July 24, 1998 - Cannon Falls - St. Charles

DISTANCE TRAVELED: 84.60 Miles

TIME: 6 Hours 15 Minutes

AVERAGE SPEED: 16.8 Miles/Hour

TRAVEL CONDITIONS: Warm and sunny all day. Perfect weather all day for biking

ROAD CONDITIONS: Good roads all day.

TERRAIN/DIFFICULTY LEVEL: Small rolling hills the entire way. Overall a very easy day.

DAILY JOURNAL COMMENTS:
I woke up at 9:00 and was barely able to get up. Then I heardsomeone say that they were about to put away all of the food. I ran out and quickly got some granola for breakfast. After this, I went back upstairs and almost fell asleep again. Finally after getting up for the second time, I packed up my things and pulled out some food from my bag for the day. Both Katie and Brad needed their brakes to be fixed so I tightened Katie's and then filed down Brad's so that they wouldn't stick to the rims. We were just about ready to leave when Brad realized that he had gotten a flat over the night. So we wasted some more time until he was ready to fix it. Then when he was looking for a new tube he found that he didn't have any. We then had to walk down to the bike shop to buy a tube but they didn't have any of the right size. He had to get a different size which fortunately fit. We were able to leave at 12:00 and set off at a fairly slow pace. Unfortunately we had to be at our destination for a 6:00 potluck so I started to go a little faster. 20 miles later I got to the first gas station where I stopped to eat some lunch. Twenty minutes later I left with still no sign of anyone behind me. I rode on and finally came to Plainview where a woman took a picture as I rode past. She stopped me and then I found out that she was from a local newspaper and wanted to interview me. After talking for about a half hour, she took one more picture and I took off once again. About five miles later Brad, Katie, Heather, Dan, and Rachel arrived at the gas station. I didn't think that I would see them again but I found out that they had discovered a shortcut which cut out ten miles. Essentially they were about 10 miles and 45 minutes behind me after 55 miles! Brad and I rode on and wanted to try to get to the potluck on time. We completed the last 20 miles in about one hour and ten minutes and finally arrived at 6:15. They hadn't started dinner yet so I got ready to take a shower and just as I was about to go in dinner was served. We had turkey, stuffing, a few different salads, and some fruit. For desert, there were many different cookies and lemonade. After dinner, I took a quick shower and then when I got back up we all introduced ourselves and then had our picture taken by a local newspaper. After the picture was taken, the woman took a picture of me with my bike and then talked to me for at least a half an hour about the trip. I then talked to numerous people who lived in the area which was then followed by going inside to type up the reports from the day before. While typing, we watched the David Letterman Show which wasn't very good. I finally got to bed around 1:00 while watching some more TV and eating some more food. I was fortunate enough to be able to sleep on a couch instead of my air mattress for the night.

TRIP ROUTE:
Go to 86 and go Rt. South 52 thru Zumbrota and take 12E to Oronoco. Lt on 247 thru Plainview. Take 425 to 14 @ Eota. East(left) on 14 to St. Charles. Rt. on 43 halfway into town on 11th St.

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