happier knees

As those of us who had spent the night in a cool, quiet home got back into camp the next morning, we got the report from the others on how the night had been. Jim said that if he were a rack of ribs, he would be well done because he had been slowly cooking all night. I think that everyone who didn’t join us at the house regretted it.

We had a breakfast of donuts, eggs, hash browns, bacon, and coffee at the Hyvee before setting off to cover the 88 miles between Owatonna, Minnesota and Winona, Minnesota. It was another hot and humid day, but it was actually a great day. We crossed the 2,000 mile mark today, which is really hard to believe – it seems like we just started a few days ago!



I rode with Jim, who is generally the fastest rider, today, and while I know that he had to slow down, I also had to speed up. It was the first day I really pushed myself since we’d made the changes to my cleats, and I found that adding the shims to my cleats to help even things out for my legs has made a huge difference for me knees. Now they don’t ache all the time, and I’m able to dig in and put more power behind each pedal, whereas before I was only able to stay in a low gear and spin my legs quickly. HOORAY!!!!! I felt so much better all day. Also, I removed a lot of the stuff I had on my bike – like my rear rack, the bag I was carrying on the rear rack, and my mud guards -- because, it turns out, the extra weight really does make a difference.

As afternoon approached, Jim and I were ahead of the rest of the group and on track to be the first into camp. This was typical for Jim, but as a former lanterne rouge, I was absolutely ecstatic about this. We were rolling along, making good time, and then Kenny, another speedy fellow, came up behind us. I was fairly disappointed about this as I really had my hopes on being the first into camp. In the film we recently watched, Breaking Away, some sneaky riders used the technique of throwing their bicycle pump into the spokes of another bicycle to trip them up and make them fall. I would be lying if I said the idea didn’t cross my mind when Kenny caught up to us. :o) However, I did resist and the company was really nice. Kat also caught up to us, and I decided I’d have to be content with being among the first to camp rather than the first.

However, when I saw Lake Goodview coming up on the left, any care I had about arriving to camp quickly fell to the wayside. We bee-lined left and went running into the lake, shedding clothes as we went. I set my camera on the bench beside the lake and turned it on to take a photo in 10 seconds. I tried to count to 10 and make everyone be posed for the photo then, but obviously, we were a little off. :o)


On the way in to camp, Kenny had a mini freak-out because he saw a Culver’s, a place that makes frozen custard that he’s a bit in love with. So we stopped there and had snacks and ice cream for a bit. And after all of that playing, I was still the 8th into camp. HOORAY for happy knees after making the right shoe / bicycle adjustments! :o) It’s funny how surprised everyone is for me to speed up – I passed Charlie today, and he said he was wondering to himself throughout the day how that could have happened. His conclusion was that, being from Georgia, I was used to the heat and humidity, so while everyone else struggled with it, it was when I began to thrive. :o)

Today we had a special treat as we stayed in the dorms of Winona State University. It’s funny the things that you get really excited about without going without them for a while, but I was absolutely over the moon about our setup at the university. We each had our own room (a first on the trip), there were ten (count them -- ten!!) outlets in my room, our beds had sheets, we had a real towel, there was wireless internet, air conditioning, and laundry. I was beside myself.

Dinner was catered at the university for us that night, and after dinner we all sat around and played games and had a great time. I can tell that I’m really going to miss everyone when this is over!

While I had my own room, it turns out it was my own hot room. We only thought the rooms were air conditioned when we arrived because it was so much cooler inside than out. Once our temperature had normalized a bit, we realized the rooms weren't actually air conditioned. So, once again, many of us piled into the lobby together. Unfortunately, I'd left my bag with all of my camping gear in the gear truck (which is locked at night) since I didn't think I'd need it. I'd decided to give sleeping in my room a go, but realized after 5 minutes, I wasn't going to be able to sleep, so I stumbled back, carrying my bed sheets with me, into the lobby where the lights were already turned off and tried to feel around for an empty couch. After grabbing one too many poor sleeping person's feet, I concluded that all of the couches were taken. A loveseat it must be. I curled up on the loveseat for a while. And then I stretched out with my feet hanging off the end. And then I pulled a table up so that my feet could rest on it and I was kind of in a "L" shape. And then I pushed two loveseats together, so that I had a kind of square cushiony play pen. Try as I may, I just could not get comfortable. After much thought, it struck me that the cushions were removable, so I lined up the four cushions from the two loveseats on the floor against the wall and had a make shift sleeping mat. It worked splendidly, and I went to bed feeling quite clever and pleased with myself. :o)