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Due to the weather forecast predicting upper 90's we left Forest Lake at 7:25 a.m. accompanied by Terri McEnaney, Alex Kane, Jeff Metzger, Tom Michaels, Rob McKim and Tim Power and then later joined by our son Mike and grandson Alex. This is the first day that we had a stiff headwind so progress was a bit slow.  However, everyone finished in a blaze of glory biking up our driveway and breaking through the ceremonial ribbon.  Well done everyone!!  The great day was topped off by a real fun pig roast in our back yard.  Many members of the MNLA and our family were present to toast the bikers.  We are now at around $46,000 raised and are confident that  we'll reach the goal of $50,000.  It's been a wonderful ten days on the road!  We really enjoyed every day and especially enjoyed the camaraderie of our friends who biked with us.

P.S.  We're happy to report that there was no evidence of illegal doping en route! Bananas and Gatorade only do so much!

What a surprise the weather is!  We left around 7am to beautiful overcast skies and 69 degrees.  I finally got to wear the sweatshirt that I brought along for the supposedly cool Duluth weather (104 degrees on Friday!).  Tim Power joined Gordie, John and Tom, and they rode the Munger Trail from Duluth to Hinckley.  This trail is most impressive!  The first 10 miles are in need of some repair but the remainder is excellent.  It's very well-planned and is one of the first bike trails in MN.  There was a lot of brush and tree limbs across the trail all along the way due to recent storms.  Many native prairie plants (big blue stem, grasses and flowers) grow along the trail and much of the trail was in wooded areas.  There were very few bikers on the trail but they did meet around 20 ultra-marathoners who were running 50 miles in a race.  Not much roadkill was seen--just one woodchuck and Gordie ran over a mouse!  Gordie biked the required 85 miles and then joined me in air-conditioned comfort in the van.   However the stalwarts (Tom and Tim) went on to do 100 miles and the record setter of the group was John who biked 125 miles to Forest Lake!   Isn't their stamina incredible especially in this heat and humidity?!  This brings me to the subject of nutrition, etc. on a bike trip such as this.  All of the fellows are great bikers and are very physically fit.  Their regime goes something like this--they drink gallons of water and Gatorade supplemented by Gu or Hummergel, Cliff bars, GORP, bananas and peanut butter on pita bread.  Gu, Hammergel and Cliff bars have been around for over 20 years but weren't well known except by the serious athlete.  However, now these items are readily available at grocery stores and sport stores.  Gu, Hammergel and Cliff bars are high in protein and carbohydrates.  They are quickly digested and provide quick energy.  The Gu and Hammergel are syrup-like and act faster than the bars.  The Clliff bars are like a semi gooey, slightly chewy candy bar.  All of this special nutrition certainly must help because they had lots of energy all day and were able to bike great distances in varied terrain and hot weather.  Naturally, they all have state-of-the-art bikes.  Most everyone had a bike personally made for him.  You start with a model and then add a seat, pedals, gears, etc. to suit your taste.  The frames can be made of aluminum, steel, titanium or carbon fiber and depending what you choose your bike can be incredibly light.  All kinds of high tech gadgets can be added but everyone has a cycling computer (odometer, speedometer, records maximum and average speeds, shows your cadence) and some show the temperature, calories burned and have a gear ratio meter. A heart monitor is used by anyone who is serious about his training.  This helps then gauge their effort and shows your pulse.  Bikes even come with GPS systems!  The price for one of these marvelous bikes varies but they generally start around $1,000 all they way up to $10,000--that must be for the Tour de France caliber biker! A good bike helps you perform better and adds to your enjoyment.  The main thing is to be on a comfortable bike--one that fits.  And of course the best thing is to get out there biking and enjoying this wonderful rewarding sport! 

Today we were joined by Tom Michaels, Horticulture Department head at the U of MN, who keeps in shape by biking three times a week from his Stillwater home to the St. Paul campus. The entire day was spent on the Mesabi Trail with the exception of a few three-mile sections that are yet not completed. It's a beautiful trail traversing through the Mesabi Iron Range. We saw lots of red roads, deep mine craters, and many mountains of “spoil” from the mines. The trail was lined with lovely flowers—tansy, bird's foot trefoil, fireweed and the ubiquitous spotted knapweed. Believe it or not the bikers seemed to thrive on the hot temps ending the day in Mountain Iron—100 degrees in the shade! There was no roadkill along the way although Tom was “attacked” by a red squirrel who ran off to live another day! Four deer were seen plus two cotton tails and a snowshoe hare but not the bear that a fellow biker told us he had seen. Did you know that the Greyhound Bus Company originated in Hibbing? There is the Greyhound Bus Museum situated at the beginning of the bike trail in Hibbing. When Hibbing began in the 1880's they had no idea that the largest area of iron ore in America was beneath the town. As mining progressed, it was necessary to move the houses, stores, etc. to another location. Some enterprising persons provided transportation for the people to get to work, church, etc. and that was the start of the bus company! We drove to Duluth from Mountain Iron arriving around 5 p.m. and the temp was 104 degrees! Several rainstorms came through in the early evening lowering the temperatures but the humidity was very high. Doug Blackmore of Amity Creek Landscaping invited us and several nursery people to a fun picnic at Enger Tower Park –a beautiful city park with gorgeous flower gardens. Great visiting and yummy food made for a very pleasant evening.

Another early 6:45 a.m. start--perfect biking weather all day although we did finish the day with temps in the 90's.  Starting out with flat terrain (farming country--monster fields of soy beans and small grains) we transitioned to beef cattle, hay, forests and lakes.  The landscape was gently rolling--we've been spoiled with all the flat country!  One of the prettiest sights was a big field of sunflowers all leaning toward the morning sun.  It reminded us of the beautiful fields of sunflowers that we saw in Provence a few years ago.  Along the way three sandhill cranes, a jackrabbit and two deer and a fawn were spotted.  One of the most unusual sights was a horde of about 75 geese crossing the road (I had to stop for them) going from a grain field to a pond!  Other interesting spottings were five apiaries each of which contained 30-40  hives, eight old, abandoned threshing machines setting in fields in sharp contrast to three huge spanking new combines waiting to get to work.  Another “Minnesota Nice” story--Gordie and John saw an older woman watering her peonies so they stopped to chat with her.  She called her brother to join the group and he was fascinated with their bikes.  They learned a lot of interesting facts from them.  For example, farm land is worth around $600 an acre--in just recent years wooded hunting property has gone from $50 an acre to $300 an acre.  We biked 80 miles to Bemidji and then drove 75 miles to Grand Rapids.  Local nurseryman David Lange and his wife and Bonnie, and Chuck Johnson of Lake Washburn (retired Bailey employee) came over around 7pm for a nice visit.  Only three more biking days left.  Time surely goes fast when you're having fun!!

Off to an early start (6:45 am), and we were joined by Lane Rutherford who is our sales representative in this area.  She biked for an hour and then we headed NW on our way to Fergus Falls.  It was a fine day for biking--cloudy with temps in the low 80's.  All along the way, the crops looked very good.  Corn and beans were the most prevalent but later in the day small grains were replacing them.  A great deal of restored native prairie was seen all day.  The dreaded wild parsnip was noticed sporadically in the Hancock area and much spotted knapweed was also noted.  Two more corn company names appeared--Garst and Lloyds.  It was a good day for seeing wildlife--a kingfisher, roosters, baby pheasants, deer and ducks.  The roadkill was plentiful too—2 deer, 2 snakes, 1 hawk, 2 skunks, a striped gopher and a chipmunk.  We experienced another case of "Minnesota Nice.”  I stopped at a pretty farmhome to see if Gordie and John could rest on their shaded lawn.   The owner was a delightful woman who was busy making bread and butter pickles with her 90-year-old mother but she came out for a good long visit.  We learned about their farm, the area, and that her husband's grandfather had planted the lovely grove of ash trees when he was a young boy.  Recently she planted an area of several roses and many were ours.  She got first-hand information on their care and also a lesson on pruning and shaping an oak tree!  Tonight we're staying at a lovely colonial inn on Maple Lake .  Edie and Orville Lee (Lee's Nursery at Fertile) live nearby and they and Gail and Herman Holland (former owners of Holland Nursery in Moorhead ) joined us for dinner.  Another great day and evening!

We got an early start (7 a.m.) and really enjoyed the cool temps as it got in the high 80s later in the day.  Granite Falls was our half-way stop so we took a short rest at a small park along the Minnesota River .  A sign proclaimed the fact that Henry Hill founded the town in the mid-1800s and he built the first of everything!   This area's granite rocks are the oldest rocks in the world--3,8000,000,000 years old!   Today we passed through many small towns--towns that we've heard of but have never visited.  It's very sad that most of these little towns are quite depressed and have no stores, etc. remaining.  However, the towns that are county seats look good.  Some of the things we noted along the way were: two turkey vultures enjoying a cat dinner, two deer in the beans, road kill skunks, possum, and rooster, a red-tailed hawk who hop-scotched from electric pole to electric pole in front of us for about a mile, quite a few meadowlarks, many pelicans and cormorants around a lake, gas is $299.9 and E85 ethanol is $259.9. 

The crops are looking great except around Benson which is suffering from lack of rain.  Corn and beans continue to dominate the farm crops but we did see some sugar beets, alfalfa and wheat.  The Montevideo area appears to be the thistle capital of MN in contrast with yesterday's areas where they were being mowed.  We have  never seen (or heard of) so many different seed corn companies--names like Wensman, Asgrow, Pioneer, Cropplan, DeKalb, Northrup King, Golden Harvest, Crow, Midwest, Ziller and Munson.  This is the first day that we were delayed by rain.  A pretty good shower with thunder and lightning passed by around 3 p.m. giving Gordie and John a 15-minute rest in the van.  We're writing this report at dinner and Gordie just took his pulse.  It's 44!  Eat your heart out, Tim!

How can the weather continue to be so nice?  Another sunny day with a good tailwind although by the end of the day the temp was 94 degrees!  The gently rolling terrain was marked with many drainage ditches.  The road kill count is mounting--2 pheasant hens, a flattened (but unpainted) possum, 2 skunks and 1 raccoon.  Ever since we left Cannon Falls the crops have looked strong except for a mini-drought area around Hanska.  The dominant crops are corn and beans thanks to the government assistance programs.  Let's hope the next Farm Bill includes more support for conservation efforts.  We have seen only a smattering of alfalfa, oats, wheat and sugar beets and we haven't seen any wild parsnips since Mankato.  The counties are mowing thistle to reduce these numbers. 

We had a great example of Minnesota nice today.  I stopped at a farm home to see if the bikers could rest on their shady lawn.  She of course said "yes" and when the fellows arrived she brought out Gatorade for all plus a $20 donation to the MNLA cause!  She and her husband were so interested in the trip and she knew all about Honeycrisp apples as she worked at an orchard in Madison Lake.  It's incidents like this that really make the trip so much fun!  A really great day was made even better by attending the very nice picnic provided by the Buckley family of Redwood Falls Nursery.   Around 30 nursery friends attended and a good time was had by all.  Our good biker friends Tim, Stan and Paul left us but some of them will join us again in Duluth or Forest Lake.

After a filling blueberry pancake breakfast, the group (Gordie, John, Tim, Stan, Paul and Jim Luby)  left at 9:30 --destination Mankato .  It was another beautiful day--temps in the low 50's to low 80"s later in the day.  The scenery was beautiful too--gently rolling prairie and later on when they did 30 miles on the Sakatah Trail they biked past lakes, prairie, woods, corn and bean fields and many dead elm trees due to Dutch Elm disease.  Upon reaching the hotel they all enjoyed a cold Pike Kilt Lifter beer (courtesy of Mike Lee) and watching the Tour de France time trials.  Looks like Floyd Landis will be the champion.  Jim's wife and two young sons joined the group and everyone enjoyed a delicious Italian dinner--bring on the carbs!  Everyone is feeling great and there are no insomniacs!

Gordie, John and Hendri Grant left the office at 7:30 a.m. with a great send-off from the Bailey employees.  Law's Nursery hosted a nice continental breakfast and the group (Gordie, John, Hendri, Paul Morlock, Rod Bailey, Tim Power , Stan Hokanson and Paul Lorah) took off at 9:15 .  The first mile was miserable!  It was a classic example of "how not to start a bike trip"!  Gordie had a flat tire, the chain fell off Tim's bike, and Stan's wheel wobbled so badly that he almost lost control.  However, in a very short while, everything was fixed and they were on their way to our farm home near Wasioja without another mishap.  It was a glorious day--temps in the 70's, no bright sun, a tailwind--perfect conditions.  We traveled through rolling prairie with a few hills tossed in for a challenge.  Some of the things we noted along the way were:  gas was $289.9 in Hastings --crops were very marginal except those with irrigation--however they improved as we headed south --lots of wild parsniip from Cannon Falls south--prairie at our farm was blooming beautifully.  One of the strangest/funniest things that we saw was a flattened possum laying exactly on the white line of the road and the highway painting crew had recently painted a stripe across the flattened possum while striping the road!  The great day was capped off with around 30 nursery friends for a cook-out.