I have the most excellent duty of being the guest blogger today. I don't think I could come up with a better day of biking if I tried (perhaps with the exception of adding Dave back into the mix). We woke early - 4:30 to tear down tents, eat Julie's excellent rendition of egg McMuffins (sorry Ronald - you've got nothing on these), prep bikes and tires, pack Pearl and perform other "necessary" duties before the start of a day of biking. The weather was perfect - a little cool to start, no wind and warmed up to be mid-80s with a south wind. Navigation involved a total of two turns. We bikes on a beautiful stretch of road, sprinkled with little towns and much to Jerry's enjoyment - water towers, which had been missing for the majority of the ride. We took "whistle" stops about every 5-7 miles to get off the bike for a minute, talk and rearrange the order of riders. Zack (my son) stopped to say hi on his return trip to the cities - it's great to have kids who will put up driving a father 6 hours each way to bike with his dad and friends (thanks Zack). Julie picked up Dave at the hospital and met us for lunch with a tasty lunch. We stopped in De Smet to search for any sign of Roe's father's farm implement store from the dust bowl era. We couldn't find anything, but stumbled across a DQ so ice cream was the obvious choice. We're now at a beautiful campground in Volga, just west of Brookings. Greg Story arrived as did Tim Torgerson so we'll have a great bunch tomorrow as the Coasters hit home turf. I'm trying to figure out excuses or diseases that I could contract that would let me squeeze another week with these guys, but I guess three more days will have to do. A huge thanks to Julie who is treating us like royalty - it's like flying first class, only better.
Erik Schindler
Erik,
ReplyDeleteGlad you made it through the first day! Bummer about Dave. ENJOY the great weather.
Mickey
Hello Coasters,
ReplyDeleteI feel I know all of you! Actually, I'm a riding friend of Rod Sershen, who grew up in Austin, some of you were his cycling mentor. We live in coastal North Carolina where the wind never stops... Like most of you, I'm a very active senior biker-kid, been at it for 30+ years. Did the 1999 Big Ride Across the USA with my older daughter... including: Miller, Pierre, DeSmet, Billings, New Ulm, etc... the New Ulm visit was during a German Festival, good thing the next day was a rest day... Thank you for the super web site, blog and Garmin Connect; it's great watching and reading about your trek! Best Regards, Ed Taylor
It's exciting that you have made it to Minnesota. Hope the rest of the journey is all good news and great times. Looking forward to seeing you. Love, Nancy
ReplyDeleteGlad to see so many friends joining the riders in Minnesota. That has to be a nice new burst of energy for everyone. Dave, I hope you are recovering well. All this talk of ice cream has me thinking of DQ... I wish I could provide some spare calories to you maniacs. Best wishes and welcome back to MINNESOTA! I hope to see you all one of the days you are here.
ReplyDeleteErik,
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear you are able to spend some time riding with your Pop. It sounds like the trip has been a great time so far. Nice to see the gang helping to keep the DQ system in business. Can't believe they didn't stop at mine, maybe Arizona was a little out the way! :)
Chad Scott
I just want to give a big shout out to Erik for putting together "The Bible". He compiled all the detailed routes, turn by turn, as well as maps, and "who knows what else" into a HUGE loose leaf notebook. I know the guys really appreciate all his hard work; and I just wanted to give him a public THANK YOU. So glad you have been able to ride a few days with them. Enjoy MN with all the new blood joining you.
ReplyDelete