Day 31 – “… Until the Cows Come Home.”

July 18, 2018

Day 31 – Mankato to Rochester, MN – 100 miles, 2,330 feet vertical

We knocked off another 100 miles today to take us from small towns to a major city, Rochester, MN.  I had a flashback to when my daughter, Samantha, was going to the University of Rochester, in New York.  I would often check for available flights from Long Island to avoid a boring 6-hour drive to visit her and would always be surprised at all the flights to Rochester – – – Minnesota!  At any rate, here we are, in the home of the Mayo Clinic.  

Full disclosure:  my Garmin only registered 99.9 miles and I saw some folks circling in the parking lot to bump it up to 100.  Not for me, thank you.  I had a milkshake to scarf down.

If you want to know about the scenery today, just refer to my post from yesterday.  It was another hundred miles of corn and soybeans.  Sometimes, it was corn on the left and soybeans on the right, and sometimes vice versa.  It got so monotonous that I stopped to watch a field of cows slowly making their way back to the barn, mooing the whole way.

Around 80-miles, my rear wheel got a flat and I sat on the side of the road fixing it. I found a sharp, nasty mother of a staple sticking out of the tire.  Yeah.  At any rate, it was time – and tonight at Mechanics, I changed out both front and rear tires.  Hopefully this will give me more of a fighting chance for the next thousand miles or so.  In the meantime, I am up to nine flats.  

It was a kind of family day today during the ride and also at our Rap talk.  We’ve had guests before but not this many on one day.  Here goes:  

• Rick from Ontario was visited by his sister-in-law Rosie and husband Bruce
• Tami’s Mom is here along with her husband Jeff
• Brad’s son Zack, daughter-in-law Jenn and grandson and future cyclist Brooks.
• Paula’s sister-in-law Nancy
• And finally, Tom’s brother Dan rode with us today and they passed by their childhood house in Minnesota. 

Please enjoy these photos from today (although be warned that there are more pix of corn and soybeans.)   And check our progress at Where’s Jeff at jeffblye.com

Thanks for following.  (Yikes, forecast is for rain tomorrow. Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.)

…Jeff