"Minnesota"

Can you believe that I have already rode into Wisconsin? I biked from Portsmouth, NH to Madison... that is unbelievable and so exhilirating. The ride to Madison was short and sweet, but it was harder than we thought it was going to be thanks to a steady breeze from the northwest. We were all so excited to be there though, so it didn't really matter. Madison was one of the "most looked forward to" destinations on the trip, and from peoples' reactions I think it lived up to its billing.

The first day there people spent the afternoon sightseeing and wandering around state street. After another lovely host dinner, I met up with Andy and Justin at a Mallard's game. Although I did not see a single pitch thrown, I had a great time catching up with them and getting to see them. When we decided we couldn't care less about the game, we went back to there place and hung out for a while before meeting up with Bike and Builders on State Street. It was kind of surreal to be sitting at a bar with friends from high school and 10 friends I had just met while biking across the country; pretty awesome.

The next day we had a build day and we all got to work on several houses in the same habitat development. My work situation that day was absolutely perfect for me and was so inspiring. I worked with two men, Herman and Marzo, ages 80 and 91, respectively, and they were fascinating. Herald was a former clothing shop owner in Madison and Marzo was in the construction field his entire career. Marzo was also a cyclist and toured Europe at the tender age of 80. Knowing he did something like that at 80 was another reiteration that we will in fact make it across the country. They enjoyed having the attention of three young ladies as much as we enjoyed listening to them and learning from them.

From Madison, we headed to Gays Mills, WI. That morning my dad drove up from Janesville and met us at the churnch to ride out with us. That was another great moment; it was pretty special to be able to share a little bit of this experience with him, because if anyone would appreciate this trip, it would be him. After my dad turned around to head back, the rest of the day got very interesting. We conquered the "trifecta" of cycling that day and battled through wind, distance, and hills (mountains). People kept commenting that they "had no idea Wisconsin had mountains." It was one of the days that I wish we had a camera following us so that people could see exaclty what we accomplished that day.

And, as much as it was a day in which I probably complained about the hills 100 times, it was one of the best, most satisfying rides of the trip so far. I rode with Jeremy, Cydney, Julian, and Laura and we had a blast for all 100 miles. The highlight probably being the truck pull/town fair we stopped at in Boaz. We talked with drunken locals who offered to drunkenly drive us to Gays Mills and watched souped up truckes try to pull the "Attitude Adjuster."

After Gays Mills, we went to Onalaska (LaCrosse). Apparently nothing too exciting happened on that ride day because I can't really remember it... I do remember that I got to see Sarah Holmes that night though! Another great experience while in my homeland. She picked me up from the church and let me shower in her hotel room, which was awesome. Even though we only got to see each other for a little while it was so nice to see her. Thanks, Sarah!

The next day we rode from LaCrosse to Pepin, WI, and it was another one of my favorite rides so far. We followed highway 35, or the "Great River Road" most of the way as it followed along the Mississippi. It was our first perfect weather day and we even had a slight tailwind! We got to talk a lot along the route, go really fast, and take in some gorgeous scenery. Pepin is also the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder, so that was a perk at the end of the ride. And speaking of Laura Ingalls Wilder, we had some wonderful literary conversation centered around "Little House on the Prairie" and "The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn". I also talked about the upcoming day - the Twin Cities!

Much like the ride to Janesville, the ride to St. Paul started out horribly. I don't know that I have ever been so miserable on a bike. It rained/poured for the first 35 miles, was cold, and really hilly. I got through it with a lot of laughing at situations that were so bad they had to be funny. The rain finally ended though and we reached the top of a hill where we saw a bald eagle perched over the Mississippi; it was about as "American" as you can get. The rest of the ride got better after lunch and we finally entered into Minnesota and St. Paul.

I was so excited to see everyone in the cities, especially Tori. She has been in Argentina for the past 6 months and randomly happened to fly into Minneapolis the same day we rode through. Tori and my parents picked me up from the church and we picked up Kate and Amy to go out to dinner. After dinner, all the girls met us at Bar Abilene for drinks. In addition to the girls, their were several suprise visitors. I cannot express to all of you how much it meant that you came out to see me, so thank you!!! It was great to see everyone and find out how everyone's summer is going.

After getting to sleep in my own place, I finally got to sleep past 7! Then I said goodbye to the parents and Tori before heading out to pick up Laura and Ashley to go to the bike shop. The bike shop wasn't very successful, but the girls got to see where all of our bikes got put together. After the bike shop we ran errands to the mall and the bank, so they got to see lots of Minnesota staples. Once the errands were run, we met up with Kim and Smith to walk to the sculpture gardens, followed by dinner and a drink at Joe's Garage. On the walk home from dinner, we randomly ran into Kelsey and Lauren. It reiterated what I love about Minneapolis - a big city where you still run into friends. After dropping Laura and Ashley off, I went back and chatted with the girls some more and then had to say goodbye. It was a tearful goodbye. I miss you guys again already!

The ride from St. Paul to Askov was a lovely suprise - 110 miles when we thought it was going to be 85. It was another pretty ride though, with fairly easy terrain, so it was a doable 110. That night, however, was not so doable. As most of you know, a camper I am not, and it was our first night of camping. It started out fine enough, until the mosquitoes came out. I fell asleep in our tent before the "family meeting" and in that time I was attacked through my pants to my butt. I have never had so many bites in one area before, and it is not a fun place to have a lot of bites while riding your bike across the country. On top of that, it rained all night long and our tent was not properly set up, so I got rained on all night and got no sleep after riding my bike 110 miles. I was not a happy camper when I got up in the morning. Pun intended. I survived though, and got on my bike as soon as possible the morning.

From the misery that was Askov, MN, we rode to Duluth, MN. I was excited for this ride because I knew it was going to be flat, on a trail, and pretty. It ended up being all of these and fast. I rode with Theo and Jeremy and Jeremy gave us a less on a Judaism for an hour and then we played contact, and before we knew it we were there. I had the pleasure of doing laundry for the group again in Duluth, which is always a treat. We also had our second to last build day there, and it was another good one. All 30 of us worked on one house again and we were able to almost finish putting up an entire roof and putting insulation alongside the foundation. It has been a nice stay here in Duluth and tomorrow we are off to Grand Rapids, MN.