Rest Days are the Best Days - Minneapolis Flashback - Part 1

It was Friday and the plan was to ride 90 miles to Minneapolis to eliminate a riding day and add a third rest day.

For lodging, I was all set, along with the 5 VA kids and Larry.  The rest of the team was put up at Eric's house just south of the city.

Rest stops throughout the day included ice cream and occasional down pours of rain. Still lots of flooding going on.  We stopped in Red Wing for lunch and then cut over to Wisconsin for a bit to grab another state sign photo op.  Due to the flooding, we had to take pictures from a distance....except for Richard.  He removed his shoes and braved the 1 foot deep water.  We would later find out that there was a snake in those waters...and as the story was retold, the snake got bigger and bigger until the legend included wrestling an anaconda...

I rode into Minneapolis with some of the VA kids - Drew, Stephanie and Mike.  The bike paths in St. Paul and Minneapolis were amazing and plentiful.  Seemed like you could commute from pretty much anywhere.  Also seemed like very major highway had a bike equivalent.

I did get a flat on the way in and Drew helped out since my left hand continued to be useless. That makes 3 flat tires for me!  There are 4 people who still have no flats and are in contention for free beer in Seattle.

I checked into my hotel, picked up a rental car and also picked up Steph, Kate, Drew and Mike.  We headed south to pick up our stuff from the van and also hang out for a bit at the Hotel Van Der Lee (Eric's house).  His mom had made lots of food and and everyone settled in to chat and watch TV.

The next day, I treated myself to Room Service, a trip to Super Target,  a nap in the middle of the day...and I also did laundry.  Ben called to tell me that his connecting flight from Chicago was cancelled and that he was renting a car with some fellow passengers. I got a massage (which was unbelievable) and went to bed.  Ben told me the next day that he arrived at out hotel at 4am.

At 11am we headed over to do our service project for Mary.  The group divided up work on the garden, clean up the yard and clean and paint her bedroom. She was really grateful for our help and we were able to finish painting her bedroom before we left.

Ben and I had tapas that night and walked around St Paul.  We loved the city - very relaxing and fun!