Better

We had a leisurely breakfast at Xanadu but eventually realized we had to get moving. Fortunately, it was a beautiful day. The thermometer never moved over 85 and the humidity was down to comfortable levels. We did choose to ride out on the gravel roads & were soon back on the Adventure Cycling map.

Not too much happened along the route. It was just such a pleasure to ride along in balmy, almost ideal conditions! We met some nice people along the way. I stopped to drop off some mail & the guy in the post office asked about our trip. His reaction was different than the mixture of awe and pity we often see. He wants to do this one day. He has been a marathon runner but has had both knees replaced. Cycling works well for him. As I left the post office, another guy asked about our route, then mentioned that years ago he had ridden on a 12,000 mile tour around the US. Where we stopped for lunch (Cozy Cup? - nice little place in Parkers Prairie) they asked us to write briefly about our trip in a notebook they hand to all the long distance cyclists who stop there. It was interesting to read the entries. Finally, we stopped outside a little place in Rose City & a semi-retired farmer came out to visit a bit. He said he likes meeting cross-country riders & asking about their trips. He eventually told us that he and his wife like to go work on Habitat for Humanity projects. They have worked in 8 different states by now. He was also able to identify two of the common grasses Bruce has been trying to figure out.

Then we headed out with about twenty miles to go. I knew there was one more landmark coming first: my odometer reached 25,000 miles today. Some of those miles were on the Calfee (which now has another odometer with about 7000 on it), but most are on the Seven. It was not long ago that I was amazed to think I had actually ridden a bike 1000 miles - and that was probably over a couple of years. Bruce took a picture.

One negative note - something is bothering one wrist. I tried favoring it a lot yesterday and today but it is not getting better. Annoying - I can't even tell quite what is causing the problem. I guess time will tell.

Miles today: 69
Total miles so far: 2183