Cycling in Winnesota.

As some people may already know I recently rode my bike from Superior to Stevens Point for a Special Olympics benefit. I started out in Superior at about 6:20 in the am with a slight tailwind on a chilly 50 degree morning. Me and my pops averaged 20.4 up until trego, we rode along the interstate with a squad car behind us, where we picked up some other riders. From Trego to Spooner we averaged about 8 miles an hour with the non-bikers and after fueling up our bodies at Kwik Tripp headed off for the remaing 80 some miles of our trip. The expansion cracks in the road on the way to Rice Lake were enough to drive us mad. We made a few pit stops along the way but it was a pretty uneventful day. I put a gash in the face of my front tire about 20 miles outside of Eau Claire and changed it in under 2 min. by hand including pumping it up. When we got into EC after about 8 hours of ride time we were tanked. The worse thing was the sunburn. We both felt fine until about twenty minutes after we were off the bikes when we started to turn into lobsters. Atleast our skin color matched our paint jobs well. 8 hours in the saddle couldn't have gone smooother.

After a good nights rest in Elmers campground me my dad and a straggler we managed to meet up with that morning, Jeff Lorenze, took off at about 6:20 for point. I had a hard time getting back into a groove on the bike and it took me an honest 2 hours to feel better. We took backroads the whole way and along the route about 25 miles out we stopped at Grunewald's general store and my dad begged a cup of coffee, made in his own kitchen, off of old Grunewald. We bought a box of oatmeal squares that probably had sat there for a whole year for a dollar and ate all six of them in one sitting. After that we were off again until we stopped for lunch in Amish country at a kwik tripp in greenwood with no less than three hitching posts, each with its own horse and buggy. We didn't see any Amish riding bikes though incase chad and chase are wondering. The tempo was really easy for the whole rest of the ride and we continually slowed down, Jeff hadyet to pop his century cherry. I even sprinted a few times out of boredom. My butt hurt worse than anything and my sunburn had only worsened. My left leg had swelled up where it burned to about an extra 1/2 inch in diameter and it hurt like a mother!