As a 2nd Lieutenant in the Army, they say that you’ll learn everything that you need to know from your Non-Commissioned Officers – and I guess that’s true because I learned 3 fundamental life skills from my NCO’s – I learned how to drink, smoke and curse (joking) – all skills of which I’ve long-forgotten. But I also learned from them when to use some gallows humor to help shape perspective when its needed and that’s what I tried to do today with my group riders. When you wake up knowing that you have a 126 mile ride on tap and winds are gusting at 24 mph, you know its going to be a long day. So when the gripes and moans started coming before we even hit our lunch stop, I kept telling them – “Hey, look on the bright side, at least no one is shooting at us!”
We had an early start of things given the length of the ride today and did our roll-out at 6:45 AM before the sun was even up. Not that it would’ve really mattered because the heavy clouds kept us from seeing the sun anyway. We had only a few registered climbs all day with an elevation game of 2,250 feet over 126 miles but given the headwind situation, we were going to feel like we’d been climbing all day.
On the way out of Sioux Falls, it took a few miles to get a sense of what we were going to encounter today. In a more urban environment, the buildings and other structures obscure the effects of the wind so you can’t really make a judgment yet on how to attack the ride. But as we neared the Minnesota border, we knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Stopping at mile 16 to take pics of “Welcome to Minnesota” sign, we had already had a persistent head/side wind and since we were moving due East all day, it wasn’t likely at all to change. In fact, as we got deeper into our 7th state, it actually got worse. We tried a few different group riding techniques and some people later in the day just decided to ride on their own given the concentration and coordination that it takes to ride effectively in a strong head/side wind. By late morning, we had figured that a modified wedge was working best and that at least gave us a chance to make some decent time at about 15-16 mph. After 2 morning stops at mile 22 and 44, our lunch stop was at mile 63 in the town of Worthington at a local park with bathrooms.
It was just a brutal day in the saddle – and the one thing for me that makes it so mentally exhausting is the constant roar of the wind in your ears. It is so tiring. But Minnesota so far is a lot like South Dakota – miles and miles of corn and soybean fields, only now you get the frequent wafting of the sweet “fragrance” from the hog farms that dot the landscape all over the state. I am guessing that the fine folks who live here get de-sensitized to that smell, or perhaps it’s just that way when the wind really blows. Either way, there was no other way to tell one state from the other except for the sign we passed at mile 16.
I guess my legs and glutes are getting a lot stronger because I didn’t really feel tired until mile 110 when we had a stop in the town of Sherburne, MN. We were kindly met and escorted through town by SWPD Police Officer Jared – and you’ll see his pic on the video short. It is so nice to meet guys like Jared that give identity and humanity to the towns that we pass through and helps us to remember to treat others kindly like he did to us. Jared, I hope that you’ll be following our progress and thanks for the hospitality.
We had only 16 miles at that point to make it to Fairmont and the Best Western Motel. So, we all hung in there and grinded out the last few miles and rolled in at around 5:30 PM and ended the day with a few fist bumps and high fives. So today I spent 8 hours and 59 minutes in the saddle and expended 5,117 calories on the ride alone. I am more than grateful to have spent my Labor Day on that bike and wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.
Tomorrow we head to Austin, MN on an 81 mile ride and I’ll look forward to seeing my classmates Pat Moran and Gerry O’Connor who live here in Minnesota – well, Gerry does part time at least. But for now, I will slumber tightly.