Day 30—July 18, 2006—Worthington, MN to
Mankato, MN—102 miles—1030’ climb
What a
beautiful day! We started in cool
(almost chilly) temps after breakfast at the Country Kitchen, though several
eager beavers ate breakfast in their rooms and left immediately after luggage
load . . . spurred by thoughts of heat and wind. But, really, the day brought
neither in any quantities that we couldn’t handle.
We started
the ride with 30 miles on Rt 60E and ended it with another 22 miles on Rt. 60E,
before getting off at Frontage Road in Mankato and following Riverfront Drive
to the hotel. The rest of the day was
spend on very quiet farm to market roads through vast fields of soybeans and
corn. Chris was riding with me and remarked that the scenery varied from
cornfields on both sides of the road to soybeans on one side and corn on the
other to soybeans on both sides of the road. These fields run for miles, and
each has a farmhouse and outbuildings sitting in its center protected by tall
tree windbreaks. These islands are all that break up the monotony of a sea of
green soybeans and/or corn.
After the
first SS, which Jim set up at McDonald’s in Windom, a good group of riders sailed past a right turn. A
couple in the back looked at their route sheets, but all followed the lead
rider, who obviously hadn’t looked at his. Chris and I know this because we,
too, missed the turn. We’d discovered our error and were sitting at the
intersection with our turn signal on when the riders sailed past.
After
Madelia it was a pretty straight shot on Hwy 60 to Mankato. I stopped once at a little fruit farm called Welch
Heritage Farms, expecting a juicy apple or something good, but found a young
boy and a nearly empty salesroom. There were several delicious looking pies,
but I knew I could not carry those on my bike. Wanting something cold, I bought
a half gallon of cold apple cider, drank half of it and put the other in my
water bottles. This was just the tonic I needed to get me to the hotel.
All arrived
safely at the hotel by 3:30 and immediately dispersed to the pool or a nearby
restaurant. Congratulations to Cathy
who rode her first century today. Tomorrow she’ll get to repeat her feat as we
cover the 100 miles to Rochester ,
MN . See you then.
OVERHEARD ON
THE ROAD TODAY:
- “We limit ourselves to two Dairy Queens per day.”
- “Whew! For a minute there, I thought I was going to get the chance to build another tarbaby in the motel parking lot.” [Many of the cyclists were barred from the motel until they had cleaned their bicycles of road tar, the motel even gave out worn sheets on which to clean the bikes so that the parking lot would not be tar covered either.]
SHOW & TELL: A man stopped his car at the intersection of CR 1 and asked what we
were doing. When he started out again, he opened his car door and out popped
his black dog, which took off like a bullet running in the fields alongside the
slow moving car for a half mile or so. Guess this was how he exercised his dog.
We were passed by a mother and her two daughters with balloons and rubber ducks
on their helmets. They were riding their triple to RAGBRAI.
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