Fighting MS one pedalstroke at a time: The TRAM, in a nutshell

Sunday

We took a bus to Pipestone, set up camp, checked out the festivities, and rode our bikes to South Dakota.

Monday

We rode against a pretty massive head wind to Marshall. As I said in a text to my husband, "Crazy wind. Breaking my spirit." His words of encouragement shored me up. At one point, I was sort of spacing out and thought that one of the yellow dotted lines in the middle of a road was a canoe paddle.

Tuesday

I watched part of Willie Wonka on the big screen in the park after riding to Redwood Falls and was pleased to see that no one else likes the sappy songs in that movie either. We learned on Tuesday that Pizza Ranch restaurants are pretty disgusting.

Wednesday

I was confused about what day it was and how long I had been riding my bike. To be clear, it was day 3 of the official ride and we were going to St. Peter. I was impressed that the small town of Fairfax had a bike lane and loved the Renville County path that we got to ride on for a bit.This was a tough day for me - sore back, sore ankle, and in great need of much chamois cream.

Thursday

This was a great day. It was a short, pretty, and sort of hilly ride to New Prague, and I did it pretty quickly. I got to see my friend Pat from law school and his family, and Stacy brought us the most fantastic dinner. We watched the team song contest and it was pretty entertaining. I had been so crabby on Wednesday that I had resolved to think positive thoughts all day. This guy Daryl from Mankato accused me of being the "most joyful rider on the TRAM," and thanked me for boosting HIS spirits.

Friday

We rode from New Prague to the finish in Welch Village. I was cruising so as not to make my friends wait too long for me at the finish line and some guy said that I must have trained a lot because I was such a strong rider. That was nice. Another guy called me, "young lady." That was nicer. After the finish, Travis, Matt, and Ron and I rode to Wisconsin. On the way we saw a huge snake. It was about 6 feet long and at least 2 inches in diameter.