Day 26: Tyler to New Ulm

89.48 mi max 29.5 5:46.07 avg 15.5

My ride today was grand and fabulous. For the first sixty miles, I averaged around 17 miles per hour! It rained for a large portion of the day, but that didn't bother me at all (remember, I can change myself into a duck). The next time that you walk over a bridge, notice that there are separations in the road. You can barely notice them in a car - more than likely, you'll hear the sound, if you are paying careful attention, rather than feel the bump. However, on a bike, you have to be VERY careful - as one goes over the break in the road, one must lift one's rump...or one will certainly risk a pinch flat...which this one girl got (bringing my total number of flats to 5).

Because of the rain, I didn't take many pictures. Also, because of the rain, Debby R. fell off her bike. Although she cracked her helmet in two, she only slightly scratched her elbow and her knee. Yeah for helmets!!

We're staying at the Martin Luther College. Air conditioning is two fans that are about 5 feet in diameter, one pointed down the men's hallway and the other pointed down the women's hallway. They are ridiculously loud...but to their credit, they do a good job of moving air in the dorm. For the record, MLC sits at the top of a hill that made me want to cry. After riding 88 miles, I was looking at a hill that rivals Rt. 62 coming in Barre in both steepness and length. Or maybe it can be compared with the Auto Road on Mount Washington, but without all those wonderful switchbacks. Either one would give you an accurate mental image :-) Needless to say, I stopped a couple of times on the way up.

We passed through Sleepy Eye. There was a huge statue of Linus, from the Peanuts, but I didn't stop for a picture. Hopefully someone else did!

Dinner was in exciting downtown New Ulm. This is another one of those really small, sleepy towns where the biggest thing is tourism...but all the shops close at 5 or 6 pm. It was challenging to even find an open restaurant. This is also BeerFest weekend. Eric C, Brian & I headed down after dinner to find out what was going on, but they started packing everything away when they saw us show up (Actually, they shut everything down at 8:00).

I think that I need to spend tomorrow on my own. I'm ready for some alone time!