It's July 14 - Happy Bastille Day! We bloggers must be tying up the lines as it just took me 5 min to upload these few pictures, so, I'm going to be brief. We have been weaving about with the Mississippi River as our constant for the last few days. It's been in the 70's (glorious!) and today was cloudy with few sprinkles and we rode about 70 miles. I woke up with a flat and then at the end of the day, in a bike shop mind you, had another! Having 2 flats in the presence of others who can change them in a few minutes is beyond lucky. I then had to put on a new tire back at the motel which I'd never done before. Our Guide Carol helped me and as she is a fabulous teacher, it was a breeze. We're in LaCrosse, WI, our first night not in Minnesota since Fargo, though we've veered over into WI a couple of times.

I'm still having bike problems but am getting tech advice and support from our guides - plan to see about another repair in a few days. The coccyx is improving with the daily administration of half of a Lidoderm patch, so things are looking up. We rode by a barge parking lot with a couple of tugs moving them around today on the river, a village of houseboats nestled up along the shore on an island and lots of robust, very green soybean and corn fields. We'll be in Iowa tomorrow - seems soon, but we've had high mileage days. Michelle feeds us incredible dishes and likes to make the same things that I do, so the food thing is excellent......and if you have ever biked over a few days, you know that it's all about the food.

More tomorrow - take care all of you out there.