On the Road... with Phil
July 21, 2007 New Ulm, Minnesota – Rest Day (0 miles) “Bavarian Blast” was taking place in this “German” enclave of Minnie Sota this weekend. We stayed at the dorms at the Martin Luther College, so my guess is most of the populace is leaning to Lutherans. Across the street from the College is a 20 foot tall bronze statute of the liberator of Germany from the Romans. First name was Herman..so we’ll call him the “Herminator”, who defeated the Romans in the 8th century to liberate the Fatherland. The town had OmPa and Rock&Roll bands playing simultaneously leading me to wonder about the new culture battle playing out…I hope that kids won’t forget their heritage, but they also need to forge their own path as well. Beer from the local Schell Brewery was most excellent…”Firebrick” was my favorite.
July 22, 2007 New Ulm to Owatonna, MN (73 miles) Breakfast news before take off was that Ann Kosick, our RN and staff support member has flown back to Seattle and that her husband Andy (ex-Big Ride rider) is driving the RV back to their home on Bainbridge Island. Ann will be sorely missed; I called her the other day to tell her so and she said she hoped to join us in Gettysburg, PA. It was a good and fast ride today in a mix of rural and suburban settings. Lotsa corn and soybeans, strip malls and car lots. Today’s cue sheet had some humorous notes .. “mile 29.6 - Top of hill entering strip mall heaven” It was here I saw my first Starbucks since Seattle..I almost stopped to have a cup and make some calls, but was in the riding groove and pushed on. It was also here that I realized where all the large U.S. cars are being sold…It is Buick, Cadillac, Ford and Impala heaven. I no longer fear for the automakers as they have a market here for their 4-door sedans…along with all the pick up trucks. Few Japanese or other foreign autos in evidence. Another cue sheet cutie: “Continue straight on 14E – Mileage may be inaccurate here. Sorry.”…It was but we pressed on.. I pulled into the Steele County Fairgrounds where we would spend the night. Brian and I found the nearest pub and some drafts of Summit IPA, a Minnesota brew. We could camp outside or sleep in the Beer Garden building that evening…At this point the novelty of pitching a tent is waning; so the opportunity to simply “pitch” my air mattress and flop was my choice. As (bad) luck would have it for the hard core outside a heavy rain storm deluged the fairgrounds from 2am until just before our departure at 6:30am.
July 23, 2007 Owatonna to Winona, MN (90 miles) This was a very diverse day in terms of route and riding “luck”. It was a route of bad road shoulders and was sometimes crowded with traffic. We’ve noted that many drivers in Minnesota seem reluctant to pass cyclists and simply ride along slowly behind us…I don’t think its for the view of the lyra buns of the ”old men in tights”..but simply that they are courteous and not used to seeing cyclists. But it can be unnerving to be “followed”. As we entered Rochester I popped another spoke on my rear wheel…but as good luck would have it, we were passing a bike shop. The owner specialized in wheel repairs and took to fixing my wheel. He diagnosed very tight spokes and loosened them to “true” my wheel. He then put the wheel on a special table to support the rim (with a hole cut out for the spokes and hub) and brought down a hydraulic press on the hub with 500lbs of pressure to “pop” or loosen the spokes. He then re-trued the wheel. The road for the last 20 miles was absolutely spectacular as we entered the Mississippi River Valley. The vegetation in the valleys and the yellow/orange rock formations were breathtaking. We dropped down into the island port town at Winona and spent the night at Winona State College. The meal was forgettable as it was the case of another corporation providing college food and menus rather than a chef determining what the customers want. Montana State in Missoula will always rank highest in quality of cafeteria food as they have made the investment in a chef…Sorry, the conversation always seems to come back to food.
July 24, 2007 Winona, MN to Viroqua, Wisconsin (70 miles) This was another wonderful ride that had me realizing there is no way I would have seen these aspects of this country but for cycling it. I’ve hitch-hiked it, and driven it several times…and I’ve traversed the “fly-over” country innumerable times by plane, but nothing compares to this slow and gentle way of transportation. I began the morning in a “civilized” manner by taking a coffee a the local coffee house with Kathy before pushing out. I also picked up some chocolate covered coffee beans, which I now pop like meds to pick me up at the afternoon water stops. At our first water stop in Dakota, MN we were greeted by a lovely family who had put out a feast of fruit and baked goods for us and opened their home and garden to us. They have been hosting the Big Ride in this way for years and it was once again nice to connect with local residents. Brian and I crossed the Mississippi River into LaCrosse, WI…but it was a non event terms of Big River….My few river songs came to mind and I sang or hummed along the road. The climb out of the river valley was more arduous than expected, but we had stopped at the Organic Valley (butter) creamery and quaffed a glass of soy chocolate milk to power us up. I measured the grade as a 4-5…that is 4 to 5 mph in climbing rate(!)…I watched our fellow rider Bob Jones, who has a few years even on me, pedaling up ahead and I was inspired all the more to press on. We came into lovely rolling farm country with Amish farms and woodworking shops in abundance. We pulled into Viroqua to the fairgrounds where Jean Blu met some of the locals (see pics) and we settled into one of the buildings to spend the night. Wisconsin Alum, Jay Carlson, was in heaven after having ingested frozen custard at the local Culver’s…home of frozen custard and the butter burger. Several of us trekked over and the blueberry custard malt I consumed didn’t disappoint!
July 25, 2007 Viroqua to Madison Wisconsin (110 miles) This was a relatively easy “century” in terms of terrain, though the last 20 miles found us in new suburban landscape with roads that were over crowded and with little or no shoulder. Brian and I pulled over at the last pub 8 miles out for a “chandy” beer (beer and citrus juice) and watched the latest stage of the Tour. Our biggest whine for the day was that we had been placed in a rural campground, rather than in Madison. This was a screw-up by ALAW, who neglected to find a suitable alternative to the high prices quoted by the University of Wisconsin. With help from alumni and bike and service clubs we could have been better placed in this cultural center. But the evening was salvaged by Bob Dumke’s and Dan Scott’s families coming out to provide us with dinner and companionship. Brack Hattler’s brother and sister in law also stopped by with an update on his condition…he’s up on crutches…and to deliver oatmeal raisin and chocolate chip cookies!
July 26, 2007 Madison, Wisconsin to Belvidere, Illinois (82 miles) This started out as a great ride for me and ended that way as well, with some diversions in between. I got an early start riding alone and for the first 25 miles I was rolling through farmland and making some contacts with local canines, bored or sleepy at the 7am hour. Then as I came up to a turn, I mis-read the cue sheet and took a hard, rather than soft right (and then straight) turn. It felt weird as I knew I was going “back” in the direction from whence I came. So a mile down the road, I was called to and waved at by some kids in a farm yard…I doubled back to ask directions. I observed 3 boys and a girl in a swing couch; all in their mid-teens. They were enamored by the bike and the riding gear, and told me how I would make my connection just down the road…I should have known better when the lead boy sidled up in his dusty bib overalls and big grin, that these folks don’t get out much and certainly not driving an auto. Five miles and a couple of motorists later, I realized my error, pulled out my compass and doubled back to join the Big Ride. It was shortly thereafter that I popped yet another spoke; the fifth of my ride. I called Dave, our mechanic, and asked that he come help me “true” the wheel. In the meanwhile I installed the new spoke and set up the wheel while dodging rainstorms and greeting passing riders.
The rains began to come down in earnest and I later dodged into a McDonalds across from Kathy at our checkpoint. She was forced to wait for the last two riders in the rain. I called an offered her a cup of coffee, but she faithfully stayed at her post. In the meanwhile I had an interesting conversation with a local who owned thousands of acres of farmland and who rented it out to tenant farmers at $150 per acre. Apparently the price of corn and soybeans is high now and farming is profitable. Owning and renting the land is even more profitable. This fellow bought his land in the 60’s for $250 per acre and estimated it was now worth thousands of dollars per acre…and we continue to have tenant farmers, or as they were named in the 30’s, share croppers.
The route gave way to some flat land of corn and beans, beans and corn and then to our campground at “Outdoor World”…We had a covered place to set up and some were afraid of mosquitoes and pitched a tent under this roofed area. We did have a great storm from 2am on and we again were thankful to be under a roof. We watched the latest stage of the Tour de France; nice to see the Discovery Team doing so well! And then the team staged a mini-revolt as Outdoor World had not planned sufficient food for the riders…spaghetti with meatballs no less(!)…we ended up ordering pizzas delivered to complete our calorie intake for the day.
July 27, 2007 Belvidere to Coal City, Illinois (104 miles) This may have been my best day riding. We left Outdoor World for some backroads riding and the rains started to come in earnest. It got so heavy that I had to remove my glasses to see the road. Fortunately the roads were very rural, though not particularly smooth, and I was a man possessed today. I enjoyed the wet, cool but not cold, weather and pushed myself hard. I was the first in camp today, not because I was the fastest (5.5 hours), but because I didn’t take long breaks. Of course the equipment truck was not there, and when it finally did arrive an hour later, the issue was where to set up. At this point we were equidistant, one half mile from either shower/toilet. Yes, some of us early birds were not happy campers and did not appreciate the attitude of some staff who refused our support to push for a better location. It seems that since the site in this enormous and underused campground was donated, ALAW did not protest the distant location of services. I decided to leave the site and visit the town to meet the locals. I learned at the local pub that the area had been strip mined clean of coal and now the pits provided recreation for water sports. Not much else happening in Coal City, though there are subdivisions going up as we are circling south and west of Chicago. BTW, the ground water tasted terrible. The evening got worse as a nearby campsite had a large and noisy party with yelling and screaming. The police came at midnight and shut the place down and at 5:30 the next morning we were able to give a camp group greeting to the sleeping, hungover partiers. As I left camp I noticed a flag pole at the offender’s site with a Marine Corps flag on it, whereupon I took on my loudest and most raunchy morning greeting learned from my Drill Instructor at boot camp 35 years earlier!
July 28, 2007 Coal City, Illinois to Valpariso, Indiana (81 miles) This was a very difficult and frustrating 80 miler as the roads were absolutely terrible and crowded with Saturday morning cars. Kathy’s water stop at the 50 mile mark as we entered Indiana was highlighted by cold pizza from the night before…some were afraid of “losing” it as they pedaled on, but the veggie lover’s was perfect fuel. At our last water stop, David Lambert’s family hosted us with sodas, juices, cookies and other treats. It was good to meet and chat with the parents (his dad has done the ride) and sisters about this wonderful young man! So on we pushed to Valpariso and the university dorm…my gears were slipping today and I knew that 2200 miles had stretched my new Seattle chain beyond its limits. I also knew that the only shop in town was closing at 3pm, so time to move quickly. When we started to enter the town a local on a fine Italian road bike rode up to chat and when I asked him about finding the shop he led me there…a few more miles down the road.
“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.”
- H.G. Wells
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Week Five: New Ulm to Valpariso
