Trial Run

Today we returned from a mini bike vacation to prepare us for the longer ride starting this Sunday, September 4th. We rode to Pere Marquette State Park in Grafton, IL. It was 83 miles round trip. We stayed in a cabin and ate some great food at the lodge. One of the perks of riding so many miles on a bike is you get to eat some great food!!

 We did experience a flat tire yesterday on the way to Pere Marquette and then today we had head winds all the way home. It gave us some good experience of how we would handle a day riding in the wind. At home we always look at the wind direction before we ride so that we can go into the wind starting out and then have the tail wind coming home when we are more tired. With a ride like we are getting ready to do we won't have that option. We will have to put up with what we are given. We took more breaks today than we normally take and of course, there was a lot less coasting!! One of our breaks was to fuel up with food and gatorade but we had some fun with a camera also.

We really enjoyed riding along the Mississippi River and we discovered that we pedal faster than the barges going upriver. How is that for speed?