Day 16

August 2, 2004

Worthington, MN to Austin, MN

More miles and miles of corn fields with the occasional soybean field

And we got another 6 mile section of dirt road with a missing bridge. This time, the dirt was better to ride on. Here’s Walter walking around the missing bridge. Walt and I got on the wheel of the fast tandem ridden by Lon & Rebecca Haldeman. Along with around a dozen other riders, we rode with them in the morning to the first rest stop. You know those board games where you pick up a card that says something like “Move ahead 3 spaces”? Well, riding behind this tandem team was like getting a “Move ahead 32 miles” for free card!

At a rest stop

Some good advice in a PAC Tour trailer

Doug Levy’s Trek with custom paint job. Pretty hot!

A big hunk’n hunk of titanium love Doug Slack’s tricked out Light Speed. Very light. Lon and Rebecca rode this tandem, today.

The Rev. E’s titanium ride

Rick Houle’s Colnago, sans front wheel.

One of the many “Team PAC Tour bikes”

Dinner time the burgers were pretty good. There was an $18, Jumbo-Sumo burger available that weighed in around 3 pounds if you ate the whole thing in 30 minutes, you got a free tee-shirt.

Today’s message board (we’re in the SPAM capital of the world)

and progress today

Here’s the big picture of our progress.

Profile and statistics

The first 80 miles were very fast at a 19+ MPH average speed. Even after the 6 mile dirt road section, average speed was pretty good for the day. Last 20 miles were boosted by sitting on Marc’s and Arend’s wheel. Temperatures were a bit toasty and humidity was up, but not as bad as yesterday. There was long, 38 mile stretch between lunch and the next rest stop. Two water bottles just wasn’t enough to get through this – I found refuge at a truck stop off the main route by the interstate.