Le Tour

Day 35: East Grand Forks to Bemedji, MN--115 miles

No, that's not a mistake. We really did a LONG day today--115 miles total. This is actually like a day they would have on the Tour de France in length--but they would be doing it MUCH faster! They also would have no extra body fat or any weight on their bikes, so I figure Lance Armstrong would be proud of us anyway...

After fixing the 9th flat tire of the trip (not including the brain fart flat)--that's 7 for me and 2 for David--we headed out at about 8:00 a.m. We had decided that if the wind was at our backs we'd just go until we got tired.

As bad as yesterday was--today was that good! We had WNW winds at about 15 mph, a few clouds, and 78-degree weather--perfect! It was a fantastic change from yesterday's depressing ride.

We set our sights for Bagley--about 90 miles away, but thought of two other closer towns just in case we got too tired. Off we went! The roads in MN are fantastic for cycling--big, wide shoulders and 2 lanes each way allows us to chat and feel comfortable without constantly checking those rear view mirrors.

MN is more populated than the previous two states, and we have moved out of ranch country into farm country. The farms are smaller here and the towns are closer together. This meant more services were available and I got to use more bathrooms and pee less in the grass. Yahoo!

By lunchtime, we had already gone about 60 miles and were pretty sure we wanted to coninue to Bagley. We had heard they had some hotels and restaurants. But when we got there, it was much smaller than we expected and we went past the only hotel to the opposite side of town to ask directions. We had already been 91 miles, and when we checked about services we found that the hotel was almost a mile BEHIND us. Now, you know I hate to go BACKWARDS on this trip--what a waste of energy! So we decided that instead of backtracking 1 mile we would just go for Bemidji which was 25 more miles away!

I know the logic seems a bit crazy, but we were feeling pretty good and it was only 3:15 in the afternoon. We figured we'd get in by 5:00 if everything went well (what are the odds of 3 more flats after yesterday???). And if we could make Bemidji today, we can get to Grand Rapids to see our friend Jenny B. by tomorrow--a day early!

So we went for it--and hit the 100-mile mark (a bicycle century) in only 6 hours of riding. That's a great pace and I don't think I've done a century that fast on a bare bike. Of course, conditions were optimum for great performance and I really felt like a Tour cyclist for part of the time. We finished the 115 miles in less than 7 hours and even had a little energy to spare! It was a great day of riding, and if any of you ever cycle a century, I hope you have conditions like we had today.

We saw some fun stuff on the road today. At one point there was this crazy parade of flashing lights and we saw three semis carrying the parts to a wind power generator (the kind with 3 HUGE blades). Well, those blades look REALLY huge when they're traveling along the roadway. It was crazy and all happened so fast that David didn't get a chance to get his camera out.

And speaking of cameras, we really want to be able to share our pictures, but are still having lots of trouble finding computers that will allow us to download them. David and I were talking today about the number computer hackers have done on computer security. It seems hackers are the terrorists of computers, and have had a similar impact to libraries and hotel computers that the terrorists had on our air travel. People are so afraid they will not let you download anything--and it's a shame. But maybe when we visit with Jenny B. we'll be able to post some fun pics for you all to see!

All in all--a great day in Minnesota! We had a fine dinner at the Peppercorn restaurant and are enjoying the Best Western hotel with the pool and hot tub for our tired muscles!