I'm just going to start this today. It was a long hot hilly ride with a small headwind. 11 hours, 97 miles, 99 degrees, and something like 3000 feet of climb (up and down and up and down) Only 8 of the 26 made the whole ride (i was one, so was karina) one other woman made it 87 miles, and another 72. The rest stopped at 60 or less. I'll add more tomorrow, a rest day. I'm tired and sleepy- relaxed and feeling good!

I continued my study in corn hybrid advertising today. We started at the Mississippi, climbed, and then rolled and climbed through farmland. I'm quite interested in the signs advertising the corn variety planted behind. Almost all example acres were incredibly healthy looking. I did notice one that looked all uneven and bad. I forget which. I didn't count, but I think I saw representatives from 6 to 8 different companies. The corn did look quite different from ...

A melancholy day in my head. Rather pretty along the Mississippi- but scary narrow highway with no shoulder at the start and end of the ride. Quite a bit of hills, which was nice. We crunched over mayflies on a bridge leaving la crosse... Back to Minnesota, and finally into Iowa. I got a pop and a smoked sausage just across the border, and drank the soda while I rode. I kept the smoked sausage in my pocket and nibbled on it all day. A bit of it remains on my m...