“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” — Elliott Erwitt
Not exactly, but photos definitely help! So, on this page, I will share photos from last week.
But first, a word from our sponsors: I need to acknowledge all of the amazing people who donated to the MS Society in support of my fundraising efforts. You all very kindly donated $6,000+ in the months leading up to the ride. But then, just before the ride started, I saw that I dropped down to the 11th-highest fundraiser for the ride this year. Last year, I was #10.
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| Sign in Willmar this year, proving that I was #10, which ended up being the number on my luggage tags and wrist band this year. |
Very generous and thoughtful people who were killing time on Facebook wanted to help me achieve my goal of staying on the top 10 list for the ride this year. They donated through my fundraising link and I got back to the top 10, have fallen to #11 a few times since, and people keep donating to get me up to #10 (or higher!). I'm at $7,640 and in the top 10 by a margin of about $100. It has been super fun to be on the receiving end of such support and for a great cause. I'm so grateful to all of you, thank you. And for those who could not donate but sent me such nice encouraging messages, those matter, too! They got me out of my tent and back on my bike when I wasn't exactly "feeling it." :)
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| The white band matches your luggage and your bike. If you park your bike in the bike "corral," you need to show this number to get it back out. The VIP band is due to raising a lot of money this year. As a result, I got some special snacks each day of the ride (including a Coke Classic at Rest Stop #3 on the days I wanted it), and priority biffies, although there were never long enough lines to "pull rank." |
Okay, those photos!
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| We drove to Marshall, MN on Sunday, checked in at the Red Baron arena, and set up our tents. |
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| My friend Steve and I at the brewery in Marshall, the night before the ride. We set up our tents and it was going to start raining. We still had access to my car, so we went and ate dinner at the brewery. Two motorcycle guys sat with us and didn't understand why people would do big bike rides, or live in the Twin Cities. They told us that we just missed some flash flooding in Marshall. |
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| Monday morning, they held those of us who hadn't left super early, to wait out a storm and let the worst of it pass. My rain pants zip off into rain shorts, so I wore those when it was raining the most. But as it warmed up and the rain turned into a drizzle for the rest of the 51+ mile ride, I just wore my regular shorts and shirt. |
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| Typical radar for the week! The MS Society safety team did a *great* job of telling us to wait to start, or starting us early to beat the heat. We got rained on a few times, but nothing like what the radar was showing! |
We rode from Marshall to Granite Falls on the first day. Steve and I set up camp and had some snacks by the river as we waited for Stacy to drive down and meet us. She rode with us Tues-Thurs.
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| Lots of pelicans by the dam in Granite Falls! |
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| Across the street and down a small hill from our campsite in Granite Falls. This all apparently was under water not that long before we were there. That's the Minnesota River. |
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| Stacy knows I love these photo opportunities, and humored me. That's friendship. |
On Tuesday, Stacy, Steve, and I rode (with all the other riders, of course) to Willmar. It was a hot and humid day, and the route was about 63 miles. They had us leave early that day to try to beat the heat (also, to save their volunteers, including the beloved motorcycle safety crew decked out in super hot gear). We are looking fresh and perky in these photos that we took at rest stops. Near the end, we were very ready to be done.
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| Stacy and I don't see each other as much as we used to, but I adore her. |
During the week, you encounter people who ride who have MS, volunteers who have MS, and family members affected by MS. On Tuesday, I saw a man who has MS and was riding all week as he struggled to get into the biffy. Just as I was going to offer to help him get up into the thing, he made it. It is moments like these where you think "I cannot complain about being tired," "These people are amazing," and "We are doing something important here."
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| Doing the important task of taking a break. |
We were hoping for a Lyft or an Uber in Willmar ("It's big enough, right???") to take us to Zorbaz on the lake for some Macho Nachos, as we didn't feel up for a 17-mile round trip bike ride for dinner, but had to settle for taking the shuttle set up by the kind people of Willmar to take us to a park for the "Rocking Robins" music festival. I thought it would be some oldies music with some burgers. It was a HUGE music festival that they do weekly with tons of food trucks, really fun bands, and things like bounce-houses for kids. It was great. We left before the better band was done to get back to where we were camping (Willmar Civic Center) to see our friends Kim and Brad. Kim did two days of riding this year (and stayed at a hotel) while Brad golfed. Win-win.
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| Steve drinking some coffee Wednesday morning as we slowly got ready for the day. We stayed in Willmar for 2 nights in a row, so we didn't have to pack everything up that morning! |
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| Kim, Stacy, Steve, and I at rest stop #1 on Wednesday. |
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| Steve and I doing the hard work of eating free donuts and drinking coffee (donations to the MS Society accepted!) provided by this very dedicated, nice man who was a caregiver for his wife for 35 years before she recently passed away. I've talked to this man a few times over the years and he's a total inspiration. He is the person who provided the funds for the fundraising match (which prompted you all to give me $640 in donations this spring, which he matched!). |
When I first started doing the 5-day ride in 2013, it wasn't a loop, but since 2015 it has been, to save on costs, I think, and to just make it easier logistically. At some point in there (was it 2015 or later?) they started adding a loop day, where you spend 2 nights at a city midway through and you just do a loop. Or, if you aren't feeling up to riding, you can take a rest day.
Our loop day was in Willmar on Wednesday (37 miles), with the beginning and end portion on a nice trail (Glacial Lakes, I think it is called?). Kim, Stacy, Steve, and I rode to rest stops 1 and 2 together. When we got to rest stop 2, the clouds were ominous and we heard that huge storms dumped tons of rain on people behind us who were still at rest stop 1. Kim and Stacy decided to wait and take the support vehicle back (with a lot of wise people). Other people waited in a church for the storm to pass. Steve and I decided to wing it and rode back to camp a bit ahead of the storm with a gigantically huge tail wind. We didn't get too wet and were glad our gamble paid off.
It is kind of hard to get a full appreciation of the clouds, but you can see things were churning, and the wind totally shifted from the south to the north, which is how Steve and I got an extra boost back to camp.
It was just a little sprinkly when we got back to camp but then was raining on and off. We showered, and Kim went back to the hotel to shower. Later she and Brad picked us up and we went to a brewery with really good food for a late lunch/early supper, and then we went to Zorbaz to have a beer by the lake.
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| I wasn't even tipsy! Zorbaz. |
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| Zorbaz, duh. |
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| I tried so hard to get a photo of me kissing the moose at Zorbaz. Lots of trial and error, in reverse order. |
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| R to L: Kim, Brad, Steve, Stacy, me. |
We got back to camp in time to watch a band that was there. Then, we had the team contest night, which is super dorky, but I *LOVE* it. We had the team t-shirt/jersey contest and the team poem/song contest. It is a great way to connect with all the riders each year.
Team No MS'ing Around won the t-shirt competition (again). Team CycleOps won the best song competition. (They also had the only poem, and it was good, so I think they should have won twice.) You can see an excerpt of their song here (maybe??) - with choreography! This team was multi-generational, and international!
On Thursday, we rode back to Granite Falls (57+ miles). This is something we have never done before - go to the 2-consecutive day loop city and then go back to the previous city. It ended up being a really good way for Stacy to ride back to her car and join us for 3 days with no extra driver.
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| Steve, me, Kim, and endless supplies of corn. There was also a lot of soybeans, plus sugar beets. |
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| I think this is our Gen X movie pose. I can't remember which rest stop this was that day. The last one? |
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| I'm leading here, with Kim and Stacy behind me. We passed this field, which had a pretty farmhouse in the middle of it, and Kim pointed out that "It looks like a painting you'd see in a cheap frame at Goodwill." Yes, but it was prettier! |
In Granite Falls, we said goodbye to Kim, her trusty companion Brad, and Stacy. Steve and I then went out to dinner with my friend that I met last year, Harvey, and some of his friends (Ann and Glen). Glen joined Steve, Harvey, and me for a beer afterwards. Harvey has ridden the TRAM forever (since I was starting college) and knows pretty much everyone. I really appreciate how positive Harvey is and the joy he expressed each morning at being privileged to do this ride and to be surrounded with such interesting people.
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| Harvey (from the Fargo area), Glen (from Detroit Lakes), Steve (who grew up near DL), and me (the MN transplant) |
Friday was our last day riding, and it was a painful one for me, physically. My hip and back hurt, both from riding and from camping, and my shin was cramping up. My shin! It was an improvement over last year when camping was so painful from the get-go. (I'd say my PT is working - hooray! I should have done my exercises during the week - doh!!) I started off behind Steve in the fog because I have a nice blinky tail light. I only took one turn leading us (and trying to shelter him from the wind) after we got out of the river valley. He pulled me in to Marshall, for which I'm grateful. He kindly said I pulled him a lot earlier in the week, which is only partly true.
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| Leaving the campground in Granite Falls. |
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| A foggy, but pretty start! |
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| We did it! Go Team Stacy's Cyclers! |
I spent the weekend unpacking, doing laundry, taking my tent poles in to get fixed, doing yard work, walking the dog, eating a lot, and going to a local massage school for a cheap (but good!) massage.
I wasn't happy with the last day, but am pleased to have done another Ride Across Minnesota, and am proud of what my donors and I have been able to contribute over the years. It is amazing to talk with volunteers and riders about how they're affected by MS and why they ride, and to continue to learn about how important these funds are for research, advocacy, and services. This is more important now than ever, with federal cuts to research and services. I'm glad to be able to play a small role.
