The most beautiful day so far! I took tons of pictures- only some are posted here. I started the day with a tight chest- and the morning was emotional. I never figured out whether my body was reflecting some inner conflict working itself out- or whether j had an emotional day b/c my body was working into a new level of fitness...probably some of both. What I do know is that we teased Wisconsin again, but ended up in minnesota this evening. The farmland was pic...

Well, our first century!!! It was pretty much the easiest one I've ever done. We had nearly brand new pavement almost the whole time, a slight tailwind, lovely temperature, and it was flat for 75 miles, then rolling for 20 more, only the last 10 or so had some tough hills ( probably tough only because they were after 95 miles) The best part of the day was the WHOLE thing...riding with Ellen and Mary. They are great riding buddies :) we averaged 15.9 miles/HR o...

A short day today! I decided to rest- and so did my bike, two flat tires! But that is ok, easy to fix, and made me rest even more. The farmland seems to have changes from industrial large- scale to more family-sized...maybe even not the entire family income? Also, lots of chicken houses...with corn and hay grown to support. Very few towns along the way, and not much to the two or so! Little falls was bigger than I thought, though. One great thing about the d...

Whew! Minnesota has some blustery weather, cows that try to herd with passing packs of bicyclists, and just lovely farms, woods, and creeks. Our group started out in VERY strong winds. I was riding between packs at first- but quickly joined a group for drafting. Oh my! It made a huge difference. A great side effect was that I got to be pretty social today :). I started with one group, but at a rest stop made a split second decision to catch a slightly faster gr...

Day two- I'm chillin' in the americInn hotel in wadena. We rode about 60 miles today...a good thing because my behind and legs started the day kinda tired. Tomorrow is 81 miles!!! We passed otter tail lake today- lots of lovely summer homes and recreation. We also went by lots of farms - plenty of soy, corn, and wheat. We also saw some other cover crops, maybe some kind of beans? Near wadena was a chicken farm- and plenty of what I think were either fertilize...