Sunday, July 2. Dalbo, MN.
In the morning, Jeremy built my bike, which, thankfully, didn't take too long. The pedals, seat post with saddle, handlebars, wheels, and front brakes needed to be reattached. I could have done all except the front brakes, but I was really thankful to have his assistance while I was trying to get myself sorted out. I unpacked my duffel bag into one of the cubbies in the trailer and also threw a few items into the rest stop van. Back in my day... (when I last rode in 2014 and 2015 with BTUSFMS), the van and trailer (V&T) was at the rest stops and the lead van went on ahead, but now it's a reverse set-up, which seems to work great (except I'm constantly confused about which van to put my stuff in).
Before everyone departed camp, we took a group photo with the awesome host Donn. As usual (on prior trips), I was the last out of camp and broke my valve core while filling my rear tire. It seemed to be bent already, so maybe something happened during the flight. Jeremy happened to have a spare that I could use! Hooray!! He rode with me all day, even though I got slower and slower, more tired, and had severe, full body pain most of the ride. When I have pain, I need to remember that my pain is but a drop in the bucket to what those living with MS experience.
The total mileage was nearly 60 miles (though, my Garmin was somehow 6 miles short), with stops roughly around 20 (in the town of Millaca at a Kwik Stop that had a great bakery) and 40 (in Morrill where someone randomly donated $5 to us - jumped out of his truck at a stop sign!) miles-ish. The scenery was basically all farm lands with some very heavy manure scents mixed in. It was also very hot and sunny in the upper 80s, but not super humid.
I was really struggling by the time we got to camp at the Royalton Sportsman Club Park, which is situated along the Mississippi River. It was only 2:30pm! Plenty of time to set-up camp, shower, and relax. I skipped tubing in the Mississippi River in order to get camp set-up and organize my stuff. I'm pretty tired from getting about 6 hours of sleep each night the last 2 nights, so I needed to chill a bit. Jeremy and I waded into the Mississippi River, but decided it was too gross to swim in - algae that likely had a lot of farm run-off with it, if ya know what I mean. I was happy for a shower, but I couldn't seem to adjust the propane-heated, garden hose tent shower correctly and ended up with an ice cold shower, which actually felt great.
Now, I'm writing to you while sitting on the shore of the Mississippi! The very generous and welcoming camp hosts made us delicious steak and cheese with a kale pasta salad and potato salad, as well as yummy bakery treats. We are under cover awaiting a storm to pass, but I'm super sleepy. I'm surely going to fall asleep early tonight!
Thanks for following along!
If you'd like to make a donation to Bike the US for the MS, you can do so here:
https://ride.biketheusforms.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=donordrive.participant&participantID=1436
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