Iowa!

It has now been way too long to even half remember what has gone on for the past three (!!) weeks since the last blog. So where do we start? Lets hop into our time machine and head back to the beautiful waters of Grand Marias.

After a wonderful evening on the sailboat, we all hopped into the dingy and rowed ashore where we mounted our bicycles for a rather hectic, long trip back down the shore of Lake Superior. Highway 61 was very stressful; the only road heading south was loaded with antsy Minnesotans heading north driving their F250, king-cab, extended bed with camper, trailer and fishing boat-in-tow combo. It was their weekend by god, and we sure as heck weren't going to slow their progress. Nothing better than angry men in sunglasses driving vehicles in a sensless effort to over compensate for something God just didn't make big enough...

In Duluth we were welcomed into the home of the Bents' -- a wonderful family whose son grew up with Mark. Ten minutes before we arrived to their home, after way too many miles for the day, we got nailed with a grand deluge of rain. In eight minutes of riding, one and a half inches of rain poured from the heavens and landed directly upon our small fleet of Trek 520's.

We found a bike trail from Duluth that took us a wonderful 81 miles south to Hinkley, Minnesota, and then then following day a bike path that took us all the way into the Twin Cities.

Once we hit the Twin Cities the trip fell into an eleven day haiatus of soft beds, home cooked meals, train rides, roadtrips, weddings, co-ed bachelor parties, and lots of other things that fall into the category of complete and absolute tom-foolery.