Hello from beautiful Stillwater, MN, on the St Croix River! We're on our first rest day and thus far it has been very sweet indeed. I opted to do essentially nothing, priorities for the day being a good bike cleaning/maintenance followed by a massage. Our guide Carol is a great teacher of things bicycle, and she showed me how to tweek a few things. Then Ann, Connie and I walked through our suburban strip neighborhood to a 'Massage Envy' (who thinks up these names??) where we gorked out on being very relaxed - all in all a good day.

Yesterday's ride was adventuresome! My handlebars had been adjusted with the hopes that it would help alleviate my lower back pain (fell on tailbone 2 weeks ago). When I did my test ride, we heard a noise coming from the back hub, sounded like a popcorn popper. We left the hotel very early, as the route was 106 miles long. My popping continued to get worse and my mechanically minded friends convinced me that my rear hub was shot and that it wasn't a good idea to ride until it was fixed, a bike shop repair. So, I got off the road at mile 14, stood in the middle of a beautiful Minnesotan farm country morning for about 5 minutes when the van came and fetched me. Rode there until mile 43 when Ann and I got out and I rode Carol's bike from there. (THANK YOU Carol...) This worked well until about 35 miles later when my lower back began shouting at me, and I popped in the van for the rest of the ride. Disappointing but am thinking that I may have to play rides by ear until my back improves. Ah yes, one mile at a time... and I was actually happy to be able to log about 50 miles for the day. My bike was fixed that afternoon (really good timing for a bike shop repair) and I'll be back on it tomorrow, when we ride out to Wabasha.

Minnesota has been very friendly, and of course, all my years of listening to A Prairie Home Companion have really prepared me for the cultural subtleties, though noone has said "Uffda" that I have heard.

Here are Ann and I, about to take off from the Full Moon....more tomorrow.

P.S. We briefly dipped into Wisconson for a few miles, just enough to like it a lot and look forward to our next stop there.