Day 26
Day By Day Notes From The Road
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This document updated July 24th, 2004
Tyler to New Ulm Minnesota - 87 Miles
By Erwin:
Finally, we've arrived at New Ulm, the town where we will enjoy a rest day. Today was pretty tough; headwinds, 88 miles and a weary mind after 6 days of straight biking.
We were supposed to have a northerly crosswind today, but soon the wind turned largely easterly and thus straight onto our heads. It was the fourth day of headwind during the last six days of straight biking. I was getting pretty sick of it. Normally, when I don't feel like going, I try to focus and find strength within, but there was fairly little strength to find today.
But let me quit my whining (for a while).
New Ulm is a really funny town. It is very proud of its German Heritage and shows it wherever it can. It has a German beer brewery (the second oldest in the US), the local mall is called "The Marktplatz Mall", German flags are everywhere and its sister city is (old) Ulm, Germany. After checking out this town this afternoon, I am super curious to see whether it looks anything like like its older sister in Deutschland.
As you've probably gathered, we'll be enjoying our rest day. We plan to change our chains tomorrow as they have stretched over the 2000 miles or so that we've put on our bikes over the last four weeks. Also, we'll go and enjoy some light entertainment at the local cinema (Spiderman II) and of course, take naps.
By Lucija:
We are still enjoying the cool weather and I am loving it! I love to be one of the first riders out in the morning, since I enjoy the peaceful cold morning hours. Usually I fly along for about 2 hours and then slow down and am caught by most of the group. This morning I was feeling especially good and strong and I was flying along all the way to mile 40, when PING, I heard another spoke break! Remembering my derailleur nightmare from a few weeks ago, I stopped immediately. Eventually Bruce and Scott, two riders on the ride who carry radios with them passed me and called the mechanic Alan to the rescue. Once he got there it took him an amazingly little amount of time to fix my bike up again. So the only real downside to the adventure was that Erwin and I had to bike in the afternoon, when the winds picked up again...
Photos:
Another broken spoke... Notice Alain's blue van that I am so happy to see in these situations!
One of Minnesota's 10,000 lakes...