One week later

Could a week already have passed since ending the latest tour? Hard to believe. Barbie asked me "How do we get back to the real world?" after ending her latest bike adventure. We just take it a step at a time and treasure the special moments that we shared on the road or experienced alone. I know that she and our fellow riders from 2009 have done that over the past year. I hope that this group of riders will do so as well. I hope that our friends and loved ones can understand our feelings and passion for what we do. As always after these trips, I thank my wife Robin for allowing me to follow my passion and putting up with me when I get home. So after I finish this chapter of the blog, I had better get busy in the real world and accomplish some things on the honey-do list.

Some retrospective:

Who were we?

Fourteen men, six women. Economist (2), lawyer (3), doctor (2), nurse practitioner, journalist, college professor, student, taxidermist (one rider heard tax attorney instead of taxidermist), program director, police lieutenant, company executive, software engineer transitioning to teacher, barber, air traffic controller, CPA, financial advisor. Many of us are retired or will be soon. All of us are avid cyclists who enjoy the fellowship of being on the road.

Favorite part of the ride:

The last few days with high bluffs over the Mississippi River.

Least favorite part of the ride:

Humid days which was most of them. Being dripping wet within a few miles is not my cup of tea. I could ride for hours here in Colorado and not have visible perspiration on my jersey. Buffet dinners. Most of the food looked awful so I limited my selections. I choose wrongly a couple of times and could not eat those choices beyond a single bite. Someone must like these buffets, though, as there were many overweight people in these restaurants. Actually, I mean everyone there except the cyclists.

Body changes:

I lost 7 pounds and continue to lose weight. It seems that the metabolism is still burning high. I hope to keep the weight off.

Would I live anywhere on the route?

No. I firmly believe that there is no better place than Colorado. It does get cold in the winter but there are nice days mixed in to be able to ride. I was able to ride outside at least one day each week since the first of January. The scenery here is spectacular. The wide open prairie affords the views. Many places on the Mississippi River ride are hemmed in by trees and long-range views cannot be seen. From my house, I can see flat-topped mesas 30 miles away. The quality of Denver's bike trail system is superior to what I saw along the route.

My roommate:

John Hicks and I have known each other since 2005 when we cycled across America with Crossroads Cycling Adventures (http://www.crossroadscycling.com/). We did another trip with ABB in 2007 from Portland to Newport Beach. We have kept in contact with each other since 2007 and each made the commitment to do the Mississippi ride. John has extensive cycling experience and has cycled in 42 countries if memory serves me correctly. He is a much stronger cyclist than I am but we rode together for most of this ride. As John told others, we have known each other for five years, but this is the first time that we rode together. (I remember sticking together for an entire day from Seaside to Tillamook OR and a good portion of another day into Gold Beach Oregon.) I very much enjoyed his company on and off the bike. He is full of stories and kept me light-hearted and entertained. Hopefully, I did the same for him. I have asked John to provide his perspective of this ride and will post it to this blog. Many of the followers were his friends and family. Thank you for reading about some of our adventures and misadventures together. I hope to meet you someday.

Future plans:

A day at a time. I have already been on the bike 4 times since returning home. I rode with Larry this morning and we had a good chat. Robin and I are traveling to Oregon next week and will start confirming a route that friends and I will take this fall from Astoria to Carmel. I am bringing the bike and will ride some of the route. Perhaps a visit to Europe next year. If not, then New Zealand in early 2012. Maybe both. Whatever happens, I will continue to cycle.

Miscellaneous:

I wrote earlier in this blog about one of the other riders who has taken over 100 cycling trips abroad. For some of my fellow cycling nuts, here is the link to several of his trips over the past few years. It will take you a few weeks to read about a few of his exploits. May we all be a fraction as adventurous as Jerry has been.

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/directory/?o=RrzKj&user=TouringbyBike&v=Eq


Cheers,

Tom

Ride finished

We had the final banquet on Thursday night. We shuttled to dinner in downtown Red Wing. We had a choice of several menu items. I got lasagna for the umpteenth time on this trip. Once again I could not finish it, partly due to average taste, partly due to being full. If it was good lasagna I would have eaten all of it. We received the traditional finishing certificate and had a chance to say a few words. I thought that the staff was terrific, particularly the trip leaders Jeff and Sondra. They met cycling in the Twin Cities area and got married on a cross-country bike trip. Their honeymoon cruise was a boat trip across Lake Michigan! Debbie, a current member of this trip, was on that 2007 trip. Jeff is off to staff another ride leaving in about 2 weeks while Sondra holds down the fort here in the Twin Cities. Gerard, our mechanic, and Pam will staff another cross country trip leaving next week from San Francisco.

I woke at various times during the night hearing rain outside the motel. A look out the window at 6 revealed a clearing sky. The road was wet at departure and I think that my bike accumulated more dirt and grime in a single day today than it had during the previous 22 days of riding. Although the sky looked as if it could open up on a couple of occasions, the day stayed rain free. So we had about 10 minutes of very light drizzle during 23 days of riding. Pretty amazing considering that a check of all the major cities showed an average of 4.5 to 5 inches of rain in May.

Most of us took it easy today. I think that is pretty typical for the last day of riding. You want it to end and you do not want it to end. One of our riders, John W., stayed in Red Wing today. He is going to continue his ride to Lake Itasca in N. Minnesota over the next week as a self-supported rider. Nathan left early and was planning to meet his wife and then drive immediately to Madison, WI. John, Fred, and I smelled some good burgers about 4 miles from the finish and stopped for lunch. They had a beer, but I abstained until later tonight. I did see an interesting painting on the road at mile 11 and took a picture (displayed, although the arrow is in the wrong direction). We left Red Wing and re-entered Wisconsin for about 22 more miles. It gave me a chance at a second sna (sorry, my key for the letter after o just quit working; sell check cannot correct all of them).

The last few miles were on bike trails. We had to really ay attention. Sondra laid down markers for us to follow.

I enjoyed the ride especially the last few days as the juxtaposition of bluffs and the river was stunning. I really enjoy the friendships made on the ride and renewing a friendship with John Hicks. He said that this may be his last US ride so I will have to get over to Northern Ireland to visit.

John, Jordan, Rosy, Kathleen and I will be going out for a real dinner tonight.

What are my lnext ride ans? Several riders from previous CR XC rides and I will be doing a ride from Astoria to Carmel in September. I am the ride leader and will be doing as much driving as riding. I have done this twice before. I consider it to be the preeminent ride in the US for scenery and we are all excited about it. Stay tuned in September for more blogging.

Thanks for following along with me for another chater in "Life in the slow lane."

Day's statistics: 60.3 miles, 14.3 average, 2540 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: Finishing another ride.

Do not pre-judge

Yes, I spent most of the day on state highways but the situation was much better than yesterday. The only difficult part was the last 3 miles when we turned left to go to the bridge over the Mississippi River and the crossing into Minnesota, the final state of this trip.

Everything was better about the highway today. Less traffic, more room on the shoulder, and a better road surface. It does not pay to be negative in advance. You would think after a lifetime of experience I would have remembered that life lesson.

Today's ride was 101.6 miles. I felt great until 88 miles, then had a minor energy crash. I stopped for a bathroom break, had a gel, drank half a bottle of Gatorade and Electro Endurance mix and felt better. We had a 2 mile or so hill climb immediately after and after failing to keep up with another rider, I decided to soft pedal it to the top and conserve some energy. I had a V-8 juice after the descent and then felt good for the rest of the day.

The luggage was not here when we arrived so four of us found a wonderful cafe 2 blocks from tonight's lodging. I had a fabulous black bean burrito which surpassed a Chipotle burrito. I bought a dessert for the room and immediately devoured it when arriving back at the motel. I keep telling myself to start cutting back on the caloric intake but after a 102 mile day, it is impossible to restrain oneself!

It may finally rain on our parade tomorrow as thunderstorms and rain are forecast for the morning. But I will wait to see what happens and not worry about it. It will be our last day of riding.

We have the final group dinner tonight and we get to recount our thoughts about the ride. More on that tomorrow.

Day's stats: 101.6 miles; 16.4 mph; 2050 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: Being surprised by the road today; lunch; speaking in advance for the wonderful feelings of the final banquet tonight.

Nicknames

I have been wanting to write about the various nicknames for the Mississippi River for some time and time is running short for this blog. So here are some of them: The Father of Waters, the Gathering of Waters, the Lazy River, the Big Muddy, the Big River, Old Man River, Body of a Nation, and the Mighty Mississippi.

Today's ride was mostly along the river. We saw two locks and dams today. The river widens quite a bit above the dams. It looked to be at least 2 miles across. I wondered whether the dam caused the river to back up and flood the surrounding area. After some consideration, I decided that the dam is built in these spots because the narrowing of the river forced a lot of water through a narrow area and created rapids that made the river unnavigable. The river here is much calmer than on the Lower Mississippi. There are not as many large rivers feeding the big river in the north.

Today's ride was unremarkable. There was plenty to see, just not enough safe moments to gaze around while riding. We were on a highway for 50 of the 66 miles. The road had a narrow shoulder for most of it and lots of truck traffic. We were honked at many times today. Tomorrow is more of the same with 94 of 101 miles on a major highway. These two days will rank in my least favorite days for bicycle touring.

Today's stats: 66 miles; 15.2 mph; 1041 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: I had a margarita and beer on the hotel deck overlooking a tributary river to the Mississippi. I do not ordinarily have alcohol on ride nights but wanted to have it to soothe my thoughts about today's ride.

A new pill

I had to take a dose of courage just 1.9 miles from the hotel today. I knew the cue sheet said steep descent in bold, capital letters and indeed it was. I tightened up the brakes before leaving and it held me in good stead. I asked Kathleen at the bottom how it compared with the one I skipped yesterday. She thought it was steeper. As Sondra drove the van by a few miles later, I shouted out "I did it!" She heard me and congratulated me at the first SAG.

My friend Ty says that scenic is a Gaelic word for hilly. Today was a scenic day. We had over 4,000 feet climbing during the day. In the first 5 miles, we had done 550 feet of climbing over 4 or 5 rollers. John said he would have walked one of them if other riders had not been behind him to witness it. Funny thing how pride can serve as a motivator. Pixie threw her chain on the hill and had to walk up the rest of it as restarting was out of the question. I am thankful that I have a triple chainring. It makes me appear to be a stronger climber than others but I know that is not the case.

I was flying down some of the hills today. My maximum speed was 38 today, the highest of the trip. I can only do that on an empty road with good pavement. We did have a 2.5 mile downhill after the first SAG that was on an awful road. There was a big perpendicular crack every 10 yards of the 7 miles we were on the road. No shoulder with lots of traffic. Caution was in order on this section.

We are in Prairie du Chien tonight. It is near the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers and is said to be the second oldest town in Wisconsin. The first European settlers, Marquette and Joliet, reached here in 1673. It became a passage point between French Canada and the Mississippi River. The town is on a flat prairie between the surrounding hills and takes it name from an Indian chief named Dog. Dog translates to chien in French. The town became a focal point for the fur trade and remained so through the middle 19th century. 3M and Cabelas are the largest private employers in the area today.

Day's statistics: 71.8 miles; 15.4 mph; 4071 feet climbing.

Highlight of the day: Making it down the first big descent without being too scared. Maybe I can just do this. Feeling more confident on downhills the rest of the day.

Pictures: Jordan and Rosy, two great people from Alaska. I ride with or near them much of the day during this trip. I have told Jordan that I know two people named Jordan and they are both great cyclists. Me at the Wisconsin state line.