How much cuteness would a woodchuck have?

The weekend after the MS150, I had planned to ride my bike when visiting my parents for what is turning out to be an annual Father's Day/Mom's birthday ritual. Alas, they got about 7 inches of rain that weekend, which meant that I played cribbage and Scrabble and ate brownies instead. I managed to get the dog out for a walk during a brief break in between downpours, which was lovely.

I haven't gotten out on my bike much during the week, these past few weeks, other than for errands and going to the coffee shop, a couple of restaurants, and a taproom. (All of which surely are great training for the MS Ride Across Minnesota). Instead, I've been devoting much of my time to something with a very low ROI - weeding and trying to get my grass to grow. My yard once was beautiful and bright. It's pretty sad at the moment. I don't even like grass, so this really is an exercise in patience.

I was able to get some endorphins in my system when I went for a ride with my friend Deb (who is doing the Ride Across Minnesota, too) this past weekend. In addition to getting away from my yard and getting a respite from current events, I saw some sort of raptor, a turtle, and a baby woodchuck. A baby woodchuck! It was the highlight of the ride. I think we all could use some more baby animals in our lives right now, yes?

I did not take this photo, which I found via Google images

 I hope I will see some equally cute critters when I ride next weekend!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Maggie2018TourDeMN

Everything around us becomes better too.

“When we love, we always strive to become better than we are. When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” 
― Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

I spent the past weekend riding my bike with 3500 other people. 46 of them, plus a few extra others who joined us during the weekend, are really special to me. Many of them are in this photo. 

Stacy's Cycling Supporters 2018

These riders and our team tent volunteers have gone outside of their comfort zones in their own ways. For some, it is the training and riding that is hard. For others, it is signing up for a two-day event with people they don't even know (a lot of our riders were introduced to us by a friend, or a friend of a friend). For others, it is setting an ambitious fundraising goal and asking people to donate. For others, it is skipping their kid's birthday.

My teammate Paul made this super cool video that shows a lot of our team and explains why we've done this for the past 9 years (or, in the case of Dave S. one of our two fundraisers extraordinaire, even longer):

https://www.facebook.com/paul.noll.16/videos/2098940423468512/

Matt and me finishing Day 1

Mark from the MS Society came to our tent
to tell us how our great team is.
We knew it already, but it still felt pretty fantastic,
despite the sedate look on my face.

My friend Jen, who is in the health care field, told me about a patient she saw today - a single mother in her 30s with children, who has MS and needs her mother to care for both her and her children. The woman wants to improve enough to be able to do a BikeMS event. If the woman is able to ride some year, we'd be honored to have her on our team. In the meantime, I will add her to the list of people for whom I will be riding during the Ride Across Minnesota in July.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/Maggie2018TourDeMN

"Get a car!"

People yell a lot of things at me when I bike. "Ride on the sidewalk!" "Use the trail!" "Get off the road!" Those are all common. I also got a wolf whistle and a "Nice a$$!" two summers ago when I was really fit. (I actually thought they said "Nice abs," leading me to wonder how they knew I'd been working on my core strength.) They honk, too. Long honks, short honks, little beepy honks.

Today's message from some dude in a car who was unhappy to be behind me on the parkway was, "Get a car!" That made me laugh. Silly boy. We have two cars! We also have seven bicycles. Maybe he wanted me to buy more cars?

Anyhow, today I was on a mission to get things accomplished. One thing on the list of things to do was self-care. Thus, I decided to, as I told my husb, "go for a short ride of about three hours." He laughed and pointed out that most people don't think of a three-hour ride as a short ride. I was gone for four, but that also involved a lunch break and some good headwinds. (The tailwinds were fantastic, by the way.)

In five days, I'll be headed to Duluth for the two-day bike ride home. I'm hoping the weather this year will be good. No matter what, though, it will be a good ride, for a good cause. Thanks, all, for helping me get closer to my goal!

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2018

99.9 Fahrenheit Degrees

"Something cool
Against the skin
Is what you
Could be needing"

I am avoiding the suggestion of a teammate not to dwell on my imprudent decision to take some of my teammates on a 50+ mile bike ride yesterday that was scheduled to end at 3 p.m.

I think my ride the previous day helped me cope with the slightly, but let's face it - not dramatically, hotter-than-forecasted weather.

Anyhow, rest assured, I learned a thing or two at some of their apparently not-permanent expenses.

But look at this house I saw near the ride starting/stopping point. It's in a neighborhood in St. Paul with some really old houses, and obviously is being restored to some extent. The cement knee-high wall isn't very typical in these parts. It made me wonder.

And distracted me from my self-disappointment.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2018

90+ degrees, 90+ miles, 90+ yawns

Today, I got up before 5, to leave at 6, to get a ride with Matt to Chippewa Falls, WI to start a so-called century ride (it ended up being 98 miles) by 8:30. We saw a lot of riders at the start who must've done the 35- or 50-mile routes. The 75- and 100- (er, 98-) mile routes were pretty sparse with riders due to the low 90s temps.

What wasn't sparse? The rest stops and water stations. We were well-fed and well-hydrated. Also not sparse? Little rolling hills.

Just before the the split from the 75-mile route, we saw a huge snake. Just after the split, Matt got a flat tire. I supported him by taking a photo, stretching my back,  and looking at his dead tube ("ayup, that looks like a pinch flat, alright"). We also saw deer, cows, horses, trucks pulling boats, and ATVs. As well as tons of swarming deer flies - or horse flies? Are they the same?

We smartly (Matt's idea) used our Anytime Fitness gym memberships to shower near Chippewa Falls so we didn't need to sit in our own grimy, sweaty grossness for too long and so that we could grab dinner at a restaurant on the way home without causing An Incident.

I'm tired now and am trying to figure out how tomorrow's hot 53-miler will affect my ability to get done all the things needing to be done. But I'm really glad we spent all day pedaling in rural 'Sconnie.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one that probably had the lightest criminal penalties

Tonight's weather was perfect for my new fair-weathered cycling persona. I opted to do a couple of figure 8's up and down the river. When I was going through Lilydale, the road and trail closure barricades that I rode through this weekend were up and seemingly more impassable.

As I evaluated the best way to get through, I saw a police car parked behind the barricades. The police car had an officer in it. In a split decision to make it seem as though I was not really considering the best way to violate the signage, I decided that the criminal penalties would be lighter if I got busted for riding on a closed trail than on a closed road.

As I dismounted and walked my bike through the barricade, the officer came on over his speaker, making sure that I knew the trail was closed. When I asked if there was any way to get through, he helpfully added that the closures were due to overhead bridge work and they didn't want to drop blocks of cement on people. I appreciated the intel - - and his friendly "move along the way you came" demeanor.

I saw a lot of cyclists down there; he probably had to tell several dozen riders the same thing.

Anyhow, when I turned around, I got to check the progress on the nesting bald eagle way up high. 

Here's hoping the forecasted rain for the remainder of the week holds off so I can get out and stretch my legs.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2018

Perfection

The weekend got off to a weird start due to a lack of sleep, a thwarted white blood cell donation, and having the reseeding work on the lawn make us walk our dog and the dog-sittee at random times. But a delicious Saturday night dinner with friends (and more lack of sleep) followed by a nice, many-hour bike ride to Stillwater in perfect weather with a lunch break at the food truck along the Gateway trail offset any ounce of earlier weekend weirdness. I wish every day could be like yesterday.

"There is a time for many words, and there is also a time for sleep." (Homer, The Odyssey) And on that note...

p.s. if you're on the Gateway Trail, I'd recommend stopping.

p.p.s. I am only at 62% of my fundraising goal for the MS150. http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2018