A Nice Tail wind to Northfield July 24

Last night there was a huge electric storm. It started about 11:30 Pm and lasted until well after 1:00 Am. The lightning was flashing almost nonstop for the entire time. The thunder would follow almost immediately after the flash so it was close. The rain was just lashing the tent something fierce, but the tent kept me dry. It was fun watching the lightning through the tent window.

This morning the aftermath of the storm was a stiff wind out of the northwest. Fortunately for us we were headed southeast. The normal route that Cycle America rides is under construction so we were forced to take a much longer route. This put the days mileage at 100.3 miles. My take on the century rides is that they are 20 miles too long. However with the good tail wind we just flew down to picnic which was at the 50.3 mile mark. I think I rolled into picnic at around 9:30 Am so just over 2.5 hours to cover the first half of the ride.

Just before picnic we crossed the Minnesota river. On the west side of the river the land is totally flat. On the east side it is very rolling. So a person had the choose to ride as hard as you could down hill and then gear down on the way up the hill hoping not to shift out of your big ring in the front, or glide down the hill and grind up the next hill. The wind had died down and the temperature was comming up so I did some of each. If I thought I could make it with out getting into the granny gear then I would charge the down hill. If I could see it was going to turn into a grinder well then I just let it coast on the way down. The road had a lot more cracks and was very broken up on the east side of the river as well. This made the second half much longer.

\
At the 75 mile mark there was a huge gas station coner store. So I figured it was time to take a break. They had a sale on strawberry milk. Two, 16 oz. bottles for $2.00. Strawberry milk being my favorite I scouped up a couple of bottles, along with a glazed cininmon roll. The milk was ice cold and so delcious. I knew the milk would sustain me for the last push into Northfield.

Tomorrow being a rest day it was time to go out for supper. It was great not having to stand in line, sit on real chairs and order what you wanted. I had the half rack of back ribs. They were great. A lot of the riders wandered into the pub and a party broke out. After supper several of us wandered down the street and listened to a band in another pub for a while before heading off to find ice cream.
I feel so lucky that we have had great weather while riding. This week could have been hell riding across South Dakota. It could have been over a 100 everyday with head winds. Instead we had tail winds and low 80's.

Tomorrow is a rest day! Aaaaaaaaaaaah!

Terry