Rita's Bicycling Blogs

Thursday, May 26, 2011

2011-05-24 Milaca to Stillwater, MN 110 miles

Today was the big day! We were scheduled to ride 106 miles today. At some point, Jeanette and I misread the cue sheet, and ended up adding 4 more miles. The good news is that we ended up joining the route at a different point anyway, so we did not have to back track on such a long day.

The route was very beautiful, and the unforeseen hills the last 20 miles added a little extra spice to our ride that day. Stillwater, although very picturesque, is VERY hilly as we found!

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

2011-05-25 Stillwater Rest Day 0 miles

After our 110 mile ride yesterday, we were all ready for our rest day. It is our chance to do laundry, clean our bikes, and reorganize our luggage. Living out of a suitcase gets some getting used to!

The thing I was looking forward to was that Dave came down for the day! It was good to see him again. Jeanette, Lea and Sara went with us to town. We went to the cemetery where Jeanette's special Grandma Moris was buried. Then it was off to the Bikery to drop her bike off for some repairs that Ben could not do in the parking lot. After lunch, and ice cream cones, we walked around Stillwater. After picking up Jeanette's bike, we dropped everyone off at the hotel, and Dave and I headed for Rosedale to pick up some things from National Camera and REI.

I guess you can see why this blog is behind schedule!

Anyway, here are the photos from the day:

Then Sara, Lea, Jeanette, Dave and I took the car and spent the day around Stillwater. First stop was for Jeanette so she could visit her Grandmother Anna's grave. It was nice for the rest of us to walk around looking at the gravestones in this small cemetery. On a bike ride such as this, there is a lot of time for reflection as we ride from town to town, and this was another opportunity for us all to appreciate being alive and able to do a cross country bicycle ride.