biking coast to coast, although he was going west to east. Turns out we had plans to stay at the same campground, so we got to continue chatting with him for quite a while. He was great company. We were happily surprised to see him right after we had left the ACA route.

That day we only did 58 miles. Its been getting more difficult to find places to stay that are evenly spaced out without our maps to guide us. We stayed at a bug infested campground right on one of the 10,000 lakes.

Thursday was an exciting day. Carter Muench, Dad's good friend from college, came down from the Twin Cities to ride with us for a while in the morning. He met us at the campground and rode with us into Northfield, whose motto reads "Cows, Colleges, and Contentment". He from then on played our tour guide to St. Olaf and Carleton Colleges, which were beautifully built. We had lunch and caught up with him, a great reunion after some 15 years.

With Carter.

With Dana.

Ooops, Derrick went to work. With Jamie and Alexis.

About 20 miles later, we met up with Dana Patenaude, another college friend, on a bike path into Mankato. This ride also included a stop for ice cream, as usual. Distractions make it a lot easier to ride. We did a total of 69 miles that day, stopping at Dad's brother Derrick and his wife Jamie's house. It was great to see them again and be allowed to sleep in their air conditioned house. We've hit a sudden wave of family and friends now that we're entering the midwest, which is great to help break up the monotony of the trip.

This morning we woke up to thunderstorms, again, at Derrick and Jamie's. Therefore we didn't get to leave until 11, still riding into a bad southwest wind and 80% humidity. I miss the desert.

Shelby's view all summer long.

We stopped at Minnesota State University, Mankato on the way out of town. Turns out it was orientation day at the college, so we stopped at the student union building for lunch since it was open and bustling with students. Although the plan was to get to Redwood Falls by this evening, the wind and humidity slowed us down considerably and zapped a lot of energy. So now, we've only gone 54 miles and are in Sleepy Eye, MN, in a hotel. We plan to be in White to visit Aunt Mary within the next couple of days.

Today is officially our halfway point, and we are still a little bit ahead of schedule.

Roadkill Report: Deer, Raccoon, Bird, Cat, Bird, Bird, Bird

MSU